University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT ' I ' lie Medical Di-partnicnt (if llie L iii varsity was finally org-aiiized by the selection of its Faculty in 1891, and the first instruction was given during- the session of 1801-92. As first established, the course of medical study extended in graded form o lm- three annual ses- sions of seven months duration each. In a few years the sessions were lengthened to seven and one-half months each, and by recent regulation of the Faculty the Regents are requested to authorize a further exten- sion to eight months. In 1897, after announcement to such effect the previous session, an additional or final term was placed in operation, all students matriculat- ing in 1897 and subsequently being required to com- plete a course of four years ' duration for the Degree of Medicine. From its inception the whole trend of the work of the school has been to the elevation of the worth and dignity of the degree; and upon the independent basis of a part of the public school sy- tem of the State, the school has sought to avoid the laxity so widely and so long the shame of the medical education in America, and to insist upon efficiency and thoroughness of work as the only return from the student for a practically gratuitous professional education at the hands of the State. It has realized that its first duty to the people who created it is to provide as fully as it can a corps of trained and competent practitioners of medicine, and the efforts of the whole body of instructors have been bent to this end, rather than to the more showy, but, from the utilitarian purpose of the school, more ques- tionable object of medical research. It is essentially a teaching school. Its teachers have been selected with this object in view, and have been required, wherever practicable, to devote themselves entirely to this end; and there is probably no school in the country where more direct supervision is given by the teachers to the work of the student, or where more intimate relations between the teachers and students obtain. It is felt that the value of such effort toward broadness and thoroughness of instruction and of interested super- vision of work has in this instance been amply demon- strated in the high professional attainments, the almost universal success of the graduates in competitive ex- aminations abroad as well as at home, and in their work and the esteem in which they are held in their various private and public stations. The facilities for instruction are good. The labora- tories, it is true, have been crowded by the larger classes after the first year or two of the school ' s exist- ence, and further equipment along this line is needed, but in each the fundamental and necessary equipment is good. The hospital owned by the school annually cares for between 40(1(1 and 5ii(j(i ward and outdoor cases, furnishing an amjile supjdy of illustrative clinical ma- terial, with which the higher classes are constantly brought into close contact. Like the rest of the University of Texas the Medical Department is co-educational. A special inducement to young women seeking medicine and the allied branches as professions exists in the provision of Mr. George W. Brackenridge, of San Antonio, of the comforts of a home for such students in the University Hall. It is a beautiful building close to the College, built for this pur- pose and for the further object of affording a suitable dining hall for the whole student body. Owing to the efficient management of the Hall by the student body, under the cooperative plan, excellent board is afforded them at less than SIO per month for the individual. The rooms of the second and third stories are rented to the women students at reasonable prices.

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Tlio Sl-1u)o1 ,,1- PliarmaL-y was or-aiii cd in Is ' i,;. A gradod course of two sessions of the same duration as those of the Medical School is provided; and what has been said of the spirit, purpose, equipment, and suc- cessful working of the Medical School may be reiterated in connection with the School of Pharmacy. The School of Nursing- was for years merely an adjunct of the Scaly Hospital, but was included as a University course in 1897. Its management, aside from the features of instruction, are delegated by the Board of Regents to the Board of Managers of the hospital; the teaching devolves upon the instructor of nursing and the general teaching corps of the School of Medi- eine. It is limited to a class of twentv-four women pupil , and the course is graded, extending over two sessions, each continuous throughout the year. Its im- portance to the hospital is incalculable, and the demand for its graduates as efficient caretakers of the sick attests its value to the jieople of the State. No fees are required for entrance, hut admission is permitted only by special fitness of the applicant and after responsible recommendation. These three schools, working together, constitute the Medical Department of the University of Texas. Tuition is free in all of them. The small matriculation fee and laboratory fees are only sufficient to cover the incidental expenses of the different departments. The professors are virtually officers of the State, since their salaries come directly from the general revenue. One spirit animates all, — that of earnest, conscientious effort to promote efficiency in the prevention and alle- viation of human ills. The whole Department has stood a step in advance of all similar institutions in the South and West, and by force of example, if in no other way, has been the i)otent fact.)r in l)ringing about the best Ivances in nedical education in the Southland in ist eight or ten vears. This it has been able to d( State schoo , untrammeled by serious local or finan necessities. It has admitted all who could with any reason hope to obtain its degrees, but it has not hesi- tated to indicate dissatisfaction with the work or ability of any individual at any stage of progress, and its graduates represent, after a process of selection from the large number of the lower classes, a high grade of professional excellence. With a continuation of such methods and purposes, a brighter future exists for scarcely another school in the land. THE MISSION OF THE UNIVERSITY The Honorable Alexander W. Terrell delivered the tirst annual address before the Kusk and Athen;eum Literary Societies in 1SS4. A par.agraph in that ad- dress strikingly sets forth the mission of the Univer- sity. He said: No university was ever designed to accomplish the impossilile in the effort to polish dull mediocrity. The State ' s bounty in the endowment of ours was not bestowed to force into its halls the youth who lackseither the brains or the ambition to advance. It is a beacon light on the advance line of civili;iation, whose fires are only to be kept l)urning by ambition and intel- ligence; and w lien these are possessed in an eminent degree by any youth in the common schools and acade- mies of Texas, no matter how poor he may be, the means to develop them here will be at hand. Thus far the University has faithfully performed the task set by the man who had a large share in its founding. Year bv year it has grown in numbers and equipment. An- nually more than one hundred students leave its halls