Cornell University Medical College - Samaritan Yearbook (New York, NY)

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of heads. From the very beginning of Cornell University its various departments and colleges had been open to women, and in the new medical school no exception to that firmly established rule could be permitted. Such a revolutionary policy as the admission of women was looked upon by a good many members of the faculty as a very serious matter, and as likely to foreordain the school to failure. It was argued that many prospective men students would turn aside from a co-educational school and would select one where their associates would be only those of their own sex. But as the issue had to be faced, a plan was devised to minimize the alleged handicap as much as possible. It had been planned that the preclinical subjects which occupy the first two years of the medical school course should be given at Ithaca as well as at New York. In the case of the men students it was optional whether the first two years- should be spent- at either place. In the case of the women, however, the spending of the first two years at Ithaca was made obligatory. During the early years of the life of the College in New York then, women students were present' only during the third and fourth years. It required only a few years, however, to convince most of the faculty members that the early fears as to the blighting influence of the gentler sex upon the school were quite groundless, and so the rule requiring the women students to spend the first two years at Ithaca was modified to apply only to the first year, and eventually even that restriction was removed. It would be pleasant to point to this admission to the school of women in those early days when almost no schools accepted women as only another sign of the progressive and broadminded policies on which the Cornell School was founded. But the truth is that the school ac- cepted women students because it was compelled to, and not at all from conviction and from foresight as to what would later become an almost universal policy. When in 1898 the Cornell School was opened, the ad- mission requirements were as follows: Students must fur- nish evidence of ' good moral character and must conform to the rules and regulations of the New York State Board of Regents. That is to say, the requirements for entrance were merely those of a good high school education, and that was the requirement in the case of most of the good '21 schools. A year or two -later the requirements were raised slightly with respect to the amount of chemistry and physics required. But even with this slight raising of the barriers there came to be a growing feeling in the faculty that the efforts -to turn out really highly trained physicians were to some extent nullihed by the lack on the part of a good many of the students of an adequate pre-medical education. Too much time in the medical school had to be given to subjects which properly belonged in the pre-medical course. The discussions of this su'bject in the faculty were long and serious. It was felt that if the school was to live up to the ideal set for it by the founders, some radical change in the entrance requirements, which would ensure a more advanced type of student, was required, and the change in everyone's mind was the requirement of a baccalaureate degree. At that time there were only two schools in the country in which a college degree was required for entrance, Harvard and johns Hopkins. To establish such a conspic- uously high standard of entrance requirements seemed pos- sible only for schools firmly established and with great prestige. Could the new and relatively little-known Cornell School hope to maintain life in such a rarefied atmosphere? Were there enough applicants able to satisfy these high requirements to make it probab-le that Cornell would get even a modest quota? It was a very serious question for the reason that there could be no answer to it short of an actual trial. If the number of students were to be cut down to a mere handful, would the school be able to live financially? Fortunately there was a ready answer to that question. The situation was placed before Colonel Payne, upon whose hnancial support the school had depended. He was prompt in assuring the faculty that if it was confidently felt that such a radical step was for the ultimate good of the school and of medical education, his support would be forthcom- ing, no matter how small the classes might be. As the discussion of the matter continued over two or three years, the sentiment in favor of such a step became stronger and more assured. It was felt that if the school had justified its existence and really deserved to live, it would pass through this critical period successfully and would thereby win a place amongst the foremost schools of the country. Dr. Lewir Alterbury Stimmn Fin! Profeffor of Surgery, 1898-1917

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The Founding Faculty The faculty at the opening of Cornell Medical School was made up as follows. Dr. William M. Polk, Dean and Professor of Gynecology. Dr. Lewis A. Stimson, Professor of Surgery. Dr. W. Gilman Thompson, Professor of Medicine. Dr. R. A. Witthaus, Professor of Chemistry and Toxi- cology. Dr. Austin -Flint fthe youngerj, Professor of Physiology. Dr. H. P. Loomis, Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. Dr. I. Clifton Edgar, Professor of Obstetrics. Dr. George Woolsey, Professor of Anatomy. The Chair of Pathology had not then been filled, but one year later an event of far reaching' importance to the welfare of the school occurred in the appointment to that Chair of Dr. james Ewing, a man who contributed greatly to the advancement of the school. A few years later the appointment of Professor Graham Lusk to the Chair of Physiology marked another event of prime importance. Dr. Lewis A. Conner, an instructor with the original fac- ulty and later Professor of Medicine, in an earlier historical paper, made the following comments: While it is im- possible to refer to each member of the new faculty, my attempt to give you some picture of the school in its early days would fail completely were I not to give you some impression of the personality of the two men upon whom the responsibilities and burdens of the new school chiefly rested. These were the Dean and the Professor of Sur er They had been colleagues and friends f g yi or many years, had served together on the faculty of the old New York Uni- versity School, had fought side by side for what they gon- ceived to be their rights in the ill-fated merger , and were the ones responsible for the decision of Colonel Payne to offer Hnancial support to the new school. With both of them the welfare of the school was their first thought and consideration. Both in their very different ways were re- markable men. .Both, as it happened,. had served as young officers in the Civil War-the one on the Confederate Side the other with the Union Army. , 0 Dr. lVilliam Merklefzbufg Polk First Dean, Cornell Ufziveriizy Medical College Dr, Polk, a native of Tennessee, was the son of the Rev. Leonid-as Polk, the famous lighting bishop, and a Major General of the Confederate Army. Dr. Polk had all the courtesy and charm of manner that characterized the gentlemen of the Old South, but behind his handsome presence and his gracious manner he possessed a vigorous personality and an executive forcefulness which watched over every detail of the school's administration and was the mainspring of its every activity. Dr, Stimson was a native New Yorker, had had a dis- tinguished career as a surgeon, and was the author of a treatise on fractures and dislocations, which was the standard textbook on those subjects throughout the country. He had been a classmate at Yale of Colonel Payne and was the latter's intimate and confidential friend. His somewhat re- served manner and cold' exterior hid a generous and kindly disposition, which showed itself particularly in his relations with his subordinates. He was guide, philosopher and friend to the members of his house staff and indeed to every struggling young doctor whom he thought deserving of help. Dr. Sti-mson had, I think, the most lucid and penetrating intellect of anyone that I have ever known. A mathemati- cian of no mean order, deeply scholarly and cultivated in his tastes, he was the envy and the despair of those Of us younger men who sought to emulate him. Such then were the characteristics of the two men upon whose shoulders the responsibilities of the school were chiefly borne during the first twenty years of its existence. Some special problems . . Women and Degrees By the summer of 1900 the new Cornell School building and its equipment were complete and -the old Bellevue building was abandoned. At the very outset of the establishment of the school O06 problem arose which at the time, and for some Yf-fats afterward, caused much concern and much solemn shakmg 20' of l its ' w0I'Il that reVOl UPOIT 5Cfl0 failu woul 5ClCC3 their was Possi It occul shoul Case two 1 woml Ithac life were requi the f influc grour to sp only was r to th no sl progr Schoc ceptet not a woulc Wl missic nish to the of Re were that w

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Stinzron Hall, Itbaca. Erectecl 1902. Tbir building for tbe Ilbaca Dinirion of tbe Medical College was given Zo Cornell by Dean Sage of Albany. It war named, by bi: wirb, in recognition of tbe rernicer rendered to tbe erlablirbmenl of zbe medical college by Lewir A. Stimron, M.D., LL.D. A meeting of the faculty for Hnal action upon the matter was called for November 15, 1907. The faculty room was crowded and there was a portentous stillness about the meeting that told of the seriousness of the issue that was to be decided. The chair was occupied 'by Dr. Schurman, the President of the University, whose sympathetic under- standing of the situation and quiet optimism did much to inspire confidence in the members of the faculty. After much grave discussion, the motion was finally put and the faculty voted unanimously in favor of the change. That resolution stipulated that in and after 1908 candidates for admission to the school must be: fly Graduates of approved colleges or scientific schools, or Q21 Seniors in good standing in Cornell University or in any approved college whose faculty will permit them to substitute the first year of a' professional course for the fourth year in arts and sciences and who will confer upon them a- bacheloris degree upon the satis- factory completion of the first year ofthe course in the Cornell University Medical College, or QBQ Persons who, while not possessing a bachelor's degree, give evidence by examination that they have acquired an equivalent education and a training sufficient to enable them to profit by the instruction offered in the Medical College. That important step once taken, it remained only to see what the result would be upon the size of the next entering class. Wlien the college opened in the fall of 1908, the first year class in New York numbered three, and one of these fell out during the year. However, at Ithaca there were seven first year students, and as two more were later ad- mitted with advanced standing, the class was graduated in 1912 with a membership of eleven. In this small pioneer class of eleven, two lost their lives in the service of their country during World War I. The entering class the follow- ing year numbered Hfteen in New York and nine at Ithaca -a total of 24 students-and from that time on there was a steady increase each year until in 1920 it became neces- sary to put a limit on the size of the classes. The Final Step . . . Affiliation with New York Hospital. As medical education has improved and the importance of bedside teaching has become more and more apparent, the need of medical schools for close connection with 'large general hospitals has become evident. Since its beginning the Cornell School has had the use of the wards of Bellevue and New York Hospitals, but in the case of the latter only by reason of the fact that certain of its teachers happened to be members of the medical and surgical staffs of that hospital. In 1913, however, through the mediation of Df- Stimson, the school and the New York Hospital entered into an agreement 'by which the school was to be granted not only teaching rights in the hospital, but, as well, the privilege of nominating appointments to the medical and Surgical staff of one-half of the hospital. In 1912 and 1913 president of the First National Bank, George F. Baker, and Colonel Oliver H. Payne, pledged or gave over two million and over four million dollars respectively to the two insti- tutions with the generally understood idea that the tW0 ins gch the see Pro sch' beti to Sym mos unifl betv thot was both heir almc nego for l togel the immf it W2 medii 'Ili millic with and a in 19 ment quires of th board hospit ll