Olof Larsell

“ At times the structure had been shaky , and in the light of present standards , far from sound , but to change the figure and express the situation in the spoken words of the first dean , “ You must creep before you can walk . " The Willamette Medical Department , since its return to Salem in 1895 , had made a valiant struggle for exist ence , but the limited facilities of a town no larger than Salem , and of a private university no wealthier than Willamette , made the effort to maintain the standards set by the Council on Medical Education impossible of realiz ation . ”

“ It was specified that the student in the first year must study anatomy , physiology , and chemistry , and attend lectures on all other subjects . In the second year there were added as specified subjects materia medica , therapeutics , theory and practice of medicine , surgery , obstetrics , dis eases of women and children , and all the special branches . Clinics were held in the " practical branches . ” At the end of the second year final examinations were given in anatomy, physiology and chemistry , but attendance on lectures in these subjects was still required during the third year . ”

“ We have no reason to boast or to be ashamed of what we have thus far accomplished ; it has been but a little time since we have been furnished with the means of investigation needed to give our observa tions that accuracy and precision which alone can entitle medicine to a place among the sciences , properly so called ; and we may begin the new century in the hope and belief that to us applies the bright side of the maxim of Cousin , “ It is better to have a future than a past, " 60— so we may say of medical education in the Pacific North 6 60 Billings , J. S . ”

“ For two or three years he has done scarcely anything but listen to orations on anatomy , physiology , materia medica , etc. , etc. " Rowland would substitute a closer study of text books on the part of the student , and advocates sticking to the tried and reliable methods of treatment there found . He frowns on experiment in the following words : “Besides while adventurous originality may be pardonable in the aged , yet inexperienced youth should
ever pray in the words of Propertius, 'Let me strike waters with one oar , and with the other scrape the sand ' . ”

“ During the past twelve years some two or three unsuccessful attempts have been made to found a medical college in Portland , and during these years with the growth of our city , our state , and the adjoining terri tories , the facilities for the imparting of medical and surgical instruction have constantly increased . ”

“ They shall report on the several medical institutions in the state , their course of instruction , the practical requirements for graduation , the modes of ex amination for conferring degrees , and the number of pupils and graduates at each during the year , and such other matters as they may deem worthy of consideration in reference to medical education and the reputable standing of the profession . ”

“ It will be recalled that the original desire of those interested in organizing the department in 1864 and 1865 was to locate it in the larger city . The population of Salem at that time was about twelve hundred , while Portland boasted 6068. By 1878 Salem had grown to about 2500 , while the city di rectory of Portland for that year gives its population as 19,128 . The original desire to have the greater clinical facilities of the larger cities must have played a large part. ”

“ In the language of the Board , the department was established in the belief "that the interests of the country would be promoted . ” 8 The worthy ambition to make the young and finan cially poor institution a " first class school, ” according to the American standards of that day , was not as difficult of realization as at the present time . Laboratories were practically unknown , and elaborate clinics and dispen saries were known of only as a faint echo from the large medical centers of Europe . ”

“ Her claims as a center of medical education , will , therefore be speedily and cheerfully recognized ; and this Faculty will , no doubt , industriously utilize to their amplest extent those boundless resources and facilities at their command . Our legislature will doubtless , at an early date , take such action as to facilitate the process of obtaining material for the successful study of Practical Anatomy . Such ought legitimately to be laid under contribution to prac tical science . ”

“ The faculty , recognizing that no institution is complete which does not include a certain amount of personal experience have given clinical teach ing a prominent place in the curriculum . Clinical lec tures will be given at Good Samaritan and St. Vincent's Hospitals twice a week , and four clinical lectures will be given each week at the College . " 47 With regard to dissec tion , the statement is made that the students work under the immediate supervision of a demonstrator of anatomy , and “ are required to dissect all parts of the cadaver at least once ," 48 to be eligible for graduation . ”

“ Toland Medical College requires in general terms that applicants shall furnish ' satisfactory evidence , show ing them to be of good moral character and of appropriate elementary education .' " Willamette University , our own school , provides that ' Every person desiring to attend as a student of medicine in this University shall satisfy the Dean of the Medical Faculty that he is possessed of the elements of a good English education . The adoption and observance of this law by our college last year very materially diminished the attendance it would otherwise have enjoyed ”

“ In the announcement of 1890 it is claimed that the school stands in the front rank of medical colleges in the United States , and that its diploma receives general recognition by the medical examining boards of all the states and territories. The preliminary course was apparently discontinued in 1892 , for no men tion is made of it after the first announcement . Some attention had been paid to microscopy , histology and physiology , but only by lectures and some demonstra tions . ”

“ It is our recognition of them which lowers us without elevating them . Call ing such men 'Doctors ' and counselling with them de grades us . They are not capable of imparting or receiv ing.knowledge . * * * “ The one great medicine ( to remedy these evils ) we would employ , almost the only one having any power , is medical education . Our medical colleges must be edu cated up to a proper realization of their duties . They must produce better results . As a rule their work has been by far too carelessly performed . ”

“ Certainly , if the Willamette University , established by law ' in Salem ' can conduct a school of medicine or any thing else , at Portland , and grant diplomas to the stu dents therein , the University of Oregon , ' located at Eu gene ,' can do the same. The objection illustrates the danger of sawing off the limb on which the objector sits , between himself and the tree .” He continues , “The ob jection however is mere cavil .
The facilities for conducting schools of law and medicine in Portland are much greater than those in any other place in the state . ”

“ Justice to the public and to the candidate for the degree , require that more time be given for the acquirement of medical knowledge and a far more searching investiga tion made as to the qualifications of those furnished with authority to take charge of public health . ”

“ It is a true policy that medical men should have con trol of medical education and that they should be respon sible for the professional attainments of those who are to succeed them . “ In order to harmonize the interest of the faculty of the Medical Department of Willamette University , I sug gest that a majority of the members of that faculty be 21Diary of M. P. Deady , in library of Oreg . Hist . Soc .
81 selected as professors in the 'Oregon Medical College ' . "2 2 This was the first suggestion publicly expressed of state education in medicine in Oregon . ”

“ The necessity of meeting the requirements for equipment and salaries for full time instructors for at least the laboratory sub jects of the curriculum soon resulted in the extinction of many of the weaker schools , or their absorption by others . ”

“ The man or woman who does not possess energy enough to acquire a respectable common school education is not likely to add much to the honor , or the learning of the profession as a physician . ” The standards of admission to the local school in 1878 , as compared with schools in other parts of the country , may be judged from the following extracts from the presidential address of Dr. ”

“ Six lectures a day are delivered a t the university building . The lecturing season will end 61bid . , July 2 3 , 1867 .
at the annual commencement of the college , the 25th of July . The prospect of prosperity to the Medical Depart ment in the future is good , as quite a number are prepar ing to improve the advantages offered . Those interested are gratified at the success already realized . The next term will commence April 1st, 1868 , by which time the expectation is to have provided every appliance necessary to make the Medical School a first class institution . ”

“ Rowland continues , " The usefulness of many a bright, promising youth , has in my opinion , been worse than wholly destroyed by the peculiar method of college instruction to which he has been subjected . ”

“ Some of the more enterprising of the demonstrators , who were young physicians beginning to work up a practice , and many of whom were recent graduates of some of the better schools in the East , gave work of good quality in the laboratory . ”

“ We know o f but one medical school i n the state — the Medical Department o f Willamette University now located i n Portland . Per sonal acquaintance with the members o f the faculty gives your committee assurance that nothing will be left undone calculated t o increase the reputation o f the institution .
It should be our pride , as Oregon physicians , to point to the institution as among the best in the nation . ”

“ The uncertain attend ance on their classes by practitioners whose primary aim must be to care for their own practice , was not conducive to good teaching or connected work in laboratory sub jects . The new wine was beginning to ferment , and the old bottles were already beginning to be found inadequate . About 1905 the American Medical Association , through i t s committee o n medical education , began its far - reaching investigation into the conditions prevalent i n medical schools i n the country , with the subsequent
> demand for higher standards of instruction and equip ment . ”

“ If the foregoing account has appeared , in spots, too sympathetic , in the face of serious defects as judged by present standards , and even by the best standards of the time during periods when the school was passing through difficulties , it is more charitable , and perhaps more just , to measure its relative accomplishment in a young com munity , rather than to judge it altogether by the stand ards of the long established and relatively wealthy eastern institutions . ”

“ While we respect medical knowl edge and skill wherever found and however obtained , the right t o b e called ' Doctor ' i s possessed only by those who have that degree legally conferred upon them , and the man who unblushingly calls himself ' Doctor ' o r encour ages others t o d o s o , when h e does not possess a right t o that name , i s a s dishonest a s h e who assumes the prefix ' Colonel ' o r ' General , ' without the documentary evidence that h e has a right t o b e s o called . ”

“ The course continued twenty weeks, and attendance at two courses of lectures was required for graduation . This department thus established represents the first attempt at professional education in the Pacific North west. A short time previously there had been established in San Francisco the Toland Medical College , so that the department established by Willamette University was not the pioneer in medical education on the Pacific Coast , but it appears to be the oldest which continued in oper ation without interruption until its absorption in 1913 . ”

“ Josephi, doctors of medi cine and practicing physicians in the city of Portland , have petitioned the regents of the University of Oregon for the establishment of a school of medicine at the city of Portland , and , Whereas , It appears from said petition that there is an opening for such a school at said place where it may have many exceptional advantages ”

“ This summer we shall build a permanent house which shall turn the vituperations of a l l malignant enemies o f the university a s easily and a s thoroughly a s i t will turn the gentle dew drops o f a n Oregon mist . ”

“ The new standards of instruction also demanded in creased hospital and dispensary facilities for the students . In May , 1909 , preliminary arrangements55 were made with the county authorities to use the county hospital for teaching purposes , and in August the dean was authorized to arrange for clinics at this hospital by i t s staff . Prior t o this time there had been some pretense a t maintaining a dispensary56 i n a n old chapel i n South Portland for a time . A few bottles o f medicine were left on the shelf , but n o one was i n regular attendance . ”

“ Upon these several principles the faculty have been a s a 43 0regonian , March 31, 1889 .
University of Orėgon Medical School , erected in 1893. Destroyed by fire in 1919.
99 unit and have thrown into their work all the energy of which they were possessed. How well we have done our work and how faithful we have been to our trusts, time and the character of our graduates will tell. ” When Marshall street was opened up in 1889 , the little building first erected was moved t o Twenty - third and Lovejoy streets . ”