 | Catalogue of the University of Virginia |  |
Medical Department.
Medical faculty.
H. HOWARD, M. D.,
Professor of Medical Jurisprudence, Obstetrics and Practice of Medicine.
Text-books.—Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence, Meigs' Obstetrics
and Wood's Practice.
J. L. CABELL, M. D.,
Professor of Comparative Anatomy, Physiology and Surgery.
Text-books.—Dalton's Physiology and Druitt's Modern Surgery.
J. S. DAVIS, M. D.,
Professor of Anatomy and Materia Medica.
Text-books.—Wilson's Anatomy and Dunglison's Therapeutics.
S. MAUPIN, M. D.,
Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy.
Text-books.—Fownes' Chemistry and Parrish's Pharmacy.
J. E. CHANCELLOR, M. D.,
Demonstrator of Anatomy.
The Faculty invite the attention of the physicians of the
Southern States to the peculiar features of the Medical Department
of this Institution.
1. Length of Session.—Nearly all the Medical Schools of this
country are located in our cities or larger towns, and have only
a nominal connexion with the colleges from which they borrow
their names and chartered privileges. In these schools the usual
length of a session is from four to five months. In order to
embrace all the important branches of Medical Science in a
course of instruction compressed into so short a term, it is found
necessary to employ the services of six or seven Professors, who
if they take all the tickets, are required to spend nearly
the whole of the day in listening to lectures, delivered in rapid
succession, and treating of diverse topics. None but those who
have had personal experience in this matter, can fully appreciate
the troubles and difficulties which beset a student when he first
enters the school; the fatigue of body and perplexity of mind
which he inevitably experiences in his painful efforts to hear
every lecture and master every subject. In attempting, after
the close of the lectures for the day, to bring in review the topics
discussed by his teachers, he finds links in the chain here and
there broken; he flies from one subject of thought to another,
without adequately mastering any, and confounded by their number,
and the utter impossibility of keeping pace in his private
reading at night with the lectures of six Professors, he despairs
of doing more than retaining such portion of the facts stated in
the lectures as may happen to make the strongest impression on
his mind.
In the Medical Department of this Institution, the length of
the session, which is nine months, enables four Professors to perform
all the duties which are elsewhere assigned to six. The
students attend but two lectures a day, and thus have ample time
for private reading, and for pursuing their Anatomical dissections.
The supply of subjects is ample, and the Demonstrator devotes
the whole of every afternoon to his duties. He guides the labors
of those who are at work, and explains to them the structures
which are successively exposed.
2. System of Daily Examinations. Immediately before each
lecture, the students in every school of the University are subjected
to a rigid examination on the subject of the preceding
lecture, or on portions of some approved text-book. Experience
has shown that this is an almost indispensable adjunct to the
system of teaching by lectures; and the recognition of its importance
is so general, that students in other medical schools where
its efficient introduction is precluded by want of time, often
resort to the expedient of employing the services of private
instructors by whom they may be examined at night on the topics
discussed each day in the lecture-room. The fee paid by the
students for this necessary, but extra collegiate instruction,
about $100 for the whole year.
The enactments of the University prescribe that no Professor
shall engage in pursuits unconnected with its service, or shall
receive from the members of his class any compensation besides
that provided for by the laws. They further require every Professor
to reside within the precincts, for the purpose both of
assisting to enforce the discipline of the college, and of being
accessible to the students who may seek aid in their hours of private
study. These students, then, enjoy advantages here which
elsewhere are purchased at a high price over and above the
necessary collegiate expenses.
3. Order of Studies. All medical colleges aim to place medical
education on a scientific basis. Indeed, if the practice of the
healing art is not based on general principles, embodied in the
fundamental sciences of Anatomy, Chemistry, Physiology, Pathology
and Therapeutics, these branches of medical science
might as well be omitted in a course of professional education.
If, however, this relation does exist, the propriety and necessity
of laying a good foundation before the superstructure can be
reared, are too obvious to need illustration. This cannot be done
in schools, where the courses on the different branches of medicine
are carried on simultaneously. Their system assumes that
the students have "read," as it is termed, with a preceptor for a
year, at least, before they commence their attendance on lectures.
Such, however, is not always the case, and when it
occurs, is of comparatively little benefit; for the paramount
duties of the practitioner absorb his time, and the fundamental
branches of medical science are precisely those demanding for
their illustration the appliances which are only to be found within
the walls of colleges. The Anatomical Department, for example,
is here enriched by a collection of about two hundred large
paintings executed to order, with great fidelity and beauty.
It is one of the peculiar advantages of the University Medical
School, that it unites, as may have been inferred from the preceding
remarks, the plan of instruction by private pupilage with
that of public lectures; while the length of the session enables the
Professors to pursue a philosophical order of studies, and thus to
afford the students an opportunity of mastering the elementary
4. Conditions of Graduation. The regulations for graduation
elsewhere require that the student shall have attended two full
courses of Medical lectures, and shall have been the private pupil
for at least a year, of a respectable practitioner of Medicine.
At this University, a consecutive course of nine months being at
least equivalent to two courses in most other schools, in respect to
the time employed and the advantageous distribution of the subjects
of study, the students are permitted to take their diplomas
at the end of one session, if they show themselves qualified. The
severity of the examinations deters a large majority of the class
from making the trial, and none but the perseveringly diligent
attain the honor.
The importance of the advantages thus claimed for the Medical
Department of this Institution, has been tested by the experience
of nearly forty years, during which several thousand medical
students have been educated here.
5. It will be noticed that those students who prefer taking
their diploma at a city school, will yet find it highly beneficial to
attend the first course at an Institution organized on the plan of
the Medical Department of the University, where the lengthened
term, the consecutive arrangement of studies, and the thorough
drilling, prepare them to appreciate and improve the advantages
they may afterwards enjoy.
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