University of Virginia Library

Medical Department.

JAMES L. CABELL, M. D.,
Professor of Comparative Anatomy, Physiology and
Surgery.

Text-Books.—Dalton's Physiology, Huxley's Elements of Physiology,
Laurence and Moon on Ophthalmic Surgery, Ashurst's
Surgery.

JOHN STAIGE DAVIS, M. D.,
Professor of Anatomy and Materia Medica.

Text-Books.—Wilson's Anatomy and Wood's Therapeutics.

G. W. MALLET, Ph. D., M. D.,
Acting Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy.

Text-Books.—Fownes' Chemistry and Parrish's Pharmacy.

JAMES F. HARRISON, M. D.,
Professor of Medical Jurisprudence, Obstetrics, and
Practice of Medicine.

Text-Books.—Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence, Meigs' Obstetrics,
Flint's Practice of Medicine, last edition, and Hartshorn's Essentials,
last edition.

J. EDGAR CHANCELLOR, M. D.,
Demonstrator of Anatomy.

The Medical Department is organised on the same general plan as
the other departments of the University, the distinctive features of
which are comprehensiveness and thoroughness of instruction, and
the graduation of the student upon satisfactory evidences of attainments
only, without regard to the length of time he may have been
attending the lectures. An experience of more than forty years has
fully attested the excellence of the plan. The scholarship of the
alumni of the institution and the value of its degrees are now freely
conceded by cultivated and liberal men throughout the country.

The Medical Department of the University aims at thorough work
in its special province, to wit: the instruction of the student in the
principles of medicine, and his discipline in the modes of acquiring
and applying knowledge. Thus, whilst the only solid foundation of
professional attainments is laid, the mental faculties are expanded and
strengthened for that growth in knowledge, usefulness and distinction
to which every one who enlists in an honorable and responsible profession
should aspire. The organization and arrangements by which
these aims are successfully accomplished may be briefly stated:

The length of the session (nine months) renders it convenient and
eligible to distribute the subjects of instruction among a smaller
number of Professors than in other medical schools of the United
States whose sessions are only four or five months long. Thus to
one Professor is assigned Comparative Anatomy, Physiology and
Surgery; to another, Human Anatomy and Materia Medica; to a
third, Chemistry and Pharmacy; and to a fourth, Medical Jurisprudence,
Obstetrics, and the Practice of Medicine. This distribution
renders it practicable to bring the different subjects to the attention
of the student in their natural and successive order. The arrangement
of the lectures is such that he acquires a competent knowledge
of Anatomy, human and comparative, Physiology and Chemistry,
before he enters upon the study of the principles and practice of
Medicine and Surgery, which can only be studied properly in the
lights shed upon them by the former. The instructions in Materia
Medica and Pharmacy are also given in due relation to the progress
of the student in Chemistry.

A feature in the course of medical instruction at this University
worthy of note is the space given to Comparative Anatomy and
Comparative Physiology. The structure and functions of the organs
in the human system can, in fact, be fully understood only by comparisons
running through the whole animal series. The comparison
of extensively varied types of animal forms, all executing substantially
the same fundamental phenomena of life, enables the inquirer
to ascertain what are the essential constituents of each organ, and
what the essential conditions of its action. By this process knowledge
is made positive by experiments ready-prepared by nature,
which are much more trustworthy than any that may be specially
contrived by man.

The introduction of Pharmacy into the course of instruction is
another feature of interest, serving as it does to initiate the student

into an art which he will find of value when he comes to the practice
of his profession.

Favored as the student is in the comprehensiveness, scientific
basis and order of his studies, he is not less favored by arrangements
which give ample time for the preparation of every lecture, and
address motives to him for such preparation. Each Professor gives
three regular lectures a week, with occasional extra lectures, making
the average weekly aggregate not over fourteen, or a little more than
two a day. The student, therefore, is not over-burthened with lecture
room attendance. He has time for study in his private room, to
consult books and compare their teachings with the oral instructions
of his Professors, and to digest and systematise his acquisitions from
both sources. The daily examinations which precede every lecture
supply the stimulus to regular and active study, serve as summary
reviews of what he has already heard or read, and as correctives of
any misconceptions he may have fallen into in his hearing or reading.
The daily examinations constitute a very valuable part of the exercises
of the Institution, and are taken into account in determining the
fitness of a student for graduation.

The equipment of the Medical Department in apparatus, specimens
and drawings is extensive and excellent. The collection of paintings
for the illustration of the lectures on Anatomy, Physiology and Surgery,
several hundred in number, is unequalled by anything of the
kind in the United States, or perhaps abroad. A skilful artist was
diligently engaged for six years in executing them under the direction
and critical supervision of the Professors. They delineate the tissues,
muscles, heart and blood vessels, brain, spinal marrow and nerves, the
organs of sense, the thoracic, abdominal and pelvic viscera, and indeed
all the structures and organs of the human body with admirable
accuracy and distinctness, and are of great value as helps to lucid
instruction in the branches to which they relate. In all the other
branches, the appropriate means of illustration of every topic of
discussion are likewise at hand, and are duly utilised.

The Department furnishes every facility for the study of practical
Anatomy that can be furnished in similar institutions elsewhere.
Adequate provision is made for the supply of subjects, and each
student has the opportunity, by actual dissections under the guidance
of the Demonstrator of Anatomy, of acquiring a practical knowledge
of the structure of the human body in all its parts.

The University offers no facilities for clinical instruction. There

are no public hospitals for the sick in the vicinity; nor, in the present
connection, is this a source of regret. The aim of the Medical Department
is to lay a thorough foundation for medical acquirements
and to indoctrinate the student in the principles of the profession.
When well versed in the principles of medicine, he is prepared to
profit by clinical instruction, and not before. The value of clinical
instruction is freely conceded; but it is an unprofitable use of time
for the first-course student to give his attention to it. No class of
medical students are more eager than those who have attended the full
course of medical lectures at this institution, to seek instruction at the
bedside of the sick, whether under the guidance of the private practitioner
or under the more ample, varied and systematic teachings of
clinical lecturers in public hospitals; and none, it may be safely said,
are better qualified to profit by it. In proof may be adduced the
fact that a large proportion, much larger than any influence save
that of merit could secure, find their way to eligible and responsible
positions on the house staffs of the great city hospitals after leaving
this University.

The degree of Doctor of Medicine is conferred upon such students
as prove their fitness for the same by rigid and searching examinations.
It has ever been the policy of the Institution to make its
honors testimonials of merit, and not certificates of attendance on a
prescribed course of instruction. In accordance with this policy, the
degree of Doctor of Medicine may be conferred upon a first-course
student if found worthy of it. Not only is it within reach of the
intelligent, diligent and persevering to graduate in one session of nine
months, but in point of fact many do thus graduate. A longer time,
however, is often devoted to the necessary preparation, and wisely,
when circumstances permit. It is not an unusual case that an
academic student, looking forward to medicine as his profession,
conjoins a part of the medical with his academic studies during one
session; and during the next, entering as a medical student proper,
he is enabled to graduate at the close thereof with comparative ease.
But the majority of the students who attend medical lectures in this
institution do not graduate here. They spend one session in reaping
its well-known advantages, and subsequently resort to the city
schools to secure their degrees and profit by the facilities afforded
for clinical instruction. As a class, the excellence of their preparation
is recognised in all the leading city schools of this country, and
this appreciation generally proves a ready passport to success in
achieving their special objects.

The University of Virginia is resorted to by many of the young
men of the South, and by some from other sections, seeking higher
culture in literature and science as well as in the learned professions.
They bring with them the well-marked characteristics of a manly,
sincere and generous people, and form a fraternity, the source of
pleasant recollections and beneficial influences in after life. The
opportunity thus afforded of forming associations with contemporaries
who are to be the cultivated and leading men of their day throughout
a wide section of country, is not unworthy of regard by those who
are preparing for the medical profession. This consideration, in
addition to the ample facilities for special and professional instruction
as the tastes and purposes of the student may dictate, will, it is
believed, continue to invite to the Medical Department not only
Southern students, but also students from the North and West, who
may wish to attend an institution comprehensive in its plan and
organization, catholic in its teachings, and national in its spirit.

Laboratory Course of Medical Chemistry.

☞ In addition to the usual course of Medical Lectures a special
course, for such medical students as may desire to pursue it, of
sixteen lessons in the practical applications of Chemistry to Medicine
(the detection of poisons, chemical and microscopic examinations of
animal products, urine, blood, &c.), will be given by the Professor of
Applied Chemistry at a charge of $20 tuition-fee and $5 for laboratory
material consumed. Attendance on this special course is optional
with the student.

☞ The expenses of the medical student amount to $386 per
session of nine months, commencing 1st of October; or if a student
messes, to $296 per session. (See Expenses, page 56.)