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SESSIONS AND COURSE OF STUDY IN THE DEPARTMENT
OF MEDICINE.

The work of each of the three years of the course in Medicine continues through
the full nine months of the University session, beginning on the fifteenth day of
September and closing on the Saturday immediately preceding the fifteenth day of
the following June. The studies included are arranged as follows:


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During the first session: Chemistry (with an introductory course upon the principles
of Chemical Physics); Biology (Comparative Anatomy, Normal Histology,
Embryology); and Descriptive Anatomy.

During the second session: Physiology; Bacteriology; Pathology; Regional
Anatomy; Materia Medica; and Obstetrics.

During the third session: Gynecology; Surgery; Therapeutics; Practice of Medicine;
Opthalmic Surgery; Hygiene; and Medical Jurisprudence.

An examination of this system will show that the work of the first year is given
to those sciences which are fundamental to the entire work of the remaining part
of the course; that of the second year includes the study of those sciences, more
distinctively medical, which are based upon the work of the previous year, while
they in turn underlie the more strictly professional subjects of study; these
latter are begun in the second year, while the third and final year is devoted
wholly to them. The larger part of the work of the first year is accompanied by
practical work in the laboratory and the dissecting-room; the same is true in great
measure of the work of the second year. The facilities afforded by the University
for such work will be more fully described in the statements which follow concerning
the different subjects included in the course. The professional subjects taught
have associated with them in the third year a large and increasing amount of opportunity
for practical illustration in the instruction given at the clinics and elsewhere.
A more specific statement of this work will follow in its proper place.

Methods of Instruction.—The instruction is given by systematic lectures and
daily oral examinations, with associated practical work in Anatomy, Histology,
Bacteriology, Pathology and Obstetrics. The daily oral examinations on the subjects
of the previous lectures are of great value in stimulating the student to regular
and systematic habits of study, and furnishing the professor an opportunity
of discovering and removing difficulties met with by the student.

Relations of the Student in the Second and Third Years.—Students who pass a
satisfactory examination on the subjects studied during the first session are not
required to attend the lectures or stand the examinations on these subjects the
second year; but if a student fail to pass a satisfactory examination at the regular
time on one or more of the subjects included in the first year's course, he will be
permitted to take such subject or subjects over during the second year, without the
payment of any additional fee. In like manner, if he fail to pass a satisfactory
examination at the regular time on one or more of the subjects included in the
second year's course, he will be permitted to take such subject or subjects over
during the third year, without the payment of an additional fee, and if he pass a
satisfactory examination on these subjects, as well as those of the third session, he
will be permitted to graduate at the close of that session: Provided, however, that
no student whose failure to pass a satisfactory examination at the regular time
shall extend to all the subjects of a given year will be permitted to go on to the
work of the succeeding year; he will be required to confine himself to a repetition
of the work of the year on which he has failed—and no student will be allowed
to undertake the work of the third year until he has completed that of the first,
save by special consent of the Medical Faculty. Students who have taken the
degree of Bachelor of Arts in the University of Virginia, on a scheme including
such medical subjects as, in connection with other subjects associated therewith,


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shall be approved by the Medical Faculty, may be admitted to the studies of the
second year.

Certificates of Attendance.—No one will receive a certificate as a regular student
of the Department of Medicine in this University unless he has attended the
whole regular course of one or more of the three years.

Requirements for Graduation.—No student is permitted to graduate from the
University of Virginia with the degree of Doctor of Medicine till he shall
have attended the regular course of not less than three years in this institution,
and passed a satisfactory examination on all the subjects included in the Medical
course, unless, in lieu of either the first or the second year's study here, he shall
have attended one course of lectures of not less than seven months, or two courses
of less than seven months each, in some other reputable medical school, in which
case he may apply for graduation at the end of his second or first session in this
institution; but in order to obtain the degree he must pass a satisfactory examination
at this University on all the subjects heretofore mentioned as included in the
Medical course.

The Graduating Examinations are in writing (accompanied in some subjects
by individual practical examinations) and of a rigorous character. Two sets of
these are held each year—one near the close of the session, after the completion
of the lecture courses; the other at the beginning of the next session. To the
latter are admitted—

(a) Students of the previous session who from illness or other cause approved by
the Faculty were unable to present themselves for examination. These may
be examined on any part of the course, and will not be required to matriculate
anew.

(b) Students who at the close of the preceding session have passed satisfactory
examinations in two of the studies pursued during that session, and have
attained on one or more of the remaining subjects such a grade (but little
lower than that required for graduation) as the Faculty may approve. This
slightly lower grade must have been reached on the particular subject or subjects
on which the student presents himself for re-examination.

(c) Students who present certificates of attendance on one or two seven-months'
courses or their equivalent at some other reputable medical school.

Students falling under classes (b) and (c), after first matriculating and then passing
the Fall examinations on the studies of the preceding one or two sessions,
may proceed to the work of the second year, or to that of the third
year, and to graduation, without attending the lectures on, or passing further
examination in, the studies of the preceding session or sessions, except the
general oral examination which immediately precedes graduation.

No special examination will be given in the Department of Medicine except
under extraordinary circumstances, to be carefully weighed by the Medical
Faculty.

A General Oral Examination is held each year prior to graduation (at the
close of the session) on all the different branches on which the student has passed
during either that session or some preceding one. This is intended to test the
permanent acquisition of such general knowledge as every practitioner of medicine
should possess.