Jefferson Medical College - Clinic Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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kind and fostering care ever exhibited towards the-m by the parent institution, and. will in their new capacity be always ready to acknowl- edge their past obligations and to exchange, in every way in their power, kind offices with jetterson 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 be- clouded by the personal difficulties of the faculty. These dissensions became so urgent that on the Ioth of June, 1839. the Trustees dissolved the faculty, and organized another out of the more congenial members of the previous body, with some new appoint- ments. 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 opera- tions 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 snlbmit to authority or to control the impulses of his ardent te-mperanient. In 1841 new dilliculties 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., Institutesg J. K. Mitchell, M.D., Practice of Medicineg joseph Pancoast, M.D., Anatomyg R. M. Huston, M.D.. Materia Medica: T. D. Miitter. M.D.. Surgery, Charles D. Meigs, M.D.. Obstetricsg Franklin Bache, M.D., Chemistry, succeeding to the chair on the death of Dr. Jacobi Green. At last was brought together a group of teachers of approved merit who would work in harmony. Under their I'Ci!lflll0 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 vacancies had been filled for short periods by men of unusual ability. Their stay was so short as to pretigure 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 bitter opposition. 23

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In january, 1830, Dr. George McClellan was relieved of anatomical teaching by the appointment of his brother, Dr. Samuel McClellan, to the chair. In the hope of securing a more satisfactory assignment of labors in 1830, Dr. Barton having resigned, Dr. Eberle was transferred to the chair of ,materia medica, while undertaking to teach midwifery. and Dr. Daniel Drake, of Cincinnati, was appointed to the chair of practice of medicine. The session of 1830-31 opened with every profes- sorship occupied by a man of proved ability as a writer and teacher. At the end of the session a disaster was experienced in the resignation of two of the most eminent professors. Daniel Drake and John Eberle. This loss and other changes made in the personnel from various causes had an unfortunate influence upon the prosperity of the institution. For the session of 1831-32 Dr. Usher Parsons, of Providence, R. I., held the chair of midwifery, Dr. Granville Sharp Pattison of anatomy, vice Dr. Samuel McClellan resigned. At the end of the session Dr. Parsons resigned and Dr. Samuel McClellan was appointed professor of mid- wifery, medical jurisprudence and diseases of women and children. By 1834 Dr. John Revere had been appointed professor of medicine and a mutually acceptable organization was effected, which persisted for six prosperous years. The teaching corps was much strengthened by the election of Dr. Robley Dunglison to the chair of institutes in June, 1836. In 1838 the larger classes called for .more eommodious quarters, and it was decided that the old building must be altered and enlarged. To do this it was desirable that the title to the property, hitherto vested in Rev. E. S. lily, should be transferred to the Board of Trustees. As these Trustees in Philadelphia were subordinate to the parent Board and could hold property in their name only, a necessity arose for a distinct charter, which would enable the Philadelphia Trustees to hold and modify' the medical college property as a separate institution. At the session of the Legislature held in the spring of 1838, a charter was obtained creating The Jefferson Medical College of Phila- delphia, an independent corporation with the same powers and re- strictions as the University of Pennsylvania, and the Trustees then holding ofiicc were reappointed with power to increase their number to fifteen, and to be self-elective. At the meeting which accepted the new charter the Board of Trustees closed the old connection xcry gracefully by passing unanimously the following resolution: lfl?S0f1'f l. 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 tl1e mutual benefit and convenience of both bodies, and desired it for no other reasong and that this Board will retain a grateful sense of the 1 22

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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. VVith the faculty of 1841 came the reign of peace. order and good fortune. There were no changes in tl1e faculty for fifteen years. The confidence 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 tl1e features contributing to its usefulness and popularity must he ranked its clinic. The virtual founder of the Col- lege, 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 ohice he easily supplied the infirmary at the College building, and on May 9th, 1825, before the first session, he performed the first operation in its amphitheatre. NVhen the new building was erected in 1828 a small room in front, with an entrance under the staircase, was used by hin1 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 cases were treated, and capital operations of the rarest kind were performed before the class by such adroit operators as Pancoast and Miitter. The accomimodations at the College l1ad been so poor that as late as 1841 even those who had undergone 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 Phila- delphia by Dr. Miitter at the clinic, December 23Ci. 1846. About 1849 the surgical clinic used two floors of a building adjoining the College on the north. Later this was remodeled to accommodate hfteen 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 tl1en was succeeded by Hon. Edward King, LL.D., who officiated until 1873. 1 The failing health of Prof. Miitter in 1856 caused him to resign. He was elected IH'0fi'8S0 f'l'll'I'ifN-'- He had been assistant to Du Puytren in the Paris hospitals, and while abroad had worked for months under 24