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

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i i ' ; -- EARLIEST PHOTOGRAPH OF THE EGYPTIAN BUILDING - probably taken about 1867. The Old Dominion Hospital (1861) is at the right. Doctor Warner planned the Egyptian Building, ac- cording to Dr. R. B. Anderson in his Brief Auto- biographies, to fulfill his highest conception of building adapted in every way to the purposes for which it was dedicated. The structure was com- pleted in 1945 and was financed by contributions from the State of Virginia, City of Richmond and loans to a total of $55,000. ONE OF THE MUMMY POSTS in the original iron fence, which still guards the building.

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IKTCIBM ' j I f . WAl-i ' tji. u II . i-norKxtoit MEDICAL DFPARTMINT. .5 I! T ll .r,.,nn„n ' iM.T).1 jH.itni.i ' Hrtui ,mJ y lin.ipninc .■ » i [ ' ' ' fl 1 «toaL5j; jnc u.il -D,-p..r1,iunt ■ PROFESSORS ' TICKETS — The student paid $20 to the professors for each of the six courses. The College opened on November 5, 1838 in the old Union Hotel located at the corner of Nineteenth and Main Streets. An editorial in the Southern Literary Messenger for July, 1839, reads, When it is recollected that this college has suddenly sprung into existence unaided by public endowment, too much praise cannot be bestowed upon the individual enterprise, per- severance and energy, which have already achieved for it a character of stability and usefulness not surpassed by older institutions. The spacious and elegant building which it oc- cupies, could not have been better adapted to its various uses, if originally designed exclusively for such objects. The general lecture room has been fitted up in a style of superior taste, and is large enough, we should judge, to contain with ease two hundred students. There are, besides, two other lecture rooms for the chemical and anatomical classes, and we confess we were very agreeably surprised at the extent of the anatomical mu- seum, and, as far as an unprofessional spectator could judge, the completeness and excellence of the chemical apparatus. That however which must give peculiar value to the institution, is the presence of an infirmary within the walls of the building, in which the patients are provided with airy and comfortable rooms, attentive nurses (Sisters of Charity), and constant medi- cal attendance. The opportunity which is thus afforded for instruction at the bedside of the sick, by an easy and convenient transit from the lecture room, cannot it seems to us be too highly appreciated.

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rchives reveal no reihar .- until 1853, when the catdl „ ouneed a decision of the faculty to lommend to the trustees of Hampden- ney the creation of a new chair of siology and medical jurisprudence. J faculty nominated Dr. Martin P, )tt for the appointment. Simul- eously, twenty-two Richmond phy- lans not connected with the medical lartment submitted their own nomi- tionof Dr. Goodridge A. Wilson. This done through Dr. Moses D, Hoge, i ustee o f Hampden-Sydney, and Dr. Ison was tendered the appointment, bmptly there erupted a newspaper I pamphlet war. Chere can be no doubt that the Ham- In-Sydney trustees were well with- heir rights in appointing interim nature, in spelling out in | the regiilations governing the Medxi Department. Howeyier, they had never before ignored the recdmmendatidns of the medical faculty, to which the same regulations accorded the prj lege of nomination. The resultant r tvu-e was, in the perspective of the cM; tury and a quarter, unfortunate and must have left scars which could om impede for some time the growth i development of a young institut| Thus the Medical Department Hampden-Sydney College became Medical College of Virginia, an dependent institution, chartered E ■ruary.25, 1854. . . College bols of the South, had atteinpli dcw years to stem the overwhelmin iber of students going to the Nor- irn schools for their medical edu- lon. Philadelphia seems to have been I mecca for these students. For ex- le, at the University of Pennsyl- iia, 360 medical students were en- led; of these students almost half |re Southern. Ir. Levin S. Joynes, dean, wrote in I catalogue for the session 1857-58: iThe faculty would urge upon the lithern student the peculiar ad- iLtage of receiving his lessons in nical instruction in a Southern in- itution. The principles of medicine Ly be taught equally well, by quali- id teachers, in any locality. But {plication of these principles to prac- must differ, as the types of disease u er; it cannot therefore be the same at the North and at the South. Much of the success which has so generally at- tended the graduates of this institution, is undoubtedly due to the peculiar practical advantages which it affords. It was not until John Brown ' s raid oii Harper ' s Ferry in October, 1859, and his subsequent hanging on December 1, 1859, that medical students in the North faced the ever-widening gap between North and South. With this in view, overtures were made to the faculty of the Medical Col- lege of Virginia, by the students them- selves, and by others acting for them. The faculty were asked whether the se cedi ng students would be received into stitution, and on what terms, se enquiries, the faculty re- )ihi([)ii, would be justified by pu pinion in Virginia and the South large. They declared their willingn to admit to their lectures, with charge for the remainder of the s sion, all such students as had reguls matriculated and paid their fees I tuition in Philadelphia, and to pl them on the same footing in regard graduation, and in all other respe ; as their own students. | Excerpts from the Daily Dispd December 22, 1859, picture the reci tion of the seceding students: 300 of the sons of the South arrive at 2:30 p.m. (Frederieksbi train) to enter the Medical College Virginia, whose faculty in a spirit coming Virginia gentlemen have | tended to them a cordial and generjl welcome to their noble institution I to the soil of the Old Mother State. ] We congratulate the Medical Col| of Virginia upon this grand accen to its numbers, and upon its brilll prospect which, after long year i meritorious struggle, is about to cr«| its toils and perseverance. | We understand that a grand eni tainment will be given by the fae| and students of the College to J Southern friends this afternoon. It | undoubtedly be a brilliant affair. Vi the descendants of the yankee Podv Fathers are singing dolefully through their: noses — Blow Ye the TrumpetSi, Blow — to the tune of Lennox, we will give them a responsive blast this after-, noon from Southern bugles to the a of Carry Me Back to Old Virginia. -W ' ' ' ' ' '