Medical School

Medical School Medical School The University of Michigan: An Encyclopedic Survey Copyright © 2015 by the Regents of the University of Michigan The University of Michigan: An Encyclopedic Survey was first published beginning in 1942. For its 2017 Bicentennial, the University undertook the most significant updating of the Encyclopedia since the original, focusing on academic units. Entries from all versions are compiled in the Bicentennial digital and print-on-demand edition. Contents 1. Medical School (1942) 1 Frederick G. Novy [1] Medical School (1942) Frederick G. Novy IN 1817 the governor and judges of the Territory of Michigan passed an act establishing the Catholepistemiad, or University, of Michigania. Of the thirteen didaxiim or professorships, one didaxia was designated as iatrica or the medical sciences. There is nothing to indicate that actual instruction in medicine was given at that time. Twenty years later, in January, 1837, Michigan was formally admitted to statehood by Congress, and the legislature of the state, on March 18, passed the organic act establishing the University of Michigan. It was specified that the University was to consist of at least three departments: the Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts, the Department of Law, and the Department of Medicine. The vastness of the educational scheme laid down by the organic act, as well as financial difficulties, made it necessary for the Regents to act slowly. The Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts opened its doors in the fall of 1841, and for some years the tenderest care and every effort were needed to 2 Medical School keep that much of the University alive. Six years elapsed before the matter of a medical college again came up for consideration. At a meeting of the Regents, January 7, 1847, a communication was read “from Drs. Sager, Douglass,* and others, Surgeons, Physicians, etc., in reference to a Medical Department in the University,” and this was referred to a committee of five, one of whom was Dr. Zina Pitcher, which reported on the following day a recommendation for the creation of such a department with four professors and a six months’ course. The report was accepted, but after some discussion, on motion of Chief Justice Ransom it was recommitted. The next day the committee, for some unaccountable reason, presented a lengthy and adverse legal opinion to the effect that the Board had neither the authority nor the means to erect necessary buildings without specific action of the legislature. At the same meeting Dr. Pitcher offered a resolution committing the Board to the organization of the Medical Department, but this was tabled. Whereupon he gave notice that he would call the resolution up again at the next annual meeting. This he did, and, in August, 1847, a committee of three was appointed to report at a further meeting “upon the expediency as well as upon the plan of organizing the Departments of Medicine and Law.” Dr. Pitcher, as chairman of this committee, presented to the Board on January 19, 1848, a lengthy and masterly report on the need of a medical department, and although two of the three members of the committee were lawyers, the subject of a law department was not stressed. The adoption of this report, the appointment of Dr. Douglass and Dr. Sager as professors in the new department, and the appropriation of $3,000 for a “laboratory” make January 19, 1848, the natal day of the Medical Department. The first session of the Medical Department was to begin in the fall of 1849, but because of delay in the construction of the laboratory, or medical building, its doors were not opened until the fall of 1850. The original medical building was finally completed at a cost of $8,981. The establishment of the Medical Department was essentially due to three men, Zina Pitcher, Silas H. Douglass, and Abram Sager. Dr. Pitcher was one of the twelve original members of the Medical School (1942) 3 Board of Regents appointed in 1837 and was reappointed in 1841, 1845, and 1849; he retired on the last day of 1851, at which time the appointive Board gave way to one elected by the people, as provided by the Constitution of 1850. He was the only member to serve continuously from its inception to its reorganization — a period of fifteen years. This may be taken as evidence of his intense devotion to the cause of education. The esteem in which he was held by his colleagues on the Board is to be seen in the fact that in July, 1848, a few months after the organization of the Medical Department, a committee appointed to name the University buildings, proposed to call the North Building “Mason Hall” and the South Building “Pitcher Hall.” This report, although accepted, was tabled. The following day a motion to name the North Building “Mason Hall” was also tabled. The Original Faculty. — The Organic Act of 1837, in establishing the University, provided by name for six professorships in the Medical Department, as it was officially designated until 1915. These were: (1) anatomy, (2) surgery, (3) physiology and pathology, (4) practice of physic, (5) obstetrics and the diseases of women and children, (6) materia medica and medical jurisprudence. It provided further, that in the first organization of the University the Regents should “appoint such a number only as the wants of the institution shall require; and to increase them from time to time, as the income of the fund shall warrant … Provided always, that no new professorship shall be established without the consent of the legislature.” The Organic Act of 1837, in designating the professorships in the Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts, provided for a chair of chemistry and pharmacy. Hence these subjects are listed in the title given in 1839 to Dr. Douglas Houghton. In the Statutes of 1846, replacing this act, the sixth chair mentioned above was designated as that of materia medica, pharmacy, and medical jurisprudence. It may be inferred that Dr. Silas H. Douglass and Dr. Samuel Denton, then state senator, may have effected this transfer of pharmacy to the medical faculty. The new Constitution which went into effect in 1851 omitted the naming of specific professorships and hence the Regents, after that date, became free to create new professorships and to give to each whatever title was desirable. 4 Medical School The Regents, in making the first appointments in the Medical Department, endeavored to comply with the letter of the law as far as the naming of the chairs was concerned. At the same time, considering the qualifications of the men to be appointed, the duties assigned to the holder of a chair might be quite different from those implied by the title. Thus, in the report to the Regents in January, 1850, the faculty was to consist of the following: A Professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy and Medical Jurisprudence, who would teach only Pharmacy and Toxicology. A Professor of Anatomy, who should do the duties of the Chair of Surgery. A Professor of Pathology and Physiology, who should besides Physiology also do the duties in part of the Professor of Materia Medica. A Professor of Practice of Physic (including Pathology). A Professor of Obstetrics and the Diseases of Women and Children. (R.P., 1837-64, p. 442.) At no time in the records of the organization of the Medical Department was chemistry mentioned. Doubtless, it was tacitly understood that this subject was to be taught by Dr. Douglass, who, since 1846, had been Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology in the Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts. The term chemistry could not be used legally in the title of Dr. Douglass as a professor in the Medical Department and hence, conforming to the law, he was designated as Professor of Materia Medica, Pharmacy, and Medical Jurisprudence, who “would teach only Pharmacy and Toxicology.” A free interpretation of these two subjects might be taken to imply chemistry. At all events Dr. Douglass did teach chemistry in 1850 and thereafter, but did not teach materia medica. There being no longer any legal obstacle, in 1855 the title of Dr. Douglass was amended by substituting toxicology for medical jurisprudence. An equally striking circumlocution was presented in the case of Dr. Jonathan Adams Allen, who in 1850 was made Professor of Pathology and Physiology, but “who should besides Medical School (1942) 5 Physiology also do the duties in part of the Professor of Materia Medica.” At the same time Dr. Samuel Denton was given the legal title of Professor of Practice of Physic, with the words “including Pathology” understood. It was perhaps deemed more logical to attach pathology, unofficially, to the duties of the professor of the practice of physic. The removal of pathology and the addition of materia medica made Dr. Allen virtually Acting Professor of Therapeutics, Materia Medica, and Physiology, though his official title even as late as 1854 was Professor of Pathology and Physiology. Prior to the report of 1850 the Regents had made three appointments to the medical faculty. In January, 1848, Dr. Douglass had been appointed Professor of Materia Medica; he was also to discharge the duties of Professor of Pharmacy and Medical Jurisprudence; Dr. Abram Sager was named Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine, and was to discharge the duties of such other professorship as might be prescribed (not the professorship of physic as specified in the Act of 1837). In July, 1849, Dr. Gunn was appointed Professor of Anatomy and was to discharge such other duties as might be required of him. Denton later seems to have acquired the title to the chair of the theory and practice of medicine, and of pathology.

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