Medical College of Virginia - X Ray Yearbook (Richmond, VA)

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MEDICINE Dl K1N(; tlic i7tli aiul iSlh ceiUurieN dnctor- born ami educated in England dominated the prn- fesj-ion in America. Henry Kenton, in 1603, was the first English surgeon to land on the American continent. He was killed, along with four other men, by Indians when they landed on the shores of th? Chesapeake Kay. These early English physicians who came to this country were trained tlirough apprentice- ships, a means of education wliich remained long in vogue. Medicine was not taught systematically in this coun- try until the latter part of the i8th century. In 1765 the College of Philadelphia, which soon became the I ' niversity of PeinisyK anin. wa founded; King ' s Col- lege followed in i7 ' S; Howard Medical School in 17S3; and nartmiiuth in 179S. In ' irginia there is mention only of the Medical Department of the College of William and Mary, organized in 1779, and lasting ordy three years. Most of the students from the College of William and Mary completed their training in English and Scotch universities, preferring to take their higher degrees in the foreign schools. It was be- cause of this lax system in American schools of med- icine that many ' irginia youths during the iSth cen- tury took advantage of excellent opportunities for study abroad and, as a result, ac(|uired a pre-eminence in their professioti upon their return to practice in .Amer- ica. These latter year?» vitnessed also the rise of truly .American medicine. It was at this tiine that medical societies, hospitals, and a native literature had their beginnings. Americans made notable contributions toward inoculation; there was laring frontier surgery, good botanical observation, the development of first- hand knowledge of certain epidemic di-eases, and a notable tendencv on the part of oi:t tanding men to enter the medical profession. .Mthough the i8th century ' irginia doctor was bet- ter educated than his predecessor ol ihe 17th centur . and although he had .-i inore intelligent clientele, more book-, ami a better means ol c-nmniunication, he wa- seriously handicappe l by hi- devotion to theory, and it is doubtful if his notions of medical practice or therapy were very much in advance of those of the preceding century, lie had nothing upon which to base any im- provement. His method ol examination ol patients and his conception of the cause and mechanisin of disease were full ' as fault) ' as they were 100 years before. .Although Morgagni ' s lie Sedibu- Cau-i-, the first real work on pathologv, wa- written in i- ' n. there is onlv one mention of it in the existing catalogues of the libraries of the century. The ' irginia doctor continued to s veat, purge, blister, vomit, and bleed his patients with the same traditional faith and with th ' same inevitable results. Thus in N ' irginia, uiuil the Civil War, medicine was vhat it had always been, a dignified and respected profession follo ved by inen of good-breeding and edu- cation, trained largely in the north and in Europe, but none the less wedded to anti(|ue theories and possess- ing strange veneration for authority. However, .American medical education made rapid strides during the 19th century. From a single institu- tion in 1765, the nuinber of medical schools in 1903 had risen to 160; some of them good, some of them bad, many of them worthless. Charters were easily secured, candidates were abundant, and there were few- examining boards to bar the way to public preferment. The American Medical Association in 1848 recom- mended that the medical course be extended from four to six months, that every school have as many as seven professor-, anil that dissection and clinical opportuni- ties be stressed. In 1907 came the greatest reform when the .American Medical .Association graded the col- leges upon their preliminary educational requirements, character of curriculum, physical equipment, clinical facilities, number of fulltime professors, and the extent to which profits of the faculty entered into the opera- tion of the school. The merciless publicity of the asso- ciation ' s figures rapidly raised the standards of med- ical education in the country so that by 1925, only 80 schools survived. In ' irginia there were no medical schools during the first ijuarter of the 19th century; apprenticeship was still popular. .A medical education in England and in France was still highlv regarded and those who coidd afford it crossed the seas to study. The majority of ' irginia students went north to study. However, many received their medical education or at least a good part of it in medical schools in Virginia. From these schools gradually evolved the medical schools of today. Three separate attempts were made to teach medicine at the College of William and Mary, the first being in 1779 and aborted three years later. The next ap- pr.ach to a department of medicine at that school was in 1S24, but this was unsuccessful. In iS+i the teach- ing of medicine was again attempted at ihi- school, but this trial lasted only seven years. In 182,, an act was passed by the General .A--cmbly incorporating the College of Ph -ician- of the N ' alley fh

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fh A SHORT HISTORY OF MEDICAL EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA INTRODUCTION MEDICINE in Virginia in the early colonial days was not creative nor epoch-making: nor did it altogether reflect continental medicine. Accord- ing to the exigencies of the time, it assumed features which were peculiarly in- digenous. Without cities, hospitals, professional contacts, books, or instruments, the early colonial doctor acquired a resourcefulness, independence of action, courage, and ingenuity bred only in the school of real necessity. Medicine in the 17th cen- tury in Virginia was the same as in the other colonies. It was not a productive but a fallow time out of which some very real contributions flowered during the suc- ceeding centuries. The first Cesarean section and the first oophorectomy in America were performed by a pioneer Virginia doctor. The priority in America for the opjration of cleft palate and club foot, in the use of plaster cast for the treatment of tuberculosis of the spine, and in the use of metallic sutures in vesico-vaginal repair, belongs to Vir- ginia. A Virginian promulgated the theory of evolution before Darwin, another described typhoid fever 113 years before Louis, another advocated the use of steam in the disinfection of infected ships. The first American pharmacopeia, the first autopsy, the first hospital, the first insane asylum on this continent were Virginia achievements. The earliest bill governing medical practice was drawn by the Vir- ginia Assembly; while the first American college to teach comparative anatomy, to institute the ten-months medical course, and to take a stand for adequate premedica! education was the University of Virginia. With these facts in mind, we shall recite briefly the facts in the development of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and nursing, in this state, and the founding and establishment of the Medical College of Virginia. Edilur ' s A o , — rhc X-Rav is Kiatcfullv iiulchtcd to Ilr. Wymlhani H. HIantnn tor liis kind permission to the editorial staff to iim- liis various hooks, and cuts appearing; therein, in the writing of this history.

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x-ra u of Virginia, at Winchester, under the auspices of Dr. John Esten Cooke and Hugh Holmes McGuire. This undertaking vas short-lived and the school closed its doors in 1S29. Medical education was revived in Win- chester in 1847 and under a new charter the Wincliester Medical College opened its doors. On this fncullv we find, along with others, Hugh II. McOuire and his son, Hunter McGuire. Grave robbing was in vogue and the professor of anatomy was in charge of students detailed f or such nocturnal prowlings. The school was forced to close during the Civil War. The Medical Department of Randolph-Macon Col- lege in 1848 under the Mettauer family gained great distinction. Thomas Jefferson in 1824 provided for a medical department at the University of Virginia. This school of medicine has been continuously active except for a short period during the Civd War, and together with the present Medical College of Virginia are the only schools of medicine in the state. The Medical Department of llanipden-Sydiiey Col- lege was organized in 1839. In 1S41; it vas reorgan- ized and has since then been known as the Medical College of Virginia. Thus laboring under the handi- cap of war, the reconstruction period, and poverty, Vir- ginia naturally lagged in medicine after i860. Yet in spite of the utter lack of endowed institutions for re- search, the progress of medicine went on. In time medical societies sprang up, hospitals were organized in every town of importance, trained nurses came to stay, the new gospel of sanitation was preached, a state examining board and state board of health were organ- ized, specialization became popular, dentistry came into its own, better medicine flourished, and a higher order of surgery developed.