Jefferson Medical College

“ Dr. Hartshorne delivered a memorial address to the classes, in which he said: “To this school especially he gave all his great mental energies with the pride of a founder, which, in a certain sense, as it now stands, he was; it seems to us now like an edifice whose foremost column has fallen down or a tree whose topmost bough is broken off.”
There were sales of his interest in the college, which soon afterward became blended with the Pennsylvania College of Medicine and later with the Jefferson Medical College; of his house in Phœnixville to John Vanderslice for one-half of its value ”

“ The undersigned, professors in the University of Pennsylvania, professors in Jefferson Medical College, members of the medical staff of various hospitals of Philadelphia, and members of the medical profession in Philadelphia at large, out of respect for their profession, and for the interests of the public, do feel it to be their duty, at the present time, to express their convictions upon the subject of "clinical instruction to mixed classes of male and female students of medicine." ”

“ As a boy he went to school at Shelby College, Kentucky; studied medicine at Louisville University and at Jefferson Medical College, graduating March, 1857; then settled in practice in Philadelphia, being associated with his father in the work of editing the North American Medico-Chirurgical Review. He served nearly four years in the army during the civil war as brigade surgeon with the rank of major, doing duty most of the time as medical director. ”

“ In 1833 he graduated from the Jefferson Medical College, Pennsylvania, and the following year entered the United States Navy as assistant surgeon and continued on active duty until retired as medical director with rank of commodore in 1873. ”

“ In 1831 my name was before the Trustees of Jefferson Medical College for the chair of Materia Medica vacated by the resignation of Dr. Eberle, and I would have been appointed, as I have since been informed by Gen. Duncan, one of the Trustees, if I had not agreed to join with Dr. Eberle a new faculty at Cincinnati. If any object that a Prof'r of Chemistry can not make a good Prof'r of Theory and Practice, I have only to refer to the case of the celebrated Dr. Rush, who passed directly from Chemistry to Theory and Practice, as the published records of the University of Penna. will show. ”

“ In the latter year he was appointed a surgeon in the United States Army. From 1814 until his death, he was professor of chemistry at the Jefferson Medical College, and in 1854-55 was president of the American Philosophical Society. ”

“ The assertion contained in this passage concerning the number of students, is, we regret to say, unsupported by any published documents of the Jefferson Medical College. The community, well aware of the practice in all respectable institutions of publishing an annual catalogue of the names and residences of its pupils, would be much better satisfied with such a voucher in the present instance, than with the bare declaration of an irresponsible paper. ”

“ I have never been able to discover positively that Aaron Young obtained a diploma from Jefferson College, but judge from the fact that on his arrival in Boston in 1875 he became a fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society, that he must have had the diploma and the documents to prove his right to practise medicine. ”

“ Nevertheless, a medical school with three professors had been founded in 1783, and every year gave de­grees to an average class of two doctors of medicine. Science had already a firm hold on the college, and a large part of the conservative clergy were dis­tressed by the liberal tendencies which the governing body betrayed. ”

“ When he removed to Philadelphia his widespread reputation and his duties at the Philadelphia and Jefferson hospitals did not give him the leisure he craved to write his "Practice of Medicine," but it was written and had a second edition in three months. Then he went on the staff of the Medical News (Philadelphia) , his pen always busy with concise and lucid articles, particularly on medical jurisprudence. With mental powers always in order, he was ready for lecture, consultation, operation or clinic, but in 1893 he retired from college work and was made emeritus professor. ”

“ At the close of the war Brinton was appointed lecturer on operative surgery in Jefferson College, and later professor of the practice of surgery and clinical surgery, and surgeon to Jefferson Hospital. In 1869 he was Mütter lecturer on surgery and pathology ”

“ The United States have there a hospital already established, and supplied with subjects from these local circumstances. I had thought and have mentioned to yourself and our colleagues, that when our medical school has got well under way, we should propose to the federal government the association with that establishment, and at our own expense, of the clinical branch of our medical school, so that our students, after qualifying themselves with the other branches of the science here, might complete their course of preparation by attending clinical lectures for six or twelve months at Norfolk. ”

“ If he enters with innocence that of the theory of medicine, it is scarcely possible he should come out untainted with error. His mind must be strong indeed, if, rising above juvenile credulity, it can maintain a wise infidelity against the authority of his instructers, and the bewitching delusions of their theories. You see that I estimate justly that portion of instruction, which our medical students derive from your labors ”

“ The number of medical colleges has been materially reduced and the size of the graduating classes has decreased fifty per cent or more during the last twenty-five years as a result of the higher standards. Several of our medical schools admit college graduates only and two years of college work is now a minimum entrance requirement in institutions of the highest type. Very few men feel properly equipped for taking up the practice of medicine today until they have had an experience of at least a year in a general hospital. ”

“ Hitherto it has been a school apart from the main university, and many a man has graduated from Harvard College without being made practically aware that there is such a thing as the Harvard Medical School. It will be possible under the new conditions to greatly enlarge the scope of the electives that bear on a medical education that may be taken by members of the college or other departments of the university. ”

“ We may from hence, I think, safely infer, that every thing in their power may be hoped tor, to second the medical institutions of the college, by uniting with them the advantages of the hospital, and thus rendering the education of youth in the healing arts as compleat as possible in this city; to which nothing can contribute more than a course of clinical practice and clinical lectures, by physicians of knowledge and experience. ”

“ After the year 1910 most of the large universities in this country will not admit further students to their medical departments unless they have a college degree or its equivalent, that is, unless they have devoted four years to college undergraduate work. It is generally understood, that in the last year of his undergraduate course the student who intends to take up medicine may elect such scientific studies in the college department as will obtain for him an allowance of a year's work in the medical school. ”

“ Military surgery was the original purpose of the school, which still exists, side by side with the surgical cliniques of the faculty, as the Friedrich Wilhelm's Institut. In Vienna, in like manner, a school for the training of army surgeons was founded in 1785—Joseph's Academy or the Josephinum. The first systematic teaching of surgery in the United States was by Dr Shippen at Philadelphia, where the medical college towards the end of the century was largely officered by pupils of the Edinburgh school. ”

“ It is disgraceful, and yet it happens constantly, that men are graduated by prominent medical schools or colleges in this country without ever having listened to an abnormal heart sound, seen a case of measles, or been present at a confinement. "But," it is asked, "why should the general public take any interest in medical education? Why not let doctors manage their own 'shops,' as they always have done, unaided by public support?"
The answer is that, so long as a medical college is dependent entirely upon the fees of its students for support, the highest educational good can not be attained. ”

“ In other words, Harvard has copied the European plan of medical teaching in some of its essential features, and as a consequence its medical diploma is the only one issued by any prominent medical American college which is a guarantee that its possessor has been well educated in the science and practice of medicine. ”

“ But consider that we do not expect our schools to turn out their alumni already enthroned on the pinnacles of their respective sciences; but only so far advanced in each as to be able to pursue them by themselves, and to become Newtons and La Places by energies and perseverances to be continued through life. I have said that our original plan comprehended ten Professors, and we hope to be able ere long to supply the other two. One should relieve the Medical Professor from Anatomy and Surgery, and a school for the other would be made up of the surcharges of yours, and that of Physics. ”

“ The medical schools, the sources of the heaviest pre-professional requirements, have expressed willingness, in some cases enthusiasm, to consider our graduates as candidates. Their faculties realize the importance of the liberal education of the physician, see that we require more hours in the laboratory than they ask for, and believe that this basic instruction will lay a good foundation for professional training. On the other hand, a warning should be given that the St. John's student is running the risk that radical innovation entails. ”

“ Extremely lucid in his ideas, with a remarkable capacity for seizing the general principle in a mass of facts, and with a terseness of speech that was his own, he never failed to win and keep the attention of students whether in the lecture room or at the bedside clinic. It was his great efficiency as a teacher, as well as his standing as a scientific surgeon, that led to his appointment as professor of surgery and clinical surgery when the amalgamation of the faculty of Trinity Medical College with that of the University of Toronto took place. ”

“ It is rather a delicate matter, perhaps, for a college professor to touch on the evils of medical colleges in their relation to the business aspect of medicine, but I shall nevertheless speak plainly and to the point. While theoretically the better class of medical colleges were founded solely for the advancement of science, it is none the less true that self-aggrandizement has been the pedestal on which most of our disinterested giants in the teaching arena have stood and are standing. ”

“ It is not likely that medical students are inclined to specialize less than law students. The fact is that Harvard College provides the courses in English, history and political science needed by students of law and does not provide the courses in anatomy, physiology and pathology needed by students of medicine. [2] Instead of requiring students preparing for the medical school to take courses which they do not want, the college should offer the courses which they need. ”

“ We revere it as the first medical college on this side of the Alleghanies. We revere it for the efforts it made to prepare our young physicians to cope with the diseases that afflicted our people. We revere it for the good name it gave our State in the fame it acquired. We revere it for the success of Professor Brown in introducing vaccination in advance of its discoverer, for the brilliant and numerous operations in lithotomy by Professor Dudley, and for the noble efforts of others of its professors in prolonging human life and mitigating its pains. ”

“ We have to work together because there is so much that is good about American medicine that we must preserve. We have the best doctors and nurses, the finest hospitals, the most advanced research, the most sophisticated technology in the world. We cherish this as Americans, and we'll never give them up, nor will we give up our right to choose our doctors, our hospitals, and our medical treatments. That is especially true for older Americans, who've worked their whole lives and deserve this security. I want to say to those older Americans listening today: Our plan offers you more peace of mind. ”

“ We shall thus be able not only to give to each student an additional term of systematic instruction, with all those advantages of hospital practice which belong only to a large city, but we shall be able to keep her under college influence during the remainder of each year, directing the intermediate studies, and forming much more accurate acquaintance than were otherwise possible, with the qualifications of each candidate for graduation. ”