From Medical America in the Nineteenth Century: Readings from the Literature. Edited by Gert H. Brieger. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972), 37-42. Notes and Bibliography

Editor's Note

 The College of Physicians and Surgeons, one of two regular medical schools in New York in 1850, was a descendant of King's College, the site of the second medical school founded in the American colonies. Its successor is the medical school of Columbia University, which celebrated its 200th anniversary in 1967.

 In 1850 the school occupied a three-story brick building. Despite rather good facilities, one medical editor wondered how the college maintained a respectable existence: "It is no small thing to pack from two to four hundred persons six hours a day, for four or five months in these places, neither well heated nor ventilated; and the pale face and haggard countenance of many a student that goes out from them in the spring, is to be attributed to such causes rather than hard study."1

 The members of the faculty in 1850 were leading practitioners and medical authors. They were also innovative in their teaching as witnessed by the introduction of clinical instruction directly into the medical college curriculum and the use of the microscope in physiology. 2

 Thomas Bond gave clinical lectures in Philadelphia a century before, but most schools still used a purely didactic form of teaching. When James P. White introduced medical students into the delivery room in Buffalo in 1850, the resulting medical and public outcry was not stilled for some time.3

 Around 1841, Willard Parker introduced the clinic at Physicians and Surgeons. Private pupils had been going to hospitals and dispensaries where they could observe their teachers treating patients. Parker thought it would be useful to bring the patients to the students, so he arranged to examine selected cases in the amphitheater before the entire class. Soon the system was used in obstetrics and medicine as well. Paradoxically, the clinical teaching in the medical school itself seemed to reduce the total clinical instruction the students received, for they now no longer crowded the hospital wards as they had before 1841. One solution was the establishment of hospital medical schools as used in Europe. The medical schools at Long Island Hospital and Bellevue Hospital were thus begun in 1860 and 1861.4

The matriculated class for the present session is one of the largest that has ever been in the college, and the faculty cannot but congratulate themselves and profession upon this tangible evidence that they are sustained in having been among the first to respond to the wishes of the profession, as expressed by the American Medical Association, for a prolonged course, increased facilities in teaching, a larger number of teachers, and a higher standard of qualification for graduation.

 The faculty of the college in issuing their Annual Catalogue, take pleasure in informing their numerous friends and graduates of the continued prosperity of the institution. In addition to the matriculated class, a large number of gentlemen have been in attendance upon one or more of the courses, who being graduates of the college, or from other causes, are not required to matriculate, whose names, therefore, do not appear on the album or the catalogue. The best return that the faculty can make to those gentlemen, both at home and abroad, who have shown their approval of the character and present course of college by sending to it those in whose professional education they are interested, is by an earnest perseverance in increasing the material and facilities for a thorough and sound acquisition not only of theoretical but also of practical knowledge of a most responsible and honorable profession. The great object of the faculty is to make the several courses of instruction as demonstrative and practical as possible, and in this object they are warmly sustained by the trustees of the college; hence the means of illustration have been increasedÐthe facilities for a rigid knowledge of practical anatomy are great; and through the kind co-operation of medical friends, the college clinique has assumed a degree of importance that could hardly have been anticipated at its origin.

 The faculty respectfully solicit from the graduates and other friends of the college, donations of anatomical, pathological, and natural history specimens, etc. It is well known that every practitioner meets with specimens of great value in the museum of a medical college, which are comparatively useless when isolated. The trustees have appointed Dr. Isaacs "curator of the college museum," and all donations sent to him will be properly put up and placed in the museum, with the name of the donor.

 The course on physiology and pathology has been a very important addition to the regular course of instruction and is the only course of the kind given in this country. The lectures on physiology embrace the minute anatomy of the tissues and are amply illustrated by magnified drawings, and by frequent demonstrations under the microscope. The course on pathology is equally full and is constantly enriched by the exhibition and demonstration of recent specimens illustrating the various changes produced in tissues and organs by disease.

 It is now beyond controversy, that New York is without a rival in the abundance of means for practical and clinical instruction, and that those means are being rapidly developed. In the college clinique a great number and variety of cases are presented to the class, and frequently the students are called upon to make the diagnosis and to take charge of the patient. The obstetrical clinique gives to the advanced students the opportunity to practice in that important branch. Besides the clinical instruction given in the college, the students resort to the New York Hospital, which is open daily for that purpose, and where they see disease in its graver and more acute forms, both medical and surgical, hospital fee $8 per annum.

 The New York Eye Infirmary is one of the most valuable practical schools in the country, where students may study every variety of disease to which the eye is liable, and profit by the experience of able and willing teachers. This infirmary is open three days in the week, without fee.

 Since the opening of the present session, the medical board of Bellevue Hospital have made arrangements, by which that institution is accessible to students, and clinical instruction is given regularly to all who wish to attendÐwithout fee.

 New York Hospital.-Physicians.-Drs. Joseph M. Smith, John H. Griscom, John A. Swett, Henry D. Bulkley. Surgeons.-Drs. J. Kearny Rodgers, John C. Cheesman, Gurdon Buck, Jr., Richard K. Hoffman, Alfred C. Post, John Watson.

 New York Eye Infirmary.-Surgeons.-Drs. George Wilkes, Abraham Dubois. Bellevue Hospital.- Physicians.-Drs. Alonzo Clark, Thomas F. Cock, S. Conant Foster, Chandler R. Gilman, Benjamin W. Macready, John T. Metcalf. Surgeons.-Drs. S. Russell Childs, Isaac Greene, Willard Parker, John O. Stone, William H. Van Buren, James R. Wood. 

The regular course of lectures for the session of 1849-50, was commenced on Monday, 15th October, 1849, and will be continued until the second Thursday, March, 1850.

 In addition to the regular course, and not interfering with it, a course of lectures was commenced on Monday, 1st October, and continued until 15th October, on the following subjects:

Hygiene, by Dr. Smith
Anatomy of the Heart and Large Vessels, by Dr. Watts
Diseases of the Male Genital Apparatus, by Dr. Parker
Organic Diseases of the Uterus, by Dr. Gilman

FEES: Matriculation fee, $5.

Fees for the full course of lectures by all the professors, $96; but students are not required to take out all the tickets during one session.

Graduation fee, $25.

Board, average $3 per week.

Students who have attended two full courses of lectures in this college, or one full course in some other regularly established medical school, and one full course in this college, are admitted to subsequent courses free of expense, except the matriculation fee.

 Graduates of this college are admitted without fee; Graduates of other hoofs, who have been in practice three years, and theological students, are admitted on general ticket by paying the matriculation fee.

 Practical Anatomy.The trustees of the college have added another story to re rear of the college building, for the express purpose of providing a large and commodious apartment for practical anatomy. It is admirably lighted and ventilated and abundantly supplied with gas and Croton water; and it is confidently believed that it is at least equal in the convenience and comfort of its arrangements, to any dissecting room in this country. It will be opened early in October and continue open until the following April.

 Material for dissection is supplied in abundance, and at a low rate, so that every student can go through with a thorough course of dissection. Demonstrator's ticket, $5, which admits the student to the dissecting room.

 Graduation. There are two periods for conferring the degrees; one, the Annual Commencement in MarchÐthe other at the opening of the regular course. Candidates for the degree of Doctor of Medicine must have attended two full courses of lectures, the last in this college; they must also have studied medicine three years, including the attendance upon lectures, under the direction of a regular physician, and have attained the age of twenty-one. Each candidate is required to write a thesis on some subject connected with the science of medicine and to deposit it with the secretary of the faculty. Full and formal certificates of time and age must be furnished.

 The examination of candidates takes place semi-annually. That for graduation in the spring, early in March; and that for graduation in the fall, on the second Tuesday in September. 

N. B. Gentlemen wishing information about the college, lectures, etc. are requested to direct their letters to the Secretary of the Faculty, Dr. Watts, at the College, No. 67 Crosby Street.

 Students are requested, on their arrival in the city, to call upon the janitor, Mr. James Knox, who resides in the college buildings, 67 Crosby Street, who will direct them to the residences of the faculty and will aid them in obtaining boarding places.

 The faculty deem it highly desirable that students should arrive in the city early in October, so as to attend the preliminary course and to establish themselves for the winter, before the regular courses are commenced.

 Total graduates for 1850: 56

Notes and Bibliography