Page:The Medical School of the Melbourne University - an address delivered on the twenty fifth anniversary of the opening of the Medical School, in the Wilson Hall, March 23, 1887 (IA b22293346).pdf/5

5 for the School, and somewhat later he obtained from the Government permission to erect the Medical School buildings where now they stand. I believe his own wish was to make them part of the original structure of the University, but several of the Council were shocked at the proposal to allow a dissecting-room to come betwixt the wind and their corporate nobility, so that it was put as far off as possible; and still further to mark the objection of the Council to a Medical School at all, it was built in as economic a manner as might be, the materials being brick and stucco, instead of smoothed freestone like the main building. The building, however, was not ready for use until about April 1864.

In January 1862, Dr. Macadam was appointed Lecturer on Chemistry, and on March 3rd the School was informally opened; in September of the same year Dr. Eades was chosen Lecturer on Materia Medica, and the two appointments of Dr. Macadam and Dr. Eades may be regarded as the actual beginning of the School. In the latter part of the same year, Professor Halford arrived from England, and on the 1st of May, 1863, he delivered his introductory address in the Mathematical Theatre. From that time the work of the School went steadily on, and the first class consisted of but three students, viz., Patrick Moloney, William Carey Rees, and Alexander Mackie. Of these, Mr. Mackie fell away from his allegiance to medicine, and entered the Presbyterian ministry; yet, curious to relate, a few months ago he made his appearance in my lecture-room, and said that, after a quarter of a century's vacation, he was going on with his medical studies. And now Mr. Mackie has just passed his third year. Dr. Rees died in 1879, after giving promise of attaining a very high position; and Dr. Moloney is at this moment one of the best known and best liked members of the profession in the colony.

The School having been fairly started, the Council proceeded to appoint the rest of the Lecturers as they were required. I was the last of those so appointed, and the date of my election was the 27th of March, 1865. The list of the original teaching staff was as follows:—Professor Halford, in Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathology; Dr. Macadam, in Chemistry and Practical Chemistry; Dr. Eades, in Materia Medica, Therapeutics, and Medical Botany; Dr. James Robertson, in the Theory and Practice of Medicine; Dr. Edward Barker, in Surgery; Dr. Richard Thomas Tracy, in