Drexel University College of Medicine - Medic Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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The professors were modest in those early days fand the present writer would like to make a note on a similar difficulty he hadj for in February the class asked them to each have a lithograph likeness taken and they declined. 1 During the summer of 1852, a building had been leased ' on Chestnut Street, near the bridge, and opened as a p Homeopathic Hospital. This was an advance in the clinical 1 plan. It was not long after the college had been opened, that certain members of the profession overseas looked here for a special diploma. In October, 1851, the Dean read a letter from Dr. Dudgeon of Edinburgh, in relation to granting a diploma to Mr. Albert Crosby Pope. Shortly after this Mr. Pope was recommended to receive the special degree of the college. This began the dispensations to foreign students. On February 19, 1857, we have record of the first enter' tainment of the students by the faculty. This was held at the Girard House at 4.30 P. M. On january 16, 1859, it was resolved at a faculty meeting, that a committee be appointed for the consideration of reorganization of the college, to secure it a permanent existence and progressive development. Doctors Hempel, Beakley and Reed were elected. For the year of 1860, we hear mention of economics, inventories, retrenchments, and recommendations for new systems in personnel and management. It had become apparent that there was need for sound business administration. Efficiency and thrift became shibboleths against the imminence of penury. The action was a lifefsaver. The college foundation became more stable. A dental clinic was organized in 1860 by Dr. Griffiths. The committee bought a dental chair, some forceps, and a probe. Dr Griffiths was properly and grandly installedg but as the dental chair was sold in 1861, it seems that this clinic was not a success. The same year, a Mr. Warriiier began his lectures on M , . . , . 8 Hb 'i'l 'l'UM'r :ir the subject of Medical Jurisprudence. Notes were taken. , 1 ji! The lecturer was a lawyer. l 1 1 1 ,fl , ., 1 1 ., x At the commencement in 1861, at Musical Fund Hall, , , 1 1 , there were twentyfnve graduates. Six special degrees were 1, UFVKIBJ , 1 Tp gp 0 l ' ii granted. , ., . L il- -I,ll'5u T 1 . . . . f,,a.i-- 1 f All of this time the faculty underwent many changes in , X1 1 W , 1 personnel, so numerous that they cannot be mentioned and , 1. mv still preserve interest in a mere narrative. There were resig- p , , A ,gi V-,iz nations, appointments, dismissals, promotions, and deaths, all ii iiylyillllfllll- so confusing in this panoramic study as to make the early 5 'l 'Hy history appear a hodgefpodge of upsfandfdowns and infandf ,I outs. le- digit? During the summer of 1862 the anatomical room was Eighteen

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already attended lectures elsewhere, received the degree of Doctor of Homeopathic Mediciiie. Only one course of lectures was given in the building on Arch Street. A meeting of the faculty was held in the College Building and this was their last assembly there. The next record is of a residence in a new building at 1105 Filbert Street. The entrance to this college was almost exactly similar to the one of the college building on Broad Street later. Both, now demolished, have their ghosts and comrade spirits walking up and down stone steps into school, out again, in thc habit of students with perpetual grace. Here they assemble, here they disband. now they read and there they whisper stories, but in their ghost hearts is the old dream of their living and dying. The second session of the new college began under much more favorable circumstances than the first one. It was not too soon for the members of the Homeopathic profession to have a college of their own faith. There were changes in the faculty. The second commencement occurred Mzirch 2, 1350, at the Musical Fund Hall. The degree was conferred upon twenty graduates. The third announcement appeared. In this pamphlet was included among the introductory remarks of explanation: Nor will the student be less deeply grounded in surgery and midwifery, which in their therapeutical part will be entirely reformed or at least greatly modified by the Homeopathic doctrine, so that onefhalf of all the surgical operations may be dispensed with. By means of a judicious treatment of a woman's ailments before labor and by means of strengthening her constitution, the act of parturition will become more and more natural, so that the mechanical and forcible means which have to be resorted to at the present may, in the future, mostly be set aside. But the necessary mechanical proceedings in their most improved form will not be overlooked in the lectures on this subject. This was in the year 1850. Ar a meeting of the faculty this same year, it was decided that 312.00 be the price for attendance at each of the professors lecture courses. During the course of 1S50f51 the lecture room was given to the students on Sunday evening for religious purposes. These meetings were well attended. About this time, the Dean reported a modest balance of 213242.06 in his hands. Evidently the subscribers were rather slow in the payment of their dues. This caused no immediate catastrophe. The financial department ingeniously had decided: First, that sufficient money be retained by the Dean to pay the current expenses of the college. Second, that on the first of December and April whatever money remains in the treasury, after deducting a sufficient sum to meet the expenses of the college, shall be divided among the professors. Seventeen

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4 ra 1 as i -5 .W l l l -i -1 ,I 4 il JZ si .37 'Y l 1 . ,T .1 . j . 1 . 1 1 .f . -1 -Q .2 . ' Ti 4 ft LJ' Q 2 U -'i Ti ' .'.'J si' ff .153 . Hcp.. .Tffgg si -'-3 if-.5 art l .f--fi 4' fl? X' .X-1',?4 R Q 58.53 , 'Q 'I Q W lf. l 1 improvedg a skylight was added: a dispensary was also opened in the rear of the college and connected with this amphitheatre. The students had before this been attending the other hospitals of the city for clinical study. ' There is no note on the effect of the Civil War. Undoubtedly, there were enlistments, rollfcalls, and banded groups. On this score the record is silent. The college now was on a steadier basis. The period between 1865 and 1868 marked reconstruction. With this came the birth of a journal. The Halinemannian Monthly was published for the express purpose of printing lectures and other points of interest occurring in the college. In 1865, Dr. H. N. Guernsey became Dean and the Board of Trustees elected a Faculty. At a meeting in 1865 the Faculty voted to allow ladies to sit in the antefroom to listen to the lectures. This was the first concession made to the fair sex by the college and evidently the last. In 1866 Dr. Hering proposed that Dr. F. E. Boerickc be authorized to prepare a standard Homeopathic Pharma' copoeia. At the same time it was voted that the secretary be a committee to sell at not less than cost the allopathic medical journals in the library. It may be mentioned that they were not sold. The neglect of this motion was in tone with the later acceptance by this school of a dual therapeutic armamentarium. There is record of Boericke and Tafel hav' ing presented to the dispensary copies of the Standard Materia Medica of the day. it 'Wi N11 Zs m? s - I , A t,. 'l 4 is ii lnlMf:,5,'w E 12,-EY W., 1 Xgmxkv- Ei iv l G x --xx 'E :W fx .,. f. -Q 45+ as ,Z - E Tags F, N Nw 9 L j l'Il X 7 ii , f ill V 4 11 i 4, 1 fl V38 iii? is 'five Q' gi fm - .P If in lil, Ilia ' si 1 1 My I Nilfj ' Mi, : - ii 1 -. jar ii'--e -',,4 ll 121125- 3 A crisis now occurred when Dr. Lippe, who controlled most of the stock of the college, declared that the Chair of Pathology and Diagnostics was contrary to pure ii v ' , rm .A . . . j'--if., f.f2,f- if .1,-'1'-1 'L 1: .. Ii1::.- 'f ' , ' ' f'1:.i'5q 1 ---Tex' - 'A ' .':'-1--'.1 ,. 4 4 -.-I . x 1 ZH 'Jer-f-Ligzi -n l 1 Q sfcmfvsuvzm- 251 7, 1 ? x .-:.. lf f 1' T aq if i:'Ei:xig qf2 i3tc -e in ' jle ,AA 'N -y' , , - Homeopathy and should be abolished. Dr. Hering objected to this position and due to the autocratic manner in which Dr. Lippe maintained it, he withdrew from the chair to which he had returned after an absence. Efforts at conciliation were futile. Dr. Hering organized a new college. The original college continued sessions. This was the new Hahnemann Medical College instituting itself as a rival to the old Homeopathic School. Both sides were alternately conciliatory and depreciative. There were no cordial relations between the students of the two rival colleges. Bitter accusations were made from both sides. The time was ripe for the Homeopathic Schools to start cutting their own throats. There had to be a victor and victory. It seemed that the contest was onefsided. The last meeting of the old Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania was held February 27, 1869. The professors split the financial balance. - Nineteen