 | University of Virginia |  |
MEDICAL BIOLOGY.
| Professor Tuttle, | Mr. Baker, |
| Dr. Davis, | Mr. Gordon, |
| Dr. Skeen, | Mr. Tappan. |
Under this title are grouped, for convenience, the lectures in the courses described
below, the whole forming a continuous series of three lectures a week
throughout the first year of the Medical course. Each lecture is accompanied by
two hours of practical work in the laboratory illustrative of the topics discussed.
The laboratory is convenient, well lighted, and amply equipped; forty-eight desks
are provided with microscopes, accessory apparatus, and all necessary reagents, and
the class is divided into working sections not exceeding that number; desks are
assigned by lot at the opening of the session, and apparatus issued as needed from
time to time. Each student is required to provide himself with a set of dissecting
instruments, and with slides, covers, and labels for microscopical preparations;
all other appliances are provided by the laboratory without charge.
Comparative Anatomy.—The lectures of the first three months are devoted to
the discussion of the comparative anatomy of vertebrates, the thoracic and abdominal
viscera being chiefly considered; the student, in the meantime, dissecting
and studying a series of animals representative of the principal sub-divisions of
the group. The objects of the course are to give such fundamental morphological
conceptions and such general anatomical knowledge as shall pave the way for the
detailed and specific study of Human Anatomy; to familiarize the student with
the normal appearance of healthy organs and tissues as seen immediately after
death; and to lay the foundation for the subsequent intelligent study of Histology
and Physiology. The dissections are supplemented by demonstrations and the
study of permanent preparations illustrative of features of importance.
Text-Book.—None is required at present. Parker's Zoötomy is recommended for
laboratory use, and Wiedersheim's Comparative Anatomy of Vertebrates (Parker's
translation) for collateral reading.
Histology.—The lectures of the following four months are devoted to the allied
subjects of Histology and Histological Anatomy. In the first part of the course
the tissues and their component elements are carefully examined, both singly and
in their primary aggregates, as are also those organs which consist largely of one
form of tissue. The remainder of the course is devoted to an examination of the
between them being studied. While the primary object of the course is
the imparting of clear and accurate knowledge of the minute structure of the body,
due attention is paid to the technique which is necessary as a means to that end;
students are therefore carefully trained in the use of the microscope and in histological
processes, including the selection and preparation of material, the making
and mounting of sections, and their subsequent study.
Text-Books.—Shaefer's Essentials of Histology; Piersol's Normal Histology;
Stöhr's Histology (Billstein's translation); the Professor's Elements of Histology.
Embryology.—The courses in Anatomy and Histology are followed by a course
discussing the maturation, fertilization, and the segmentation of the ovum; the
formation of the germ-layers; the embryo and fœtal appendages; and the development
of the tissues and the organs of the body. While the final object sought is
a clear conception of these processes as they are known or believed to take place
in the human body, the whole subject is treated from the comparative standpoint,
as that best adapted to give intelligent and comprehensive ideas thereof. The
lectures are accompanied by practical work in the laboratory on the development
of an amphibian and of the chick, and upon mammalian embryos and their fœtal
appendages at various stages.
Text-Books.—Shaefer's Embryology (vol. I pt. I of the tenth edition of Quain's
Anatomy); Foster and Balfour's Elements of Embryology.
The attainments of the student in each of the divisions of the course are tested
by both written and practical examinations; his standing for the year is determined
by an average of all the marks received.
| University of Virginia | |