A catalogue of the officers and students of the University of Virginia

Text-Books.—Flint's Practice of Medicine, (last edition), Hartshorne's
Essentials, Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence, (Penrose), Leishman's
Midwifery, (last edition).

J. W. MALLET, M. D., LL. D.,
Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy.

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

WM. B. TOWLES, 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 tested 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:

ARRANGEMENT OF STUDIES.

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 the 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.

PHARMACY.

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.

LECTURES AND DAILY EXAMINATIONS.

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.

APPARATUS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

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.

PRACTICAL ANATOMY AND DISSECTION.

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.

DEGREE.

The degree of Doctor of Medicine is conferred upon such students
as prove their fitness for the same by rigid and searching examination.
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
recognized 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, secking 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 Courses for Medical Students.

☞ In addition to the usual course of Medical Lectures, two special
courses of instruction will be given by the Professor of Analytical
Chemistry, to such Medical Students as may desire to pursue them:

1st. Sixteen lessons in the practical applications of Chemistry to
Medicine, (the detection of poisons, chemical and microscopic examinations
of animal products, urine, blood, &c.).

2nd. Twelve lessons in practical pharmaceutical manipulations.

Each of the above (optional) courses will be at a charge of $20
tuition fee, and $5 for laboratory material consumed.

University of Virginia Library

MEDICAL DEPARTMENT.