University of Virginia Library

PRACTICAL ANATOMY AND DISSECTION.

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.