A model of its kind. A century of medicine at Johns Hopkins.

WITH this ringing invocation, John Shaw Billings ended his speech at the opening of The Johns Hopkins Hospital on May 7, 1889. As the individual most responsible for designing and planning the hospital, Billings was one of the key speakers. Yet his words were not mere congratulatory phrases, appropriate for an event that commemorated the end of his years of effort. In the century since the hospital's opening, Billings' hope was fulfilled, as Hopkins became a model for American medical practice, education, and research. This model was not a composite of entirely new concepts and methods, however, but a cohesive, effective union of ideas, several of which had already been tried elsewhere. In the stimulating environment created by the early leaders of Hopkins, these ideas were merged in a novel way. ANTECEDENTS OF THE HOPKINS MODEL William H. Welch credited the advances in medical education made by Hopkins' predecessors: The