Jefferson Medical College - Clinic Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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A Brief Story of the Jefferson Medical College BY HOBART AMORY I-IARE, B.Sc., M.D., LL.D. O WRITE a history of this College in the brief space that is essential when so many other themes have to be included in the CLASS BOOK OF 1927 is a difficult task, the more so when it is recalled that the institution is about to enter its one hundred and second year of existence. Furthermore, such a history has been prepared by not a few who have in the decades past em- bodied what they deemed interesting in its career, so that its story may be found in a page or two of print on the one hand or in the two volume history by George M. Gould, published in 1904, which was so complete that it contains something more than one thousand pages. The College had its birth in the desire of several of the younger men in the medical profession to become teachers and the fact that the University of Pennsylvania possessed, or seemed to possess, no room for the display of their energies. It is difficult for us today to conceive of the jealousies which existed in the early part of the last century because such jealousies exist in small towns or cities as a rule and at that time Philadelphia was in the latter class. The College, therefore, had its birth in the face of great opposition and many efforts to put it on an actual living basis failed until George McClellan made his celebrated trip to Harrisburg in order to obtain from the legislature the necessary permission for it to become a properly founded institution of learning. The story of that trip need not be told in detail in this article. It will be recalled that McClellan, fearing that those who opposed the foundation of another school would prevent the needed legislative action, drove with horse and buggy to Harrisburg. That when he reached Lancaster his horse was so spent after covering sixty miles that to travel further was hopeless without another horse. That in his anxiety and determination to beat his opponents he burst into the office of Dr. Atlee and persuaded him to let him have his horse with which he equally furiously drove forty miles further, so consuming the night. That on his arrival it seemed from his exhausted appearance and excitement that he was more like one pursued by officers of the law than one on a high scholastic mission. That he drove back to Philadelphia about as furiously as he went forth. That he was upset on the second night in a ditch, woke the inhabitant of an isolated farm house by his calls for assistance, got the buggy on its four wheels and proceeded. One is lost in admiration at his energy at the same time giving due credit to the good qualities of the horse flesh and the generosity of Dr. Atlee in lending his horse Page Tzwenly-Ibree

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GEORGE McCLELLAN, M.D The Founder Page Tzz'e11f'3'-two

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for such punishment. I know what became of Atlee, but I have never heard whether the horses recovered or were sent to the boneyard. The reason for this ride, which was so strenuous, was that the Trustees of the Jefferson College of Canonsburg, had acceded to a request that they es- tablish a medical department in Philadelphia and those opposed to this plan insisted that said College under its charter had no right to confer the degree of M. D. at a point so far away from its direct control. To remove all difficulty an enabling act by the legislature of the state was needful and this McClellan OLD AMPHITHEATRE obtained. It was greatly needed not only for obvious reasons but because instruc- tion had been given for the scholastic year and the time had actually gone by when degrees should be conferred upon the students, it being the custom in the existing medical schools to confer the degree in March. By reason of McClellan's activity the enabling :ICI was passed and signed by the governor on April 7th and Commencement occurred on April 14, 1826. One can imagine the anxiety of the jefferson Medical College Faculty which had taught medical students and then found that perchance they could not be graduated. I imagine that the students were even more anxious. From 1825 to the present time it may be said that the jefferson Medical College, which some years later got its own charter and became independent of the institution at Canonsburg, has so to speak been imbued with the vigor of its founder and his associates. It has sent out thousands of medical men, many of whom attained positions which were not only enviable among their con- temporaries, but whose names form part of the permanent history of American Medicine. Marion Sims, Emmett, Gross the father and Gross the son, S. Weir Mitchell and jacob M. DaCosta may be named among these. Page Twefzry-fofzr