Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/290

* MEDICAL EDUCATION. 263 MEDICAL EDUCATION. In the Middle Ages the most laiiioiis of all the medieal schools was thai of Saluiiio, near Xaples, which was organized in connection with a monastery of iSenedictine monks. Its grad- uates were to be fonnd teaching in all quarters of the globe, and its inlluence was widespread, not only at the period in which it flourished, but for many years subsequent, - olher cele- brated medical school was that of ilontpel- licr, in France. The University of Paris was founded in 1205 and graduated enormous classes. Its graduates were held in high esteem. They were not allowed to practice surgery, and held practitioners of that art in the greatest con- tempt. France, however, was the jjioncer in recognizing the necessity for a higher education of surgeons, and for their elevation to a rank cor- responding to that of physicians. In surgical teaching the French were always greatly in ad- vance of other nations. It was in the Univer- sity of Paris, likewise, that midwifery was first taught to classes of male students. Among the most famous centres for medical teaching in the sixteenth century were the schools of Bologna. Padua, and Pisa in Italy. At the present time Italian physicians are doing an enormous amount of scientific research work. The facilities olTered to students in their medical colleges, however, are not to be ciiiiiiiared wit)i those afforded by the other Continental medical schools. In Germany there were nnmbers of universities with flourishing medical depart- ments at a very early periml. among which may be mentioned Erfurt, Wittenberg, and Vienna. With the nineteenth century a new era dawned in German medicine. To it more than to any other single nation is duo the credit of the wonderful achievements of the present <lay medi- cine. Virchow, Koch, and the other distinguished occupants of professorial chairs have had in their classes and laboratories eager students from all over the world. A more general educa- tion and a larger acquaintance with the various branches of the natural sciences are required of the German medical student than is cus- tomary elsewhere; a term of five years is re- quisite to obtain the degree of II.D. In England the teaching of medicine was established u|)on a scientific basis ehielly by the efforts of Thomas Linacre, who founded chairs for the teaching of medicine in the uni- versities of Oxford and Cambridge. .s physi- cian to Henry VIII. he possessed an enormous influence at Court, and this he wielded to great advantage, inducing the King to take the power of licensing persons to practice medicine out of the hands of the bishops, and rendering it necessary for the ean<lidates to pass an exami- nation and receive a degree from one or the other of the two universities. In England, as in France, it was many years before the educa- tion of the surgerm was considered as of equal importance with that of the physician. Until 174.5 the surgeons were a.ssociated with the barbers in the corporation of the barber sur- geons. In that year they separated, nlthovigh it was not until more than fifty years later that the Roynl College of Surgeons was incorporated. The medical profession in England consists of three classes: first, physicians, who have received their rlegree from one of the universities; second, stirgcons. who have graduated from one or an- other of the medical schools which exist in connection with the hospitals ; and third, apothecaries, who dispense their own drugs and are generally considered as family physicians. Dispensers like American apothecaries are in England called chemists. The large hospitals in London have, in many instances, medical .schools connected with them. Of the more iirominent may be mentioned Saint Thomas. Saint Bartholomew, Saint (ieorge, and Guy's. The course of instruc- tion at these hospitals is three years; the teach- ers are the physicians ami surgeons who servo the hospitals. After passing the examinations at his medical school, in order to obtain au- thority to practice the graduate is obliged to pass an examination before a board com]iosed of representatives of some of the leading uiedical societies, such as the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Surgeons, or the Society of Apothecaries, or of some of the faculty of one of the universities. The medical schools of Scotland are of great aiili<|uity. That of Saint Andrews was foimded in 1411, and the University of Edinburgh dates back to the year 1582, although it was many years subsequent to this before medical teaching there was placed on a scientific basis. The latter university exerted an incalcnlalilc influ- ence on medical teaching in the United States, owing to the large numljcr of American students who attended its courses. From a very early period in the history of North America public lectures on medical topics were given in various parts of the country. To Dr. Cadwallader CoUlen is ascribed the credit of the first attempt to establish a system- atic course on medicine in the Colonies. lie tried to have the Assembly in the Province of Pennsylvania pass an act imposing a tax upon every unmarried man fur the purpose of sup- ]iurting a 'inililic jihysical lecture in Philadel- jjliia.' His ell'orts were fruitless. In 1750 Dr. Thoniiis Cadwallader lectured on anatomy in Phihulelphia. and in 1752 Dr. William Hunter, a cousin of the great John Hunter, lectured on anatomy at Newport. R. I. Dr. Charles F. Wiessenthal. of P>altiniorc, delivered lectures on surgery in that city prior to the Revolution. The first medical school in the United Stales was founded by Drs. .luhn Morgan and William Shippen, .Ir., in 1705. when they estaldishcd a medical ilep:irtmeut of the C(dlege of I'liihidcl- ])hia. which institution sidisequently became the University of Pennsylvania. This was shortly followed by the organization, in 1707, of the medical dejiartment of King's College, New York, the lineal ancestor of Columbia University. Harvard University established its medical de- jiartment in 1782. and in 171I8 a medical depart- ment was established by Dr. Nathan Smith at Dartmouth College. Previous to the fnundatioB of medical schocds. the education of jihysician* in this country had been entirely by means of the apprenticeship system, except when a young man possessed sutlicient means to go abroad and study in the meilieal schools of Edinburgh. Lon- don," or the Cnnlinent. It ha.s been estimated that at the outset of the War for Independence there were ujiward of .•^500 practitioners in the Colonies, of whom not more than 100 hail re- ceived ntedicnl degrees. Most of the early teachers in .merican meilieal schocds had been educated at the University of Edinbtirgh. This leil to a close perpetuation of the traditions of the medical