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SESSIONS AND COURSES OF STUDY IN THE
DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE.
Attention is called to the fact that the course has been extended
to four years, and provision has been made for the erection
and equipment of a Hospital, with extension of clinical
instruction in connection therewith.
Attention may also with propriety be directed to the fact that
while those giving clinical instruction are in every case active
practitioners of medicine and surgery, who in each instance
devote special attention to the subjects immediately assigned to
their care at the clinics, the great majority of the professors and
instructors in the Medical Department of the University of Virginia
owe their entire time throughout the session to the University,
and devote it to lecture and laboratory teaching; and
that in consequence of this fact the instruction given to medical
students has always been characterized by a marked degree of
efficiency. It is largely to this feature, which has been peculiar
to this institution since the opening of its Medical Department in
1827, that the recognized high standing of its graduates is due.
It is also noteworthy that the large personal element entering
into the methods of teaching here in vogue, render auxiliary
instruction at the hands of private parties unnecessary. While
carefully selected and competent licentiates are appointed by
the Medical Faculty and empowered by that body to give private
lessons to those who desire them and choose to pay for
them, no intelligent and industrious student need be at any
expense whatever for instruction beyond the payment of the
regular tuition fees. Any one who faithfully performs, day by
day, the work assigned him, will, unless wanting in capacity,
succeed in satisfying the conditions for his degree.
The work of each of the four 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 Chemical Physics); Biology (Comparative
Anatomy and Normal Histology); Descriptive Anatomy;
and Practical Physics.
During the second session: Physiology; Bacteriology; General
Pathology; Regional Anatomy; Hygiene; and Practical Chemistry.
During the third session: Embryology; Obstetrics; Practice of
Medicine; Surgery; Special Pathology and Clinical Diagnosis;
Materia Medica; and Dispensary Clinic.
During the fourth session: Practice of Medicine; Therapeutics;
Clinical Surgery; Dermatology; Diseases of the Eye and Ear;
Gynecology and Medical Jurisprudence; Dispensary and Hospital
Clinic.
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 in the second year, while the third and fourth years are
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, while in the third, and especially the fourth year, the time of
the student is devoted largely to practical clinical instruction. 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.
Methods of Instruction.—The instruction is given by systematic
lectures and frequent oral examinations, with associated practical
work in Anatomy, Physics and Chemistry, Histology, Bacteriology,
Pathology, and Obstetrics. The 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.
Admission to the First Year of the Course.—The policy of the University
of Virginia has not hitherto included formal entrance examinations
as a condition of admission to the work of either of its principal
Departments. In conformity, however, with the usage of the
leading Medical Schools throughout the country, and in coöperation
with the general movement among those interested, looking toward
the requirement of a liberal education as a prerequisite to entrance
upon the work of the medical profession, the Faculty of the Department
of Medicine announce their intention of requiring in future
evidence of adequate preparation for the work of this Department of
the University. They will for the present ask of each applicant for
admission to the first year in the course in Medicine proof of a good
general education, to be demonstrated by the presentation of a baccalaureate
degree from an institution of collegiate rank, or a certificate
of good standing in the classes of such an institution; a diploma
of graduation from a good high school, either public or private, or
a personal testimonial from the principal of such an institution; or, if
to satisfy this condition by one of the methods above indicated, will
be excluded, except in doubtful cases when they may be admitted by
a special vote of the Faculty of Medicine, subject to the condition that
any deficiency shall be removed before the student so admitted proceeds
to the work of the second year. Students who present a baccalaureate
degree on entrance will, for the present, be entitled to the
privileges of undertaking the studies of the second year together with
those of the first year. Students entering the Medical Department
of this University from other medical schools are considered students
of the first year until they have passed the examinations mention d
in the following paragraph.
Relations of the Student in the Second and Succeeding 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. Like rules apply to the
passage of the student from the second to the third, and from the
third to the fourth 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 or
fourth year until he has completed that of the first, save in both
instances by special consent of the Medical Faculty based in each
instance on a careful examination of the student's real interests.
Certificates of Attendance.—No one will receive a certificate as a
regular student of the Department of Medicine in this University
unless he has attended the whole regular course of one or more of the
four 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 four
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 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 third or second
pass a satisfactory examination at this University on all the subjects
heretofore mentioned as included in the medical course. A student
who is already a graduate in Medicine of some other reputable medical
school may be received as a student in this University of the fourth
year.
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 on at least one 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, without attending the lectures on or passing
further examinations in, the studies of the preceding session or
sessions, except the general examination which immediately precedes
graduation.
☞These Fall examinations begin within one week from the opening of the
session, and are to be completed not later than the first of October.
Written notice of intention to stand these examinations must be filed
with the Chairman of the Medical Faculty on or before the eighteenth
of September.
No special examination will be given in the Department of Medicine
except under extraordinary circumstances, to be carefully weighed by
the Medical Faculty.
Any professor of the Medical Department may exclude from his
examination any student whose irregularity of attendance or neglect
of practical work warrants, in the professor's judgment, such exclusion.
A General Examination is held each year prior to graduation (at
the close of the session) on all the different branches on which the
candidate for graduation 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.
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