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

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A Look Back Amos. Curtis. Jones. O’Connor. Snyder. Our earliest predecessors. The Class of 1812. The first graduates of The Medical College of Maryland, shortly to be known as The University of Maryland, College of Physick. Their medical education had been somewhat lacking in the usual ameni- ties. Commencing in the face of a hostile mob which demol- ished their first school building in a fit of righteous indigna- tion over human dissection , they were lectured for the rest of the first term of four months in the homes of the professors. They met variously for the rest of their medical school career in a borrowed ballroom and an abandoned schoolhouse on Fayette Street, where the professors had to shovel snow from the floor in the morning, chase rats from the cadavers and defrost the chemical apparatus with hot water . It seems quite a lot to endure to attain a profession which, in those days, except for a few noted academicians, promised neither mon- etary reward nor prestige . The history of the sixth medical school in the United States , like that of most human institutions , is a catalogue of good times and bad , periods of eminence and periods of near disgrace. From first to last, however, it seems to have func- tioned in a solid yeoman manner, providing competent clin- ical practitioners to the state of Maryland, with an occa- sional brilliant medical innovator appearing. Any history of the University of Maryland School of Medi- cine must begin with the Father of the University , as he came to be called, John Beale Davidge. Born in Annapolis, Davidge received his M.D. from Scotland ' s Glasgow Univer- sity, it being less expensive than the prestigious University of Edinburgh where he first matriculated . He came to Baltimore in 1797 and began offering lectures in midwifery as early as 1802. Together with James Cocke of Virginia, educated in London and Philadelphia, and James Shaw, a romantic ide- alist, poet and Naval surgeon, who had attended medical lectures all over the world without receiving an M . D . , Davidge built a two-story brick building behind his house on Saratoga Street in 1807. Lectures in anatomy, physiology and chemistry began there in November. In less than three weeks, an angry mob destroyed the new building and carried the lone cadaver through the streets, finally depositing the grisly relic on Davidge’s doorstep. This was an uncomfort- ably similar replay of the fate of the short-lived medical school begun by Dr. Andrew Wiesenthal in 1788, but the atmosphere had become slightly more tolerant in the inter- vening years and , less than a month after the Saratoga Street raid, the Maryland General Assembly approved a charter incorporating the College of Medicine of Maryland. It was chartered as a proprietary, profit-making school, giving the professors the right to own property, charge student fees and grant degrees. Joining Davidge, Cocke and Shaw for this enterprise were Nathaniel Potter, teaching theory and prac- tice of medicine, and Richard Wilmot Hall, lecturing in obstetrics, whose temporary position on the faculty lasted for forty years. Two years later, Samuel Baker filled the school’s vacant chair of pharmacy. The first several years of the little school, as previously mentioned, passed in step-child facilities. But as that first class of 1812 graduated, construction had begun on a perma- nent building situated on the corner of Lombard and Greene Streets on a lot sold to the physicians by Col. John Eager Howard at discount. In 1811, a lottery drew $18,000 for the proposed edifice, which was designed by Robert Carey Long to resemble the Roman Pantheon. Classes began in the unfin- ished building in the fall of 1812 and the school changed its name to the University of Maryland . Between 1812 and 1826, the school enjoyed increasing prosperity . Students from every part of the country filled the classrooms. Only Pennsylvania School of Medicine turned out larger graduating classes. The core faculty of Davidge, Pot- ter, DeButts, Baker and Hall was joined temporarily by some of the greatest medical minds of the day , attracted by the new facilities and progressive atmosphere. One of these was Joyn Crawford, who lectured at Maryland between 1811 and 1813: Crawford was a brilliant theoretician who seems to have anticipated both Pasteur and Darwin, propounding a germ theory and a theory of evolution. Crawford was not universally admired and there were those who said his wife did the University a bigger service than he did, selling his medical library to the school after he died in 1813 . Even without the visiting faculty, the College of Medicine would 2

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§§11 ' ‘-TV TERRA MARIAE MEDICUS UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF MEDICINE BALTIMORE, MARYLAND 1976 1

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have been in the front line of American medicine. The Maryland Theory of Davidge held that each disease was different and had to be treated and studied as such - in direct opposition to the prevailing theory of Benjamin Rush of Phila- delphia, who believed that all diseases were essentially the same and could be treated with a so-called universal cure. Davidge’s theory was increasingly accepted by the medical community. He was also an innovator in that he bled for diarrhea and purged for fever when the medical intelligence of the time called for bleeding for fever and purging for diarrhea. Professor Hall had his own inventions, such as blistering for kidney ailments, a rather drastic therapeutic effort which comprised applying gunpowder to the patient ' s back and then lighting it. It was a primitive time in medicine, when the chief devices of medical prac- tice were calomel and the lancet. It is interesting to note that Davidge opposed the use of the speculum because it smacks of immoral curiosity and that his colleague, Pot- ter, considered the stethoscope a conjuring horn. In 1820 Granville Sharp Pattison, probably the most color- ful of a host of colorful faculty, descended upon the Univer- sity, fresh from an adultery charge by a colleague in Glasgow and an unsuccessful attempt to take over the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. Although he had no lasting medical discoveries and was considered an indifferent sur- geon, this charismatic Scotsman brought new life to the Medical College. Notorious for his duels and amours, Patti- son nevertheless made a significant contribution by establish- ing a teaching hospital across the street from the medical school to be run more or less solely for the instruction of the students. The infirmary, as it was called, opened in 1823, paid for out of the personal credit of the faculty, after Patti- son failed to persuade the Baltimore City Council for funds. His Scots charm served him better at convincing the Sisters of Charity of Emmitsburg to staff the infirmary as nurses, a service they provided for the next 56 years. The University probably reached its zenith in 1826, when over 300 students from almost every state attended classes every year. Eighty-nine medical degrees were given in 1826. Coming from a prosperous home, the typical student had attended a local academy where he was tutored in Latin, Greek and natural philosophy. He had then signed on as an apprentice to an established physician, for whom he did menial chores for the privilege of following the master on rounds and studying from his library of 10-15 books. It was possible to pass the licensing exam of the Maryland Medical and Chirurgical Society after two or three years of appren- ticeship, but, over the years, the boys increasingly chose to top off their education with medical college. There were no standard admission requirements in the early years, although the professors regretted the lack. Almost anyone who could afford the tuition could attend the lectures. Nevertheless, some of the students entered medical school to the great shock and chagrin of their parents. A Maryland professor of the era expressed dismay that parents seemed to send their more intelligent sons into farming, law or the ministry, believing a medical education was appropriate only for those sons the strength of whose intellectual powers they have some doubt. The future physician, average age about twenty years, arrived at the University in early October and paid his five dollars matriculation fee to the dean. He then bought his lecture tickets for twenty dollars apiece from each of his seven professors. During the second year, the matriculation fee was waived but the candidate paid twenty dollars for the right to take the final exam. These fees varied slightly from year to year, but, remained fairly stable until the Civil War. For five, sometimes six, days a week, the student spent an hour a day with each of the seven professors. The most popu- lar course was anatomy , which required fully twice as much time as any other course. Students could dissect at any hour of the day, but, dissection didn’t become compulsary until 1848, the same year gaslight came to the lab. The cadaver supply was plentiful, thanks to Frank, our body-snat cher (a better man never lifted a spade) and Dr. Nathan Ryno Smith in 1830 was able to ship off three cadavers pickled in whiskey as a favor to a colleague at Bowdoin. The length of the term and daily schedule were up to the individual student, who enjoyed a great degree of independ- ence. The minimum requirement for a year ' s work (actually 4-6 months) was attendance at the lectures of any three pro- fessors, although students were urged to attend them all. The identical lectures were presented both years, but the students were told to simply listen the first year and concentrate on lab work - the second year they were to take verbatim notes and concentrate on clinic. Two years of classes were usually required to earn the degree , but 10% of students returned for a third year after graduation. By 1840 students could attend for either four or six months for the same fee - this was among the longest terms at any medical school. Two tests were required for a degree - a thesis and a final exam . The thesis had to be written in Latin until 1824 - one student, Ed. H. Worrell was refused a degree in 1815 after writing a Latin thesis of an immoral character. He finally got his degree after submitting a second, less controversial one. After 1850, a case study could be substituted for the thesis. Since University of Maryland was the only school in the country where a degree carried with it an automatic license to practice, the final exam was weighed very heav- ily. A student paid twenty dollars for the privilege of being grilled by the entire faculty for one hour; a majority vote was necessary to pass and a tie qualified him for a retest. Every year three or four students failed. From 1826 to 1839, the General Assembly’s growing desire to transform U. of Md. into a true state university, coupled with internal power struggles and disputes , brought an end to 3