February 9, 2001

Academic medicine in Boston took a ghastly turn when John W. Webster, Harvard's Erving Professor of Chemistry and one of the country's leading scientific authorities, murdered and dismembered George Parkman, MD, in November 1849. The macabre scene took place in the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Chemistry Lab, located near the present-day main entrance of the MGH.

Parkman, a member of the hospital's visiting staff, had pressed Webster for repayment of a debt and had publicly humiliated him. Webster was hanged in 1850 after a sensational trial that shocked Bostonians, not only because of the gruesome details in evidence, but also because neither victim nor culprit had behaved like "gentlemen."

Throughout much of the nineteenth century, professors at HMS sold tickets to students who wanted to attend their classes. They received such income in lieu of a salary. Several of Webster's HMS lecture tickets are preserved in the MGH Archives and Special Collections, including one from the fateful school year MDCCCXLIX - L (1849-50).