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

Page 22 text:

FOUNDERS OF THE MEDICAL COLLEGE OF VIRGINLA 1. Socrates Maupin. 2. John Ciillcn. 3. Richard Lafon Bohannan. 4. Lewis Webb Chambcrlaync. 1 I

Page 21 text:

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.

Page 23 text:

DENTISTRY L- DKN riS ' I ' RV was well known to tin- ancients. Cnn- siderahle progress hail been made in it 4,000 years ago. The mouths of Egyptian mummies, vith their hllecl, pivoted and artificial teeth hear silent witness to the proficiency of the dentists of the Phara- ohs. Up to the 1 6th century dentistry was a part of medicine, but during that and the s ucceeding centuries dental practice was almost exclusively in the hands of the barber surgeons. Real progress vas not made un- til the 1 8th century, when dentistry first became a sep- arate art. The new specialty was born in France. The dental operations practiced by Fouchard in his fdrty years ' experience and enumerated by him in 1728, in- cluded cleaning, straightening, shortening, scraping cauterizing, filling with lead, fastening, reino -ing, re- placing, transplanting, and artificially constructing teeth. Thus was summarized dental knowledge of that lime. In colonial ' irginia of the 17th century doctors antl chirurgeons practiced what dentistry there was. Their work was limited to extraction and the treatment of toothache. In the i8th century the advances of den- tistry in Europe began to reach these shores, but phvsi- cians still did most of the business. Itinerant dentists were popular at this period. They were usually from England and called themselves sur- geon dentists. Modern dentistry is the product of the 19th century. Ihitil well into the fourth decade of the century, there had been few changes in dental practice for the past two hundred years. There was no real dental profes- sion. Teeth were neglected until they fell out or were pulled out. Toothache was treated by local applica- tions or by extraction, and physicians were called upon for both. The term surgeon dentist was generally applied to the members of the profession until 1839. After that they preferred to be ktinw n as dental sur- geons. Dentistry in the Tnited States after 1830 began its autonomous development and rapidly took the leader- ship away from France and Great Britain. Dental education in Virginia made a slow start due in part to the proximity of an excellent school in Baltimore. This college graduated three men in its second class, and two of them were from ' irginia — J. B. Savier and W. W. H. Thaxton. On October 3, 1S93, the first formal dental teaching in Virginia was inaugurated, ivhen a faculty of Rich- mond physicians and dentists was organized as the Department of Dentistry of the University College of Medicine. Dr. Lewis M. Cowardin became dean of the faculty which was composed of seven physicians and one other dentist, Dr. Charles L. Steel. Cowardin taught the principles and practice of dentistry, together with clinical and oral surgery. Steel taught orthodon- tia and dental prosthesis. A. R. Bowles and A. R. Stratford acted as demonstrators. At the time of its organization this was the only school of dentistry east of Nashville, between Washington and Atlanta. The teaching of dentistry in a medical school on a parity Avith the branches was a new de ' elopment in the South. In 1897 the Medical College of Virginia followed suit by organizing a department in dentistry under Henry C. Jones, D.D.S. This faculty was also top heavy with physicians who outnumbered the dentists five to two. In lieu of a high school or college di- ploma, admission to the department was by examina- tion. There was but one graduate in 1898. These two schools amalgamated in 191 3 to form the present School of Dentistry in the Medical College of ' irginia.