 | Catalogue of the officers and students of the University of Virginia |  |
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT.
CHEMISTRY AND MATERIA MEDICA.
Professor Emmet.—This School is divided into two classes; one of Chemistry,
the other of Materia Medica and Pharmacy.
In the lectures on Chemistry, which are delivered twice a week throughout
the session, all the important applications of the science to Pharmacy and Medicine
are noticed and amply illustrated. In treating of the various Salts,
Acids, &c., their characters, properties and adulterations, are considered both
as Chemical and Medicinal agents.
The first part of the course is devoted to the consideration of inorganic substances,
and the laws of chemical combination; the subsequent lectures are appropriated
to organic bodies, comprising the history, analysis and properties of
animal and vegetable substances, with peculiar reference to the active principles
most usually employed in Medicine.
In the lectures on Materia Medica and Pharmacy, which are delivered once
a week throughout the session, the subjects are treated on in the following order:
Pharmaceutical processes; preparations, both officinal and extemporaneous;
combination as altering and influencing the medicinal qualities of substances;
classification; lastly, the physical characters, history and therapeutic
properties of the individual articles.
In the chemical course, the fullest illustrations by means of experiments,
diagrams, &c. are invariably employed; and in that on Materia Medica and
Pharmacy, specimens of medicinal substances in their simple state, as well as
the officinal preparations of which they form the basis, are constantly laid before
the class. To aid still more, drawings and plates of the plants furnishing
the principal articles of the vegetable Materia Medica, and when practicable,
recent and dried specimens of the plants themselves will be exhibited.
Books recommended—Turner's Chemistry, Wood and Bache's United States
Dispensatory, Paris' Pharmacologia.
MEDICINE.
Professor Griffith.—This School is also composed of two classes; one
of the Theory and Practice of Medicine and Obstetrics, to which three lectures
a week are given throughout the session; the other of Medical Jurisprudence,
to which three lectures a week are given during two months.
The course on the Theory and Practice of Medicine, is commenced with an
exposition of the principles of Pathology and Therapeutics, after which the
functional and organic lesions of the various tissues and organs are successively
considered, and their sympathetic relations and influences carefully explained—
after which the subject of fevers is treated on in much detail. By the adoption
of this plan, the student becomes familiar with the local and general phenomena
attendant on particular lesions, before he is called upon to investigate
febrile diseases.
The lectures on Obstetrics comprehend an account of natural and other labours,
and the professional assistance to be afforded in each; the treatment of
the female before and after delivery, and the diseases of infancy. These lectures
are amply illustrated by specimens and plates, and the application of instruments
is exemplified on the mannikin.
The lectures on Medical Jurisprudence are delivered three times a week
during two months, and include a full consideration of the various topics on
which medicine is called upon to aid in the administration of the laws and the
detection of crime.
Text-books recommended: (Medicine, &c.) Andral's Pathological Anatomy;
Hall on Diagnosis; Mackintosh's Practice of Medicine; Stokes's Lectures.
(Obstetrics,) Dewee's, Gooch's or Meig's Midwifery. (Medical Jurisprudence,)
Beck or Ryan.
ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY AND SURGERY.
Professor Cabell.—The course of lectures on Anatomy and Physiology
extending from 1st September to the 1st March, will comprise a description of
the situation, form, volume, relation, structure, intimate texture, vital properties
and functions of the various organs of the human body in health, and of their
alterations produced by disease. The following order will be pursued:
Differences of organic and inorganic bodies.
General consideration of the elements of the human organization and of the
tissues which result from their varied combinations.
Classification of the tissues and organs.
Organic properties and forces.
Enumeration and classification of the functions.
General laws of abnormal formations—classification.
Anatomy and Physiology of the Cellular tissue and its varieties.
Anatomy and Physiology of the Osseous system in general, and the individual bones, &c.
Anatomy and Physiology Muscles—Splanchnic Viscera, and the associated organs—Arteries,
Veins, and Lymphatics—Nervous System, Skin and organs of the Senses.
In the description of the distribution of the vascular system, all the other
organs will come under review as so many elements in a region having important
relations to each other and to the principal element, the vessels, around
which they are grouped. In this manner will be shewn not only their mutual
connexion, but their several and combined influence upon the developement,
progress and treatment of disease.
Artificial skeletons and separated bones are used in the demonstration of the
Osseous system, and for the other organs of the body careful dissections will
be made on fresh subjects with which the school is now abundantly supplied.
These demonstrations are further improved by the use of delicate wax, and
dried arterial and venous preparations, and of the splendid coloured plates of
Bourgery and Jacob, executed from new and careful dissections by a distinguished
Anatomist of Paris.
The different surgical operations will be performed upon the fresh subject,
embracing the general operations, as incisions, sutures, application of ligatures,
extirpation of tumours, amputations, &c.—and those which are peculiar to the
different regions of the body, a capite ad calcem.
The course on the principles of Surgery will commence about the 1st
March, and will embrace a full description of the pathology, history, symptoms
and treatment of all those affections which are generally assigned to this
branch of practical medicine.
After a cursory examination of the distinction between Surgery and Medicine,
and of some of the most generally received classifications of surgical
diseases, the Professor will treat of those diseases and accidents which may
occur in any part of the body, and then of those which are peculiar to certain
regions. In the description of the diseases not immediately resulting from external
violence, it will be his aim to elucidate as far as they are known the
morbid changes which precede their full development; the sympathetic affections
of other organs: the value of the different physical and rational signs in
determining a differential diagnosis between this and other diseases with which
it may be confounded, and the general principles which should regulate the
practitioner in the application of his therapeutical agents.
Books recommended:—Meckle's General Physiological and Pathological
Anatomy. Andral's Pathological Anatomy. Vilpean's Surgical Anatomy.
S. Cooper's first lines of Surgery. S. Cooper's Surgical Dictionary. Dunglison's
Human Physiology.
The organization of the medical department of the University of Virginia
presents peculiarities not to be found in other Medical Schools in the U. S., and
which the experience of many years has shown to be admirably calculated to
fulfil the intention of its founders. It would be needless to detail the circumstances
by which the University has been enabled to secure to Virginia and
the South generally, all the benefits of a school so advantageously organized,
but it is deemed right, after so many years of successful operation, that the
public should be made acquainted with the great points in which it differs
from other medical institutions.
Before noticing these it may be stated that medical students are subjected to
all the general regulations and penalties for infractions of the laws governing
the other schools.
Every candidate for graduation is required to undergo a written examination
upon English, before a committee appointed by the Chairman of the Faculty.
Any person, however, of proper age and of approved moral conduct,
may offer as a candidate for graduation, and receive the degree of M. D., without
reference to the time of joining the school, provided he undergoes in a satisfactory
manner the various examinations prescribed by the enactments.
At each meeting of the several classes, the students are subjected to a full
examination on the preceding lecture, thus enabling the professor to ascertain
their acquaintance with the subject and to explain such of those points as
may have been misunderstood.
Besides these daily examinations and those immediately necessary for graduation,
two public examinations of each class, are held each session, to ascertain
in writing before a committee, and the degree of merit of each individual reported
to his parent or guardian. The names of those who have especially
distinguished themselves being also published in one or more of the papers of
the state.
The examinations for graduation take place at different periods of the session.
This arrangement permits the student to prepare himself thoroughly on
each of the branches without the confusion of thought and fatigue of mind incident
to the method adopted in other medical institutions. The separate examinations
are on—Practice of Medicine; Obstetrics; Medical Jurisprudence;
Anatomy and Physiology; Surgery; Chemistry and Materia Medica, including
Pharmacy. The time thus occupied for each candidate is between three and
four hours, when the answers are satisfactory. A period six fold as long as
that usually appropriated to this purpose in other medical schools. By this
system it must be evident that the professors are always aware of the advance
or deficiencies of students, and also that a diploma is never granted to any one
not fully qualified to receive the honours of the doctorate.
The session continues for ten months without interruption, and but two lectures,
each an hour and a half long, are delivered on the same day. The instruction
is thus gradually imparted to and profitably retained by the student;
nor can he ever experience the perplexity and fatigue of daily encountering six
or seven lectures, delivered in rapid succession, as always happens elsewhere
in consequence of the necessity of compressing all the lectures within the
space of three or four months.
Connected with the Medical School, is an Anatomical and Pathological Museum,
which has lately been enriched with important and rare specimens selected
at Paris by one of the professors. The medical student has the use of
the Public Library upon the same footing as academical students, and may
have ready access to most of the standard works in his profession. An annual
appropriation is allowed by the authorities of the University for the purpose of
securing subjects, and ample means for dissection, are thus afforded to each
student, at the trifling cost of five dollars.
Arrangements have been made, which, it is confidently expected, will enable
the professors to deliver clinical lectures at an Infirmary to be established within
the precincts.
The expenses for the session of upwards of ten months, commencing on the
first of September, and exclusive of books, stationary, clothing, pocket money,
dissecting fee, &c., are limited to $ 238.
This sum provides for board, including bed and other room furniture—washing
and attendance—fuel and candles—rent of a Dormitory—use of the Library
and public rooms, and fees to the Professors.
| Catalogue of the officers and students of the University of Virginia | |