Jefferson Medical College - Clinic Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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j. F. BUCHANAN 8: CO. ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS FEIDTS 327 Philadelphia Bourse Telephone 4850 CONTRACTORS FOR:- V I I I K jetferson Medical College Hospital t 1 Pennsylvania Hospital CNSPI-'C-IALD' Friends' Asylum for the Insane Agnew Hospital, University of Pennsylvania 1 Nurses' Home, University of Pennsylvania 8C Long Island. State Hospital, Long Island Ma 'mm mis HOSPW' New Yofk Manufacturing Chemists Pliiladelpliia, U. S A Syracuse State Institute Seaside Hospital, Staten lsland College of Physicians Widows' Home Girard College Hospital Museum of Science and Art, University of Pennsylvania Tl-IE MOST FXQUISITE OF PERFUMES For sale by all Druggists iffiiititiii R00fiIL2, T lJ522'ZPi'li32.liON Wil-UAM CASSHJY . E. . - - lumbmg and as 1 IUIITU William 1 . Read 'I' NORTH 48 North Tenth Street 30 Philadelphia COPPER AND GALVANIZED IRON SKYLIGHTS AND CORNICES. ROOFS REPAIRED AND PAINTED Orders promptly attended to at short notice

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l l l l l l l i l i l 1 l 1 1 At the session of the Legislature held in the Spring of 1838, a charter was obtained creating The jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, an independent corporation H with the same powers and restrictions as the University of Pennsylvania, and the Trustees then holding office were reappointed with ff power to increase their number to fifteen, and to be sclfclective. At the meeting which accepted the new charter the Board of Trustees closed the old connection very gracefully by passing unanimously the following resolution : !Feso!zfm', That the President be directed to communicate to the mother Board at Canonsburg, that in accepting the charter which separates them from the jefferson College at Canonsburg, the additional Trustees are influenced by the conviction that such a separation is for the mutual benefit and convenience of both bodies, and desired it for no other reason 3 and that this Board will retain a grateful sense of the kind and fostering care ever exhibited towards them by the parent institution, and will in their new capacity be always ready to acknowledge their past obligations and to exchange, in every way in their power, kind offices with Jefferson College at Canonsburgf' The Trustees executed a lease on the College premises for twenty years, which gave them the privilege of paying off the principal at any time before the lease expired. In time they came into full ownership of the property, having made from time to time the alterations called for by the growth of the school. The happy outlook was soon beclouded by the personal difficulties of the faculty. These dissensions became so urgent that on the roth of june, 1839, the Trustees dissolved the faculty, and organized another out of the more congenial members of the previous body, with some new appointments. The name of Dr. George McClellan does not appear in the reorganized faculty. In his place was put Dr. joseph Pancoast, and Dr. R, M. Huston replaced Dr. Samuel McClellan. As Dr. George McClellan is conceded to have been the master spirit in founding the school, it is proper in this history to give some account of his career. He had shown a marked aptitude for surgery before he studied medicine. In ten years after beginning practice he was among the foremost surgeons of the world, showing in his operations consummate skill joined to an alertness of mind which made him ready for the most trying emergency. His lectures evinced enthusiasm, clearness and thoroughness, His methods were characterized by brilliancy and dash rather than by cool calculation. It was very hard for him to submit to author'ty or to control the impulses of his ardent temperament. . In 184r, new difficulties came to a crisis, and on the 2d of April, all the chairs were again vacated, and the faculty reconstituted as follows: Robley Dunglison, M.D., Institutes, J. K. Mitchell, M.D., Practice of Medicine, joseph Pancoast, M.D., Anatomy, R. M. Huston, M. D., Materia Medicag T. D. Miitter, M.D., Surgery, Charles D. Meigs, M.D., Obstetrics, Franklin Uache, M. D., Chemistry, succeeding to the chair on the death of Dr. jacob Green. At last was brought together a group of teachers of approved merit who would work in harmony. Under their ftfgflllllt' the College throve apace. During the first seventeen years there had been many disagreements ending in withdrawals, some of them involuntary. In that time there had been eight incumbents to the chair of midwifery. At different times vacan- cies had been filled for short periods by men of unusual ability. Their stay was so short as to prefigure the early decline which seemed to be the fate of an institution whose history was marked by such extraordinary vicissitudes, due in the main to internal discords. Having lived through I7

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bitter opposition, poverty and domestic contention, like a child that has been delivered painfully and survived dentition, the eruptive fevers and the dangers of puberty, the school had reached the maturity of its powers. With the faculty of 1841 came the reign of peace, order, and good fortune. There were no changes in the faculty for fifteen years. The conlidence of the public and of the profession was given in full measure to the friendly body of talented men, and as a result the school was prosperous to a degree surpassing any other medical school of its time. Prominent among the features contributing to its use u ness 1 p y, College, Dr. McClellan, whose name is intimately associated with every phase of its early history, was also the chief agent in creating its clinic. Having cultivated a charity practice at his office he easily supplied the infirmary at the college building, and on May 9, 1825, before the first session he performed the first operation in its amphitheatre. When the new building was erected in 1828 a small room in ! front, with an entrance under tl1e staircase, was used by him as a dispensary for his patients. He would draw upon these for illustrating his lectures. From such small beginnings the clinic grew, under the new faculty, to such dimensions that in a single year, 1856, no less than 802 medical and 813 surgical eases were treated, and capital operations of the rarest kind were performed before the class by such adroit Operators as Pancoast and Miitter. The accommodations at the College had been so poor that as late as 1841 even those who had under- f 1 and no ularit must be' ranked its clinic. The virtual founder of the gone serious operations were sent to their homes in carriages. In 1844 two rooms were rented over a shop at the southwest corner of Tenth and Sansom Streets and grave cases were treated here after operations. The anesthetic power of ether was first exhibited in Philadelphia by Dr. Miitter at the clinic, December 23, 1846. About 1849 the surgical clinic used two floors of a building adjoining the College on the north. Later this was remodeled to accommodate fifteen patients. In these narrow quarters the clinic was maintained until the Hospital was built in 1877. To accommodate the larger classes, in 1846 more ground on the north side was purchased for a new entrance and stairway, the lecture rooms were enlarged and the old gable front altered by the erection of a classic portico and pediment. On the death of the President, Rev. Ashbel Green, in 1848, the Rev. C. C. Cuyler served for one year and then was succeeded by Hon. Edward King, Ll..D., who officiated until 1873. The failing health of Prof. Miittcr in 1856 caused him to resign. He was elected fznfcrror cu1crz7z1.r. He had been assistant to Du Puytren in the Paris hospitals, and while abroad had worked for months under other surgeons of equal celebrity. He has the credit of having been the first to introduce into tl1is country the Edinburg quizzing system. He was elected Professor of Surgery at twenty- nine years of age, and at once displayed extraordinary talent as a teacher, eloquent, polished and much beloved by lns classes. He was equally successful as a clinical lecturer and operator. The surgical clinic, by :he associated zeal and efficiency of Miitter and Pancoast, became so famous that the amphitheatre was crowded with practitioners from all parts of the country. Always lacking in physical vigor, though abounding in nervous energy, Dr. Miitter was forced by increasing infirmities to bring his labors to a close. His death ensued I9 '