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 sub-

jects 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, 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 Pro
fessor 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.

6. In addition to the usual course of Medical Lectures, a special
course, for such medical students as may desire to pursue it, of
sixteen (16) lessons in the practical applications of chemistry to
medicine (the detection of poisons, chemical and microscopic examinations
of animal products, urine, blood, &c.,) will be given by the
Professor of Applied Chemistry, at a charge of $20 tuition fee and
$5 for laboratory material consumed. Attendance on this special
course is optional with the student.

University of Virginia Library

MEDICAL DEPARTMENT.

XI.—SCHOOL OF MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE, OBSTETRICS AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.

PROFESSOR HARRISON, M. D.

XII.—SCHOOL OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY AND SURGERY.

PROFESSOR CABELL, M. D.

XIII.—SCHOOL OF ANATOMY, MATERIA MEDICA AND BOTANY.

PROFESSOR DAVIS, M. D.

XIV.—SCHOOL OF CHEMISTRY AND PHARMACY.

PROFESSOR MAUPIN, M D.

DEMONSTRATOR OF ANATOMY.

J. E. CHANCELLOR, M. D.

XI.—SCHOOL OF MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE, OBSTETRICS
AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.

XII.—SCHOOL OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY,
PHYSIOLOGY AND SURGERY.

XIII.—SCHOOL OF ANATOMY, MATERIA MEDICA
AND BOTANY.