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

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Tulane Medical Center - Opened 1976 In 1969, the Tulane Medical Center was established, an organizational structure which broadened Tulane ' s commitments to medical education, research and patient care. The Tulane Medical Center Hospital and Clinic, the first such university hospital in Louisiana, was dedicated in October 1976. This 300-bed hospital enabled Tulane to consolidate a wide range of patient services in a tertiary care environment. In the few short years since its opening, it has become a major referral center for the region. Since its founding 1 52 years ago as The Medical College of Louisiana. Tulane has undergone many changes, and not just in name. Several buildings have come and gone. While many different students and faculty members have occupied these buildings, so have federal troops during the Civil War. Throughout the years, however. Tulane has always strived to improve its standards of medical education such that it is now ranked among the top medical schools in the country, and perhaps the world. Though Tulane originally catered to students mainly from the South, it now attracts graduates from all parts of the United States. From its meager beginnings in 1834 with I I students. The Tulane University School of Medicine has gone on to confer a total of 12,581 medical degrees including those conferred on the graduates of the Class of 1986. Tulane Medical School Class of 1986 Special thanks to Donna Park and Mickey Puente (Class of 1984) for their research work into the history of Tulane.

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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

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Its All Greek To Me The staff of Aesculapius (Latin spelling) is pictured as a wooden staff with a single serpent twining around it. Aesculepius (Creek spelling) was the Greek god of medicine, and was the son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis. According to legend Coronis was killed for being unfaithful, but Aesculapius was saved and raised by Chiron, the centaur, who taught Aescula- pius the ways of the healing arts. Aesculapius married Eipone and had several children including two daughters. Hygiea and Panaceia. and two sons. Machaon and Podaleirios. the two sons being noted by Homer in the Iliad as physicians during the Trojan War. The remedies practiced by Aesculapius varied from benign advise such as fasting to reduce fever, to more violent therapies of bleeding, abstinence, and friction . Many temples were built for Aescu- lapius, the more famous ones being Cos. Cnidus, and Epidaurus, and it was common for stricken individuals to actually sleep at the temples whereby the gods would visit them at night and their dreams would be interpreted in the morning for clues toward the cure of their ailment. One legend describes Aesculapius ' death as a result of a thunderbolt hurled by Zeus who was jealous of the healing skills possessed by Aesculapius as they threatened to make men immortal and therefore equals to the gods. The tradition of Aesculapius was brought to Rome around 293 B.C. in hopes that it would bring good luck and healing against a plague that was at that time assalting the city. The image of Aesculapius was always with a walking staff in hand, around which twined a single serpent. The snake has historically represented wisdom, learning and fertility. It ' s association with the healing arts may well come from it ' s long life, keen eyesight, and annual renewal of skin. The staff and snake symbol eventually came to stand on it ' s own to represent the pure, ethical, and non-commercial ideals of medicine. It is currently the symbol for the Royal Medical Corps of Great Britain, the American Medical Association, and the Royal Canadian Medical Corps. The caduceus consists of a long, straight staff, topped by a pair of wings, and around which two serpents are entwined. It ' s development into a symbol for medicine is somewhat more obscure. A look to Greek mythology reveals that the staff is associated with Hermes, the wing-fooled messenger of the gods (Roman: Mercury), who carried the staff as a symbol of peace. As legend goes the staff was originally given to Hermes by Apollo as a reward for allowing Apollo to invent the lyre. The staff had the power to unite all things divided by hate: when Hermes traveled to Arcadia he came upon two serpents locked in combat at which lime he placed the staff between them and observed the cessation of their fighting and a friendly entwining of both snakes around the staff. The word caduceus roughly translates to herald ' s wand in Greek. The wand was carried by heralds and town cryers. and served as both a symbol of public office and as an emblem of peaceful and neutral gatherings. It was first used as a medical symbol in the 16th century by Johann Froeben. a publisher of medical books, who used to print the caduceus on his title pages. Then a physician to Henry VIII began to use the emblem on his crest. In 1856 the caduceus was associated with the Hospital Stewards of the U.S. Army . In 1871 the U.S. Public Health Service began to use the symbol, and it was finally adopted by the U.S. Army Medical Corps in 1910. One possible reason for the development of the caduceus to represent medicine over the staff of Aesculapius is thai ll is a more balanced and aesthetically pleasing symbol. — David R. Ouincy