College of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons - Cortex Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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THE • COLLEGE c OMING as this issue of the Cortex does on the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of osteopathy, it is but fitting that we should look back over the path that has been traveled. Andrew Taylor Still was born in 1 829, in a little village in Lee County, Virginia. As a boy he lived the life of a pioneer, hunting and working and studying when he had a chance, hfis parents moved from place to place so his schooling was of a desultory nature, but by much perseverance he laid the foundation for a fine education. While he was quite young he decided to follow in his father ' s footsteps and become a physician. FHis education was strictly medical, but from the first he was said to be at variance with drugs and prescribed them as little as possible. Dr. Still fought in the Civil War and for valor was promoted to the rank of major. But for the war, osteopathy might have been born sooner. June 22nd, 1874, is the date that Dr. Still credits as being the birthday of osteopathy. As is still the custom, when a ne A procedure is advocated and old established institutions are threatened, he and his philosophy were looked upon with grave suspicion by his brother physicians, and so until 1892 he worked practi- P.,gc Eh

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caliy alone. In this year he was joined by Dr. William Smith, just recently graduated from Edinburgh, Scotland, an intelligent co-worker, who became the First student of the new science. In 1894, the American College of Osteopathy was incorporated and a school building was erected in Kirksville, Missouri. The building was a small frame structure measuring fourteen feet by twenty-eight feet, and had practically no equipment. Dr. Smith was a valued instructor in this college, but aside from him, the college was pushed forward by the dogged determination of Dr. Still alone. The school was a success and attracted students from all over the country, and they in turn carried the new science back to their homes. It was one such group of students that upon returning to California decided that an osteopathic college should be established here and in May, 1896, started an organized effort to found such a college. On July 14, that year, articles of incorpora- tion were signed for the Pacific Sanitarium and School of Osteopathy and the institu- tion formally opened in the Del Campo hHotel Building in Anaheim. This was the sec- ond institution of its kind to be established in the world. It was empowered by its charter to teach the necessary branches and grant degrees. There were forty-two students in the college. Prior to the graduating of the first class, the college moved to Los Angeles and located in the Phillips Block on Spring Street at Franklin. (The California State Building now occupies this site.) This same year, June 6, 1897 to be exact, the college moved again, this time to Tenth and Flower Streets and an opening reception was held in its new quarters. The first class was graduated in January, 1898. Many schools and institutes ' sprang up in the early days. Many were organized for a double purpose. One object was to lead the people to believe that those who were teachers were especially fitted to act as physicians, and the other object was to enable the founder of these schools to gather in what money they could from tuition paid for instruction. These institutes were short-lived and not one exists today. Ptige Twelve