University at Buffalo - Buffalonian Yearbook (Buffalo, NY)

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'Che Medical Department of tbe University of Buffalo. BY MA'l l'l-TEW D. MANN, A. M., lll. D. Qt, G T IS now generally admitted that professional schools should be located at the Q great centres of population and wealth. This was not always so. The earlier I medical schools in this country were often placed in small country villages. 'K 2 The necessity for clinical teaching was not then fully appreciated, and so these I 9 earlier colleges were able, through the ability of their professors, notwithstanding ki their very meagre opportunities, to achieve fame and reputation. The schools 'D S at Fairfield and Geneva were fair examples. Gradually, with the growth of med- 8 ical knowledge and improved methods of instruction, the idea came to the mind V of the profession that schools in small places could not accomplish all that was desired, and the statement with which this article 0136115 was everywhere accepted. It was with a full appreciation of this idea, and with a wise foresight and faith in the future greatness of Buffalo, that, in 1846, a number of young and energetic lawyers and doctors assembled in a small office on Main Street, there to found the University of Buffalo. They decided to procure a charter from the Legislature, and to lay firm foundations for the building of an institution which should have primarily for its object the training of doctors and lawyers, but which should also have in its charter the full powers ofa university. Buffalo was then in a very early stage of its develop- ment, energy and vigor were more plentiful than money, but, with the proverbial push of pioneers, all obstacles were overcome, and the University was nrmly estab- lished. - Time has shown the wisdom of these men. Buffalo, from a small town of 30,000 inhabitants, has grown to be a great city of much more than 10 times that number. Wealth and material prosperity have multiplied in every way. The advent of the rail- roads has increased greatly its value as a distributing point, and brought in a very large circle of country as a contributor, so that now from every point of view it has become an ideal place for a medical school. i The first course of lectures in the new school was given in an old building, which had been remodeled for the purpose, by the faculty of seven professors. Five of the seven chairs were occupied by professors in the Geneva Medical College. They retained their connection with Geneva, and it was therefore necessary that the first course should be given in the spring. It began on the 24th day of February, 18-LT, and continued, as was customary in those days, for 16 weeks. The professors were Dr. james Hadley, Dr. Charles B. Coventry, Dr. james Webster, Dr. Charles A. Lee, Dr. Frank H. Hamilton, Dr. james P. White, and Dr. Austin Flint. Dr. C. L. Ford 27

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was added, as deinonstrator of anatomy. A description of these professors, given by Dr. C. C. Wyckoff, a member of the first class, is as follows: ff I wish I could present to you a graphic picture of these first seven professors as they appear to me in memory-the dignihed and serious Hadleys, father and son, the courtly Christian gentleman, Professor Coventry, whose innate modesty put him to the blush upon demonstrating his obstetrical lectures upon the manikin 5 the agile and oftentimes brilliant Hamilton, entering the amphitheatre almost on a run, lecturing as he came, and seeming only desirous of improving every moment to give us the beneht of his vast store of learning, the more dignihed Flint, who at the beginning of his career as a lecturer was somewhat inclined to verboseness, but who afterward attained an eminence in this branch of the profession as may make us justly proud of having given him to the world, the daring White, who raised such a storm of abuse, which he manfully met, when he introduced ' demonstrative midwifery 3 ' the companionable, convivial Webster, who was masterly at dissection, lecturing as rapidly as the scalpel cut into the tissues of the subject, never for a moment at a loss for words to explain the hidden course of nature. Oftentimes Dr. Ford would have to perform the duties of a lecturer as well as those of a demonstrator of anatomy, but it was at no loss to the students. Professor Lee was perhaps less known to us, as he always retained his home in New York, but his uniform kindness made him popular, although his subject was dry and prosy. There were 60 students in attendance the nrst year. On june 16, 1847, the hrst class of 17 men was graduated. The course of instruction and the faculty in the University of Buffalo in those days compared, as they have done since, favorably with those of the other leading medical colleges. Its seven professors and term of four months, with a preliminary term of one month, was about the same as that of Harvard, Yale, the University of New York and the University of Pennsylvania. Medical education was then very simple. Nor must it be forgotten that medical knowledge was limited and that what was known could be taught in much shorter time than is needed now. The preceptor system was also then in vogue, and a course of instruction in the medical school was only supposed to hnish up or polish off what was taught in the offices of the preceptors. How imperfect and inadequate this system of instruction was those of us who have seen it well know. At the opening of the fourth session-of the College, the first real step in advance was taken. A new and, as it was regarded at that time, perfect building for medical instruction was then opened for use. This building was built by subscription after a long and hard struggle. The original faculty continued to conduct the affairs of the now prosperous insti- tution without change until 1851, when Dr. john C. Dalton was made professor of physiology. The following year Dr. Edward M. Moore, of Rochester, took the chair of anatomy, but was changed to the chair of surgery on Dr. Hamilton's resignation. In 1852 Dr. Rochester took the chair of practice. About 1855, Drs. Flint, Hamilton and Dalton were called to New York, and there all of them, working upon the foundation which they had laid in Buffalo, achieved world-wide reputations. Their successors in the 29