 | 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 Flint's Practice, 2d edition.
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, Materia Medica and Botany.
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 physicians 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 large 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 deliver six
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
the term of lectures, and is usually 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
afford the students an opportunity of mastering the elementary
branches before attention is directed to their practical application.
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 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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