Catalogue of the University of Virginia

The Medical Department is organized on the same general plan
as the other departments of the University, the distinctive features
of which are comprehensiveness and thoroughness of instruction,
and the graduation of the student upon satisfactory evidences of
attainments only, without regard to the length of time he may have
been attending the lectures. An experience of more than forty
years has fully attested the excellence of the plan. The scholarship
of the alumni of the institution and the value of its degrees are now
freely conceded by cultivated and liberal men throughout the
country.

The Medical Department of the University aims at thorough
work in its special province, to wit: the instruction of the student
in the principles of medicine, and his discipline in the modes of
acquiring and applying knowledge. Thus, whilst the only solid
foundation of professional attainments is laid, the mental faculties
are expanded and strengthened for that growth in knowledge, usefulness
and distinction, to which every one who enlists in an honorable
and responsible profession should aspire. The organization and
arrangements by which these aims are successfully accomplished
may be briefly stated:

The length of the session (nine months) renders it convenient and
eligible to distribute the subjects of instruction among a smaller
number of Professors than in other medical schools of the United
States, whose sessions are only four or five months' long. Thus, to
one Professor is assigned Comparative Anatomy, Physiology and
Surgery; to another, Human Anatomy and Materia Medica; to a
third, Chemistry and Pharmacy; and to a fourth, Medical Jurisprudence,
Obstetrics, and the Practice of Medicine. This distribution
renders it practicable to bring the different subjects to the attention
of the student in their natural and successive order. The arrangement
of the lectures is such that he acquires a competent knowledge
of Anatomy, human and comparative, Physiology and Chemistry,
before he enters upon the study of the principles and practice of
Medicine and Surgery, which can only be studied properly in the
lights shed upon them by the former. The instructions in Materia
Medica and Pharmacy are also given in due relation to the progress
of the student in Chemistry.

A feature in the course of medical instruction at this University,
worthy of note, is the space given to Comparative Anatomy and
Comparative Physiology. The structure and functions of the organs
in the human system can, in fact, be fully understood only by comparisons
running through the whole animal series. The comparison
of extensively varied types of animal forms, all executing substantially

the same fundamental phenomena of life, enables the inquirer
to ascertain what are the essential constituents of each organ, and
what the essential conditions of its action. By this process knowledge
is made positive by experiments ready prepared by nature,
which are much more trustworthy than any that may be specially
contrived by man.

The introduction of Pharmacy into the course of instruction is
another feature of interest, serving, as it does, to initiate the student
into an art which he will find of value when he comes to the practice
of his profession.

Favored, as the student is, in the comprehensiveness, scientific
basis and order of his studies, he is not less favored by arrangements
which give ample time for the preparation of every lecture,
and address motives to him for such preparation. Each Professor
gives three regular lectures a week, with occasional extra lectures,
making the average weekly aggregage not over fonrteen, or a little
more than two a day. The student, therefore, is not over-burthened
with lecture room attendance. He has time for study in his private
room, to consult books and compare their teachings with the oral
instructions of his Professors, and to digest and systematize his
acquisitions from both sources. The daily examinations, which precede
every lecture, supply the stimulus to regular and active study,
serve as summary reviews of what he has already heard or read, and
as correctives of any misconceptions he may have fallen into in his
hearing or reading. The daily examinations constitute a very
valuable part of the exercises of the Institution, and are taken into
account in determining the fitness of a student for graduation.

The equipment of the Medical Department in apparatus, specimens
and drawings is extensive and excellent. The collection of
paintings for the illustration of the lectures on anatomy, physiology
and surgery, several hundred in number, is unequaled by anything
of the kind in the United States, or perhaps abroad. A skillful
artist was diligently engaged for six years in executing them, under
the direction and critical supervision of the Professors. They
delineate the tissues, muscles, heart and blood vessels, brain, spinal
marrow and nerves, the organs of sense, the thoracic, abdominal
and pelvic viscera, and indeed all the structures and organs of the
human body with admirable accuracy and distinctness, are of
great value as helps to lucid instruction in the branches to which
they relate. In all the other branches, the appropriate means of
illustration of every topic of discussion are likewise at hand, and
are duly utilized.

The Department furnishes every facility for the study of practical
anatomy that can be furnished in similar institutions elsewhere.
Adequate provision is made for the supply of subjects, and each
student has the opportunity, by actual dissections, under the
guidance of the Demonstrator of Anatomy, of acquiring a practical
knowledge of the structure of the human body in all its parts.

The University offers no facilities for clinical instruction. There

are no public hospitals for the sick in the vicinity; nor, in the present
connection, is this a source of regret. The aim of the Medical
Department is to lay a thorough foundation for medical acquirements
and to indoctrinate the student in the principles of the profession.
When well versed in the principles of medicine, he is
prepared to profit by clinical instruction, and not before. The value
of clinical instruction is freely conceded; but it is an unprofitable
use of time for the first-course student to give his attention to it.
No class of medical students are more eager than those who have
attended the full course of medical lectures at this Institution to
seek instruction at the bedside of the sick, whether under the
guidance of the private practitioner, or under the more ample, varied
and systematic teachings of clinical lecturers in public hospitals;
and none, it may be safely said, are better qualified to profit by it.
In proof may be adduced the fact that a large proportion, much
larger than any influence save that of merit could secure, find their
way to eligible and responsible positions on the house staffs of the
great city hospitals after leaving this University.

The degree of Doctor of Medicine is conferred upon such students
as prove their fitness for the same by rigid and searching
examinations. It has ever been the policy of the Institution to
make its honors testimonials of merit, and not certificates of attendance
on a prescribed course of instruction. In accordance with this
policy, the degree of Doctor of Medicine may be conferred upon a
first-course student, if found worthy of it. Not only is it within
the reach of the intelligent, diligent and persevering to graduate in
one session of nine months, but, in point of fact, many do thus
graduate. A longer time, however, is often devoted to the necessary
preparation, and wisely, when circumstances permit. It is not an
unusual case that an academic student, looking forward to medicine
as his profession, conjoins a part of the medical with his academic
studies during one session; and during the next, entering as a medical
student proper, he is enabled to graduate, at the close thereof,
with comparative ease. But the majority of the students who
attend medical lectures in this Institution do not graduate here.
They spend one session in reaping its well known advantages, and
subsequently resort to the city schools to secure their degrees and
profit by the facilities afforded for clinical instruction. As a class,
the excellence of their preparation is recognized in all the leading
city schools of this country, and this appreciation generally proves
a ready passport to success in achieving their special objects.

The University of Virginia is resorted to by many of the young
men of the South, and by some from other sections, seeking higher
culture in literature and science, as well as in the learned professions.
They bring with them the well-marked characteristics of a manly,
sincere and generous people, and form a fraternity, the source of
pleasant recollections and beneficial influences in after life. The
opportunity thus afforded of forming associations with contemporaries,
who are to be the cultivated and leading men of their day
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throughout a wide section of country, is not unworthy of regard by
those who are preparing for the medical profession. This consideration,
in addition to the ample facilities for special and professional
instruction, as the tastes and purposes of the student may dictate,
will, it is believed, continue to invite to the Medical Department not
only Southern students, but also students from the North and West,
who may wish to attend an Institution comprehensive in its plan
and organization, catholic in its teachings, and national in its spirit.

☞ 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.

☞ The expenses of the Medical student amount to $386 per
session of nine months, commencing 1st of October. (See expenses,
page 47.)

University of Virginia Library

Medical Department.