Catalogue of the University of Virginia

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 lectures a day. Under this
arrangement, the students, 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 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 labor 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, varies from $30 to $50 for 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, of
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 Professor to pursue a philosophical order of studies,
and thus to 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 students 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.

University of Virginia Library

Medical Department.