University of Virginia - Corks and Curls Yearbook (Charlottesville, VA)

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MEDICAL SCHOOL

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THOMAS H. HUNTER Dean of the School of Medicine VICTOR E. CORNETT HENRY H. SPRACUE President Vicr-Presidenl One of the eight original schools of the University of Virginia. the iiSchool of Anatomy and Medicine was authorized in the handwriting of Thomas Jefferson on the minutes of the first meeting of the Board of Visitors in 1819. The School was established in 1824 and opened for instruction on March 7. 1825. It was the iirst school of medicine in the South and one of the first in America. The original faculty consisted of a single professor called from Keswick. England. Dr. Robley Dunglison. generally considered the outstanding physiologist of his generation, and later renowned as the author of the first American Medical Dic- tionary. In 1827 the faculty was enlarged by the appointment of Dr. John Patton Emmett to a Professorship of Materia Medica; Obstetrics and Medical Jurispru- dence were added to the curriculum and the title of the school was changed to the HSchool of Medicine? In 1830 Dr. Thomas Johnson was appointed to a professor- ship of Anatomy and Surgery. By 1905 the faculty consisted of ten fulltime pro- fessors. . t The medical school was opened with twenty-six students, and in 1829 the degree of Doctor of Medicine was first confered. With the curriculum expanding to a four year course in 1899. the opening of the central pavillion of the University Hospital in 1901. and the establishment of specific collegiate entrance require- ments. the modern period of the school may be said to have begun. In this medical school some of the more important ideas of modern medical education were adopted-full-time professors in clinical branches, special entrance requirements. emphasis on knowledge rather than tenure as the essential basis for awarding degrees, aIl-year sessions, the valuation of medicine as properly an integral part of a University's scheme of studies, oral examinations, and operation under a rigid student honor system: The School has shown forward strides in recent years in order to keep abreast of the rapidly progressing advances in all fields of medicine. The physical plant has been augmented by enlargement of the internis quarters. expansion of lecture rooms. an increase in laboratory and research facilities. a new auditorium and the addition of a wing to the hospital. Plans are being made at present for additional construction. Recent increases in the size and quality of the faculty represent a definite advance toward a better School of Medicine. SCHOOL OF MEDICINE