University of Virginia Library

MEDICAL SCHOOL.

From the foregoing announcement it will be seen that by the
organization of the University, provision is made for teaching all
the branches of Medical Science. The Medical Department thus
organized presents several peculiar features as compared with most
other Medical Schools in the United States, such as—

1. The Length of the Session, which is the same as that of
the Academic Department, nine months. This arrangement enables
four Professors to perform all the duties which are elsewhere
assigned to six or seven. The students attend but two lectures a
day, and thus have ample time for reading in connection with the
lectures, and for pursuing Anatomical dissections.

2. System of Daily Examinations.—Immediately before each
lecture, the students are subjected to a rigid oral examination on
the subjects of the preceding lecture, or on portions of an approved
text-book.

3. Order of Studies.—The length of the session puts it in the
power of the professors to pursue a philosophical order of studies,
the elementary and fundamental branches being fully treated before
the attention of the students is directed to their practical applications.
Such an arrangement is impracticable in the city
schools, where the necessity of compressing the whole course into
the short space of four or four and a half months, requires that all
the different branches of Medical Science should be carried on
simultaneously.

4. Conditions of Graduation.—A consecutive course of nine
months being more than equivalent to two courses in the city
schools in respect to the time actually employed in giving instruction,
and the advantageous distribution of the subjects of study,
the students are permitted to take their diploma at the end of one
session, if they prove themselves worthy. The examination is,
however, exceedingly rigid, and none but the perseveringly diligent
need hope to attain the honor.

5. Peculiar advantages for "first course students."—The
foregoing statements render it obvious that those students who desire
to take their diploma at a city school will yet find an advantage
in attending the first course in an institution organized on the
plan of the University, by which they avoid the expense of employing
a private instructor, whose other avocations may, and
commonly do disqualify him for the proper discharge of his duties
as a teacher.