University of Cincinnati College of Medicine - Annual Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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History of the College N the history of the medical profession in Cincinnati. especially the medical I college, two figures Stiind oul prominently; Doctor Daniel Drake unrl Doctor Christian R. Holmes. Through the efforts and sacrifices of these two men. the Cullcgc Uf Medicine 01 the University 01 Cincinnati i: able to take its place among the better rnlleges of America. The first school founded by Drake held its I'lrz-st session in a single room over a drug store on Main Street, helnw Pearl, zmtl graduated the hrsL class in 1821etwenty-four students. Before thiS session was rnmplelerl the faculty, pending the construction of a hospital. tool; a house for temporm-y use and volunteered to serve as the staff, without lees. It should be a source of grati- fication in our day to see how early the most commendable aspiration of our profession was lmrn in Cincinnati. But wrangling was stilling the college. In 1823 the Legislature attempted to cure it by making all the trustees laymen. Then: was another reorganization in 1825 which changed the establishment of the college, under which it operated for twenty years. In 1824 the school was moved to the Miami Exporting Companies Bunk in Fourth Street. between Main and Sycamore. in 1825 the State Legislature authorized each medical district society to send one undergraduate student to the school for gratuitous education and also assigned certain revenues to the support of the school. In 1826 ground was purchased on Sixth Street. oppnsite College. but the college was too poor to build and was located on Walnut Street above Fourth. The enrollment was increasing yearly. reaching 1232 in 1832. In 1827 an academy for preliminary medical education had been lounded so that our present system is after all but a Renaissance after medical Dark Ages. There were men of intelligence and vision in Cincinnati medical educa- tion a century ago. In 1834. due to real internal discord and Drake's persecutions, hostility to the college reached a pass, when the State Legislature appointed a committee to investigate. This followed a petition widely signed by the profession. which accused the faculty of incompetence and called the school a by word and :1 hissing 5:.tnclt.H The first report was llOll-CGllllnlttal. A second held the accusations unjustifled. 1n the same year. the provision for sending undergraduate students for education, having been abrogated. the school made similar offers ul its own. Through all its difficulties the true light of scientific sense of obligation never entirely guttcreci out. There were reorganizations in 1837, 1849, 1850 and 1853. and we begin to Find the names that recall the brightest days of The college. Reuben Mussey accepted the chair of surgery in 1838. In 1852 the faculty began to build on its property at Sixth and College Streets the building which housed the school Page. Twat: ty-tme