University of Maryland School of Medicine - Terrae Mariae Medicus (Baltimore, MD)

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Ceremony and introduction marked the open- ing week of school. Each morning the students assembled to hear a two-hour oration by one of the professors. Each speech was full of rhetorical flower and classical allusion, apotheosizing the medical profession and exhorting the young men to study diligently. Seemingly, the platitudes did not bore the students. Always they applauded, sometimes they took up collections to have the lectures published and occasionally they might have been inspired. The most popular course was anatomy. Unu- sual emphasis on anatomy revealed the institu- tion ' s devotion to basic science. Anatomy required twice as much of the student ' s time as any other course. The striking success of the anatomy department stemmed from the ready availability of cadavers. Indeed the University did provide cadavers for as far away as Maine. Almost every student since the school ' s opening imagined himself the discoverer of some new fold or tissue. The medical students were a remarkably mature group of men. In contrast to most u ndergraduates, the ante-bellum Maryland students were characterized by high seriousness that bordered on the dull. The nuns (with whom many students boarded) complained that the resident students stayed out too late, but after investigation, the faculty scolded the boys only for working in the laboratory too late. The young men seemed to remain serious even when their fancies turned toward love. One story of love is especially famous. Samuel Carr of South Carolina and William Martin of the Eastern Shore were the best of friends and roommates until they both fell in love with Dr. Davidge ' s 14-year daughter, Mary. During the Christmas vacation, when Carr was in South Carolina, Martin learned that absence had affected Mary ' s heart; she was in love with his rival. Distraught, Martin wrote to his roommate sug- gesting foul play, and demanding that he pay what he owed on the bill that they had just received for wood. Carr replied with insulting condescension as only a victor can. The injury and insult were too much for Martin to bear and he demanded a duel with pistols. Carr was an experienced duelist and offered to pay for the wood on the spot but his lovesick opponent insisted that the duel go on and was killed. Death did not end the story, for while most people sympathized with Carr, the University was compelled to expel him. Mary eloped with the young man to Louisiana. Five years later they returned to Baltimore and Carr finished his degree at the University only to die a few years later. Mary, still young and fair married David Dudley Field, a famous American jurist. The tale was in the grandest romantic tradition. Class Football Team 1896

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Student Life in the Early 1800 ' s An anatomy class about 19UU. Wherever he came from, the future medical student probably graduated from an academy. Possibly he had shocked his parents by stating his desire to become a physician because the profession promised neither glamour nor pres- tige nor high income. Most men thought of med- icine in terms of filth, pain and charlatanism. One father was quoted as saying to his son after learning of his ambition, My son, I must con- fess. I am disappointed in you. I cannot control you — but it is a profession for which I have the most contempt. Beyond the academy, the next step toward becoming a medical student was apprenticeship with an established physician. The apprentice arrived at the doctor ' s house early in the morn- ing. He swept the floor, built fires, and probably milked the cows. During the day he pounded powders, washed bottles and rolled pills. He followed the doctor on rounds watching him and handing him instruments. At lunch he questioned the physician. In his spare time, he repeatedly pored over the medical books which his master owned. As the boy ' s knowledge grew, he increasingly took a hand in the practice. At the University professors were concerned that it was impossible to spell out rules for admission. The faculty required students, in theory, to have gradu- ated from an academy and to have completed their two year apprenticeship. Fired with anticipation, the medical students arrived at the University in early October. For many the occasion was the first visit to a big city, and for almost all it was their first admission to the strange sights and smells behind the Universi- ty ' s walls. Many saw a skeleton for the first time and first heard the sounds of patients undergoing opera- tions without anesthesia. How wonderful, wrote one student in his freshman notebook, I am not now bending over the pescle [sic] and the morter [sic] in the Country but am travercing [sic] over the fare [sic] field of science. Another drew a striding skeleton with horns and tail and captioned it, I ' m off! Lecture tickets A student at Harvard summed up what he felt; There is something very solemn and depressing about the entrance upon the study of medicine. When I first entered the room where the medical students were seated at a table with a skeleton hanging over it, I was deeply impressed and more disposed to moralize upon morality than to take up the study of osteology which lay before me. The white faces of the sick that fill the hospi- tal wards saddened me and the dreadful scenes in the operating theater were a shock to my sen- sibilities. The student ' s major expense was his lecture tickets. The student arrived and after finding a room, went to the college to sign up for classes. First he found the dean to pay the martriculation fee. In those days the dean was merely one of the professors, and besides collecting the fee had no more prestige than any of the other professors. The lecture tickets cost $20 and admitted the stu- dent to his lectures or laboratory sessions.

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No, I never saw Deliverance Vm