University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine - Scalpel Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

Page 14 text:

XVilliams was appointed to lecture, being succeeded in October, 1902, by Dr. Leonard Pearson. Dr. Zuill resigned the Chair of Surgery and Obstetrics at the end of the session of 1892-93, and Dr. john XV. Adams, A.B., V.M.D., was elected to iill the vacancy. ln 1895 Dr. Leonard Pearson became Dean. Free clinics were inaugurated in the fall of 18913 prior to that the members of the Clinical StaH charged for advice or operations. ln these buildings hospital work increased until, in the twelve months ending August 31, 1900, approximately 4,400 cases were treated in the Hospital. A separate kennel, classroom and lab- oratory, on the second floor, were erected in 1893 at a cost ot twelve thousand dollars. About 1899 the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania sought a suitable site for a new building for the Medical Department, to contain the Laboratories of Pathology, Physiology and Pharmaco-dynamics, the idea being to gradually bring all the buildings of the Medical Department together in one part of the Campus. The only ground suitable for this aggregation of buildings was that occupied by the Veterinary and Botanical Departments. The Veterinary Department relin- quished its buildings and grounds to the Trustees, who agreed to secure a suitable site for the Department and its Hospital upon a public thoroughfare, contiguous to the University Grounds, with buildings equivalent to the plant to be relinquished. During the summer of 1901 the buildings were razed and the Department moved into the old two-story street car barn on Wfoodland avenue, between Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth streets. These buildings were purchased from the Eli K. Price Estate for forty-six thousand dollars. This new site is two hundred and sixty feet along Wloodland avenue, and two hundred and ten feet deep to DeLancey street, and is far better adapted to the needs of the School. Tt was the hope of the Trus- tees that the new home would be ready for occupancy by the fall of 1903, but various hindrances delayed the prosecution of their design, and the ground was not broken for the new building until the fall of 1906, , Although the north and east wings are not as yet completed, we are enjoying the use of one-half of the building. The buildings. when finished, will form a hollow square, with a large courtyard in the center. The half completed and now in use is entirely nreproof, and its construction represents the most modern archi- tecture. The east wing, now being erected, is to contain a post-mortem hall. laboratories for anatomy and pathology, a large amphitheater and several small lecture rooms. The Thirty-ninth street side is divided by a wide archway-through which the clinical cases pass. To the north of this archway are situated the General Administrative Offices, which communicate with the public and private offices of the Dean and other members of the Faculty. On the same floor is located one of the large, commodious lecture rooms, adjoining the splendid Departmental Library, which consists of more than four thousand volumes. The second floor comprises laboratories and offices of the State Livestock Sanitary 'Board and Department of Milk Hygiene, while the third floor is elegantly litted with dormi- tories for the Resident House Surgeon and his Assistants. South of the archway is situated a most modern hospital. lt contains the Office of the House Surgeon, and- the Office of the Hospital, which connects with the large. well-furnished Pharmacy. On the same floor are two large clinic rooms, one for small animals, the other the Equine Clinic Room, thoroughly equipped with all the 'facilities of a modern hospital. On the secondfloor is a .hospital for small I3

Page 13 text:

apartment Eisturp 11ISgitgiibgf1'EE?gl1LSV1!fiElf, consequently part of this article is a repe- T The 'Veterinary Department of the University of Pennsyl- vania was established in the spring of 1884 by Dr. Wfilliam Pepper, at the suggestion ot Mr. joshua B. Lippincott, joseph E. : I Gillingham, Esq., Professor Fairman Rogers and others. The original buildings, which were dedicated in October. 1884, were of brick and local granite, in their architecture and general appearance they were somewhat similar to the old Medical Building, Hare Lab- oratory, the Hospital Building and College Hall. The buildings were one to two stories in height, and were situated between Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh streets, having a frontage on Pine street Qnow Hamilton llfalkj of five hundred feet, and about one hundred feet on Guardian Avenue. They occupied the site of the new Medical Laboratories. The cost of the old buildings was about sixty-two thousand dollars, secured principally through private donations and partly by State appropriation. The principal benefactors were Mr. ,loshua Lippincott, the father of -li. Bertram Lippincott, the present Trustee of the University, who subscribed twenty thousand dollars, and Mr, joseph E. Gillingham, who gave ten thousand dollars. Numerous other Philadelphians subscribed or loaned from one to ten thousand dollars. , The old plant was in some respects similar in arrangement to that of the Alfort School in Paris, where Dr. Rush Shippen Huidekoper had taken, his vet- erinary degree shortly before the opening of the department, of which he was the first Dean. Although in advance of anything in America at the time of their erection, the buildings fell far short of what a modern veterinary school and hospital should be. The land on which the Hospital was built was donated by the City of Phila- delphia to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. It comprised not only the site of the Botanical Garden, but also the lot at present occupied by the Medi- cal Laboratory Building. In 1891 the old building was partly reconstructed to provide for the administrative ofhces of the Department, the Dean's office, apart- ments for the Resident, and a general assembly room. The original faculty was composed of Rush Shippen Huidelcoper, M.D., VS., Dean and Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine and Comparative Anatomyg Dr. lVi1liam M. Zuill, M.D. CU. of PD, and V, S. QN. YQ, Professor of Surgery and Obstetrics, Alexander Glass, VS., of McGill University, Demon- strator of Pharmacy and Lecturer on Canine Practice, Robert Meade Smith, MD., Professor of Comparative Physiology, Horatio C. llfood, MD., Professor of Therapeuticsg E. Reichert, M.D., and Theodore G. Wformly, MD., Professors of Chemistryg and Dr. joseph Leidy, Professor of Zoology. The hrst class was matriculated in the fall of 1884. Dr. Huidelcoper resigned in November, 1889, and was succeeded in the deanship by Dr. 'lohn Marshall, who held the chair until 1895. Dr. l-luidekoper. however, continued his lectures to the students until 1890. In 1891 Dr. Charles .I2

Page 15 text:

animals, which contains the Canine Operating Room, Instrument Room, Sterilizing Room, a Dark Room for diseases of the eye, etc. There are three large Non-con- tagious Wfards, and two separate wards for contagious diseases. The southern wing of the building contains a modern Equine Surgical VVard, with Sterilizing Room, Dressing Room and X-Ray Room. Below this are four large rooms for stabling patients, and a modern Farriery. On the second floor is a large Assembly Hall, with a large stage, open hreplace and -commodious ante- room for checking, catering, etc. The new Post-mortem Hall is to be finished with a coat of white enamel. The special apparatus for the handling of animals, water tanks for cleansing specimens, excellent tables and light, a system of water sprays so arranged as to completely flush the interior. and numerous other modern appliances will make it complete in every detail and place it far in advance of anything of its kind in this country. In January, l9l0, Dr. Louis A. Klein was appointed Dean, and in'September Dr. Karl Friedrich Meyer took the new Chair of Pathology. During the year ending December, 1910, over 5000 cases were treated at the Hospital, and this large clinic provides plentiful practical work for the students. The new home of the Department. with its modern equipment and Faculty of eminent teachers, makes it the foremost institution of Veterinary Science on this Continent. In the twenty-seven years that the school has existed it has graduated men who represent every nationality and clime, and who have won fame, both in the profession and in other walks of life. As we review its wonder- ful growth and development, consider its enviable reputation, and contemplate its brilliant prospects, we fully realize that it is an eloquent and everlasting tribute to the noble efforts of the men who have made the Veterinary Department of the University of Pennsylvania stand for all that is highest and best. May we show our appreciation by an increased devotion to the cause for which they so cheerfully and earnestly labored, and by so doing add tothe glory of our Alma Mater, and advance the standards of our profession. SEM? 5,9 '6.i?fL wat '01 S -. --..- as I4