Tulane University School of Medicine - T Wave Yearbook (New Orleans, LA)

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In the fall of 1865. the school reopened its doors with 185 students enrolled. However, because of the devastation wrought by the Civil War and the subsequent Reconstruction, the medical school faced its most trying times. The school struggled financially for its very existence until 1 884. when a wealthy New Orleans merchant by the name of Paul Tulane bequeathed $1,250,000 for the establishment of a university. The state legislature then placed all the departments of the University of Louisiana under the newly named Tulane University of Louisiana. This donation enabled Tulane to once again assume front rank among American medical schools. By the early 1 890 ' s. rapid growth of the medical school had established the need for new facilities. In 1893. a new building, the Richardson Memorial Building, was built on Canal Street to house the medical school. Although this building was heralded as one of the best equipped medical buildings of its day. by 1907, further expansion was needed. At this time Alexander Hutchinson bequeathed a large sum in memory of his wife Josephine. This fund was used to construct a new Richardson Building on what was to become the Uptown Campus. This building would now house all pre-clinical departments. Facilities of the old Richardson Building were enlarged for clinical teaching purposes and the building was renamed the Josephine Hutchinson Memorial. Meanwhile, the school was continuously attempting to raise its standards. When the medical school was initially founded, the school year had lasted only four months, and only two full courses of lectures were required for graduation. Since only one set of courses existed, the students were expected to take the same lectures twice. Admission to lectures was gained with a ticket purchased at a price of $20. This was the sole means by which the professors were paid. Additional fees included a matriculation fee of $5, and a diploma fee of $30. Incidental expenses included the purchase of two arms for dissection at 25 cents each, and two legs at 15 cents each. At this time the only requirement for admission was the ability to finance one ' s education. Josephine Hutchinson Memorial Building 1893-1930 Gradually, the annual sessions were lengthened from the original four months to four and one-half months in 1 879. then to six months in 1 893. In later years, the length of these sessions was further extended until it evolved into what it is today. It was also in 1 893 that an educational qualification for admission was first required of all students. The minimum qualification for admission was a second grade teacher ' s certificate of a superintendent of education. Also, to further strengthen educational standards, attendence of three instead of two annual sessions was required. In 1 899. this was lengthened to four obligatory sessions. By the early I900 ' s. it became apparent that a high degree of disparity existed between different medical schools. In 1 908, Abraham Flexner was selected by the Carnegie Foundation to undertake an analysis of the state of medical education. He made a study of 1 55 American and Canadian Medical Schools, beginning at Tulane in the winter of 1908. Flexner published his report in 1910, describing shocking and deplorable conditions in many medical schools. This opened the eyes of the public and the medical community such that the Flexner Report was. in effect, an obituary for a great many medical colleges. Within a few years, almost half of the colleges had disappeared, mostly due to the adverse publicity. Although Flexner found medical education at Tulane far from ideal, he ranked Tulane among the top three medical schools of the South. Tulane ' s high ranking was based on new and excellent laboratory facilities, the teaching faculty, the clinical availability of Charity Hospital, and the post-graduate instruction provided by the New Orleans Polyclinic.

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In 1 836. the governor of the state attempted to help the medical faculty obtain funding for the erection of a school building. A measure appropriating $60,000 for this purpose was proposed and passed by the senate, but it was defeated by the house. It was not until 1843 that any definitive action was taken. On March 22 of that year, a law was passed permitting the medical faculty to erect a building on a lot belonging to the state, on Common Street between Baronne and Dryades Streets. There were two conditions attached to the law: first, the faculty should donate their services to Charity Hospital without pay for ten years, and second, that one student from each parish would be admitted annually to the medical school for the next ten years. The senator and representatives from each parish were to name each candidate. The state also reserved the right to reclaim all properties at the end of the ten year period. The fact that this new bill gave the faculty of the school professional privileges at Charity Hospital created an uproar among the town ' s medical practitioners. The opposition was based on the belief that the medical school would be given a monopoly over medicine and surgery at Charity. When it was made clear that this was not the case, the medical community joined together, resulting not only in the best medical care the city had ever seen, but also providing the school with a clinical teaching hospital that was gradually evolving into one of the top such facilities in the country. Charity Hospital is credited with being the first institution of its kind in the country, having been established in January 1736. almost 100 years prior to the founding of the Medical College of Louisiana. The hospital initially opened with a total of five beds and served not only as a hospital, but also as an asylum for the indigent of the city. The original hsopital was located on a sight that is now known as the French Quarter and has since occupied four other buildings, including the present facility which was opened in 1 939. Throughout the early 1 800 ' s. the hospital expanded, until, by the mid 1 850 ' s. Charity was one of the largest hospitals in the world. It had the capability of housing 1 ,000 patients, although some patients were sleeping on pallets on the floor or sleeping two to a bed. At the present time the number of beds is given as 1 .640. However, the lack of nursing personnel has forced the closure of several wards, resulting in an actual number somewhat below this figure. Meanwhile, having obtained legislative approval for professional privileges at Charity Hospital, the faculty immediately set about drawing up the plans for a building to house the medical school. This building was estimated to cost $6,000 and was not completed until the end of 1843. In 1845. a Constitutional Convention specified that the Medical College of Louisiana was to become the Medical Department of The University of Louisiana. Two years later additional funds were appropriated to erect buildings for the new university. The original building was returned to the state to be used by the newly established law department. A much larger building was erected adjacent to the original medical building for use by the medical department. At the time of its founding, the number of medical students consisted of a grand total of eleven. From 1 834 to 1 859. the number of students grew from I I to 276. Just prior to the Civil War in 1 86 1 . the number of students increased dramatically to 404 because of political and sectional hostility which induced Southern students to abandon Northern colleges. When the war broke out. most students joined the war effort in such numbers that, by 1 862. only 94 students were enrolled. Federal occupation of New Orleans forced the closure of the medical school later that year. N. ' u, Orkoa Cii.trily Hotpiul IS34 -I9}9

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Tulane University School of Medicine Class of 1910 In 1913. Tulane reorganized the medical department to include the school of pharmacy, the school of dentistry, the school of medicine and the graduate school of medicine. Today only the latter two schools remain as part of the present school of medicine. In 1 958. the division of hygiene and tropical medicine was established, which has since evolved into the school of public health and tropical medicine. The Josephine Memorial Building on Canal Street continued to house the clinical facilities of the medical school for nearly forty years. However, by the late i920 ' s, the building had become crowded and obsolete. Funds were provided for a new medical unit to be built contiguous with Charity Hospital in what is now the present location of the medical school. When the building opened in December 1930. it was acclaimed as the best medical training unit it the South. The preclinical departments, unfortunately, were still located on the Uptown Campus. Nonetheless, it was acknowledged that to provide the most enriching medical environment possible, all four years of medical education needed to be consolidated on one campus. It was not. however, until October of 1955 that a ten story addition to the Hutchinson Memorial Building enabled the second year departments to be moved downtown. This left only the first year departments on the Uptown Campus. In 1 963. further additions to the downtown facility were built to house the first year departments, finally allowing the medical school to reunify its entire four classes in one building for the first time since t he early I900 ' s. lulanr Medical School Today