University of Virginia Library

SESSIONS AND COURSE OF STUDY IN THE
DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE.

The work of each of the three years of the course in
Medicine continues through the full nine months of the
University session, beginning on the fifteenth day of September
and closing on the Saturday immediately preceding
the fifteenth day of the following June. The studies
included are arranged as follows:

During the first session: Chemistry (with an introductory course
upon the principles of Physics); Biology (Comparative Anatomy, Normal
Histology, Embryology); and Descriptive Anatomy.

During the second session: Physiology; Bacteriology; Pathology;
Regional Anatomy; Materia Medica; and Obstetrics.

During the third session: Gynecology; Surgery; Therapeutics; Practice
of Medicine; Ophthalmic Surgery; Hygiene; and Medical Jurisprudence.

An examination of this system will show that the
work of the first year is given to those sciences which are
fundamental to the entire work of the remaining part of
the course; that of the second year includes the study of
those sciences, more distinctively medical, which are based
upon the work of the previous year, while they in turn
underlie the more strictly professional subjects of study:
these latter are begun upon in the second year, while the
third and final year is devoted wholly to them. The larger
part of the work of the first year is accompanied by practical
work in the laboratory and the dissecting room; the
same is true in great measure of the work of the second
year. The facilities afforded by the University for such
work will be more fully described in the statements which
follow concerning the different subjects included in the
course. The professional subjects taught have associated
with them in the third year a large and increasing amount
of opportunity for practical illustration in the instruction
given at the clinics and elsewhere. A more specific statement
of this work will follow in its proper place.

Methods of Instruction.—The instruction is given by
systematic lectures and daily oral examinations, with associated
practical work in Anatomy, Histology, Bacteriology,
Pathology and Obstetrics. The daily oral examinations on
the subjects of the previous lectures are of great value in
stimulating the student to regular and systematic habits of
study, and furnishing the Professor an opportunity of discovering
and removing difficulties met with by the student.

Relations of the Student in the Second and Third Years.—
Students who pass a satisfactory examination on the subjects
studied during the first session are not required to
attend the lectures or stand the examinations on these
subjects the second year; but if a student fail to pass a satisfactory
examination at the regular time on one or more of
the subjects included in the first year's course, he will be
permitted to take such subject or subjects over during the
second year, without the payment of any additional fee. In
like manner, if he fail to pass a satisfactory examination at
the regular time on one or more of the subjects included in
the second year's course, he will be permitted to take such
subject or subjects over during the third year, without the
payment of an additional fee, and if he pass a satisfactory
examination on these subjects, as well as those of the third
session, he will be permitted to graduate at the close of that
session: Provided, however, that no student whose failure
to pass a satisfactory examination at the regular time shall
extend to all the subjects of a given year will be permitted
to go on to the work of the succeeding year; he will be
required to confine himself to a repetition of the work of
the year on which he has failed—and no student will be
allowed to undertake the work of the third year until he has
completed that of the first, save by special consent of the
Medical Faculty. Students who have taken the degree of
Bachelor of Arts in the University of Virginia, on a scheme
including such medical subjects as, in connection with other
subjects associated therewith, shall be approved by the Medical
Faculty, may be admitted to the studies of the second
year.

Certificates of Attendance.—No student will receive a
certificate as a member of the Department of Medicine in
this University unless he has attended the whole regular
course of one or more of the three years.

Requirements for Graduation.—No student is permitted
to graduate from the University of Virginia with the
degree of Doctor of Medicine till he shall have attended
the regular course of not less than three years in this
institution, and passed a satisfactory examination on all
the subjects included in the Medical course, unless, in lieu
of either the first or the second year's study here, he shall
have attended one course of lectures of not less than seven
months, or two courses of less than seven months each, in
some other reputable medical school, in which case he may
apply for graduation at the end of his second or first session
in this institution; but in order to obtain the degree he
must pass a satisfactory examination at this University on
all the subjects heretofore mentioned as included in the
Medical course.

The Graduating Examinations are in writing (accompanied
in some subjects by individual practical examinations)
and of a rigorous character. Two sets of these are held each
year—one near the close of the session, after the completion
of the lecture courses; the other at the beginning of the
next session. To the latter are admitted—

(a) Students of the previous session who from illness or other cause
approved by the Faculty were unable to present themselves for
examination. These may be examined on any part of the course,
and will not be required to matriculate anew.

(b) Students who at the close of the preceding session have passed satisfactory
examinations in two of the studies pursued during that session,
and have attained on one or more of the remaining subjects such a
grade (but little lower than that required for graduation) as the
Faculty may approve. This slightly lower grade must have
been reached on the particular subject or subjects on which the
student presents himself for re-examination.

(c) Students who present certificates of attendance on one or two seven-months'
courses or their equivalent at some other reputable medical
school.

Students falling under classes (b) and (c), after first matriculating and
then passing the Fall examinations on the studies of the preceding
one or two sessions, may proceed to the work of the second year, or
to that of the third year, and to graduation, without attending the
lectures on, or passing further examination in, the studies of the
preceding session or sessions, except the general oral examination
which immediately precedes graduation.

No special examination will be given in the Department
of Medicine except under extraordinary circumstances,
to be carefully weighed by the Medical Faculty.

A General Oral Examination is held each year prior
to graduation (at the close of the session) on all the different
branches on which the student has passed during either that
session or some preceding one. This is intended to test
the permanent acquisition of such general knowledge as
every practitioner of medicine should possess.