2

the institution having in the meanwhile been changed,' it was regularly organized as the board of trustees of the Medical Institute of Georgia. From the Legislature of 1833 the institute received a donation of ten thousand dollars, and from the City Council of Augusta five thousand dollars more, by guaranteeing medicines and medical services to the city hospital for ten years. With the fifteen thousand dollars thus obtained, the trustees erected "their beautiful Grecian-Doric structure which," wrote one of the professors3 in 1842, "while exteriorly adding to the beauty of the city, is, in its interior arrangements, unequalled, for the purposes of a medical college, by any edifice in our country."4 With the exception of twenty-five thousand dollars which the Legislature afterward gave the Medical College, the moneys above referred to constitute the only pecuniary aid from without, so far as the writer can learn, which this institution has ever received. Hence it may be said to have been, almost from its inception, self-supporting. Certain it is, that upon the seven thousand dollars individually contributed by Doctors Antony, Ford, Hoxey, Crawford, Banks, Jones, and Garvin, of the board of trustees in 1829, the school prior to the receipt of those funds mainly subsisted.

The act by which the State, in 1833, appropriated ten thousand dollars "for the use and benefit of the institute," contained a provision changing its name to that which it has ever since retained, viz, The Medical College of Georgia. The college was organized with Doctors Antony, Ford, J. A. Eve, Paul F. Eve, John Dent, and L. A. Dugas in its respective chairs. Early in the spring of 1834 the faculty raised upon its own responsibility the sum of ten thousand dollars, and dispatched to Europe one of the professors, to purchase an anatomical museum, chemical apparatus, a surgical cabinet, etc., for the use of the college.

A second application for pecuniary aid was made by the trustees in 1835, which was so far successful that the State generously turned over to the college all her interest in the premium resulting from the sale of the increased stock of the Bank of Augusta. This was valued at the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars. Thus assisted, the faculty liquidated every outstanding debt, and preserved a fund for contingent expenses. "In the session of 1833-34 the class in attendance amounted to thirty, and at the second commencement the degree of M. D. was con1Section 1 of an act to alter the name of the Medical Academy of Georgia and to extend the corporate powers of the same, passed December 19, 1829, declares that from and after the passage of this act the Medical Academy of Georgia shall be entitled and known as "The Medical Institute of the State of Georgia." (See Dawson's Compilations, p. 197.)

2 Lewis's Report, p. 115. Also Prince's Digest, p. 681.

3 Dr. Paul F. Eve, afterward of Nashville, Tenn.

4 The building, which stands upon a lot adjoining that occupied by the Richmond Academy and which was generously ceded by the trustees of the academy for the use of the college, was completed in the spring of 1834.

See Section 5 of act of December 20, 1833 (Prince's Digest, p. 681).

ferred upon fifteen approved candidates. In the class of 1834–35 were thirty-seven students and fifteen graduates. In 1835-36, from extraordinary circumstances, the number of students was but thirty-one, with eight graduates. In the following winter the attendance was increased to forty-four, while fifteen graduates received the degree of M. D.

"The class of 1837-38 numbered forty-one, and thirteen were graduated. During the session of the following year the number of students amounted to sixty, with twelve graduates.

"The college was now fairly established among the many similar and rival institutions of the country; and with but twelve graduates out of a class of sixty, there was every prospect of a large increase for the next session. But, alas! disappointment came from a quarter least of all expected. A fatal epidemic visited the city, for the first time, and all hope and enterprise sank under its withering influence. Among the victims of the terrible disease the institution had to mourn the death of its beloved and distinguished founder. Dr. Milton Antony fell a martyr to the cause of humanity and his professional zeal, on the 19th of September, 1839.1 When the period arrived for commencing the session of 1839-40, but two professors were able to discharge their duties. In consequence it was found necessary to postpone the course of lectures two weeks, and even then the exercises began with but four professors. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, the institution nobly sustained itself. The class that year numbered fifty-four students, and in the spring following eighteen were graduated."2

The session of 1841-42 noted an increase of nineteen over the attendance of the preceding year. The number of graduates from the institution has multiplied proportionately with the students annually enrolled, until now it has one thousand six hundred and fifty-three alumni.

ADMINISTRATION OF DR. PAUL F. EVE.

Dr. Paul F. Eve became dean of the Medical College about the year 1842, being the successor to Doctor Garvin, the first incumbent. Under his wise rule the college passed through its most successful period. Never since has it enjoyed that high degree of prosperity to which it then attained. Indeed, Doctor Eve's administration is admiringly referred to as exhibiting, and as being inseparably associated with, the college in its prime.

Since Doctor Eve, six or seven persons have held the position of dean 1Doctor Antony is buried in the college yard, and a slab designates his resting-place. A fine portrait of him hangs in the library-room.

2 Georgia Illustrated, p. 43.

3 Taken from the University of Georgia catalogue for 1886–87. The 1885-86 register of medical students showed an attendance of one hundred and three, and a graduation list of thirty-eight. During the session of 1837-88 forty-seven M. D. degrees were conferred.

of the faculty, the present incumbent being Dr. Edward Geddings, who entered upon the discharge of his duties in 1883.

The exercises of the college progressed without interruption until 1863, when, in consequence of the distractions of the Civil War, a suspension occurred which lasted until February 24, 1866. With this exception the sessions of the college since its inception have been continuous.

A DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA.

In 1873 the Medical College became a department of the University of Georgia, and since that time the chancellor has attended its commencements, and in the name of the University has conferred the degrees.

This direct association with the University of Georgia, and this change in the auspices under which the degrees are conferred, was suggested and favorably considered as long ago as 1856.1

The college building is commodious, well located, and provided with every appliance requisite for the facile study of medicine, chemistry, pathology, surgery, etc.

Here will be found the finest chemical and physical laboratory in the State outside of the University at Athens.

It has also a library of five thousand volumes, a convenient dissecting hall, and a valuable anatomical museum. The latter, occupying an entire third of the second story, contains many pathological specimens (tumors, fœtuses, foetal abnormalities, etc.), the accumulations of years, and the most admirable selections of preparations showing the different stages of the eruptive fevers, contagious diseases, phlegmons, etc., in the South.

The City Hospital, located on the college grounds, and the Freedman's Hospital, situated at no great distance, both under the immediate control and support of the faculty, offer excellent facilities for clinical instruction. The peculiar advantages of Augusta as a great railroad and manufacturing centre, embracing many thousand operatives and their families, enable the Medical College to draw large numbers of interesting cases to its polyclinic for treatment in the presence of the students, who often take charge of the cases and treat them under the direction of the clinical instructor. These clinics are held daily at the college or hospital.

COURSES OF STUDY.

The lectures in the Medical College of Georgia embrace anatomy, physiology, chemistry, materia medica and therapeutics, theory and practice of medicine, pathology, surgery, obstetrics and gynæcology,

Lewis's Report, p. 137.

2 "Ample material and every facility for dissecting are offered in a hall well adapted to the purpose," says the 1886-87 catalogue, p. 6.

medical jurisprudence, ophthalmology, otology, and pharmacy. There are eight professors representing the several branches. Prominent among them is Dr. Henry F. Campbell, who has charge of the departments of surgery and gynæcology. Beside his noteworthiness as a gynecologist, Doctor Campbell is also a man of national reputation, having recently filled the presidency of the Medical Association of America. With these professors two demonstrators and four clinical assistants are associated.

1

A candidate for the degree of doctor of medicine must have attended two full courses of lectures in this or some other college in good standing, and pass a satisfactory examination on all branches taught in the institution. In addition to the regular course of two sessions,3 the faculty offers and strongly recommends to the student a graded course of three terms. In this course the student is examined on anatomy, physiology, and chemistry at the expiration of the first term, and on such of the remaining branches as he may elect at the end of the second, completing his examination and graduating at the end of the third.

As has been already seen, the Medical College is one of the participants in the Charles McDonald Brown Scholarship Fund. Another assistance which the institution affords to poor students operates through its beneficiary system. In compliance with its charter, two students from each Congressional district of Georgia are admitted to the enjoyment of its privileges gratuitously. All applicants, on their part, are required to state on honor that they are unable, alone or with the aid of friends, to pay their tuition fees. They are also required to furnish the customary certificate from their county as to moral character and fitness.

THE SAVANNAH MEDICAL COLLEGE.4

This institution belongs now to the past. While its corporate existence relates back to a period almost contemporaneous with the foundation of the Medical College of Georgia, its career of usefulness did not, in duration, transcend a quarter of a century.

A charter to establish and incorporate a medical college in the city of Savannah was granted in 1838;5 but no active measures were taken to erect a building until 1852, when J. Gordon Howard, M. D., took the initiatory steps to that end, and Drs. P. M. Kollock, R. D. Arnold, W. G. Bulloch, C. W. West, H. L. Byrd, E. H. Martin, J. Gordon Howard,

1 Doctor Campbell is a graduate of the college, having received his diploma in 1842; and we find him two years later a member of its faculty, and serving in the capacity of demonstrator. He was at the time hardly twenty years old.

2 See Code of Georgia, 1882, p. 255.

3 The college session commences on the first Monday in November, and terminates on the first of March following.

4 Historical Record of the City of Savannah. Savannah, Ga., 1869. Pp. 164-6. Savannah Medical College: Circular and Catalogue of the Trustees, Faculty, and Students; Announcements of Lectures, Session 1857-58, etc.

5 See act of December 31, 1838 (Acts of 1838, pp. 156-7).

and J. B. Read petitioned the trustees to organize them into a faculty. They pledged themselves to erect a suitable structure, and to provide all apparatus necessary for medical instruction and illustration.

Owing to the opposition of a number of medical gentlemen, the desired privileges were withheld. Nothing daunted, however, the abovenamed physicians associated themselves together as a corporation under the name of the Savannah Medical Institute, and erected a college building, the corner-stone of which was laid by Dr. R. D. Arnold in January, 1853. In the following November the first course of lectures was delivered. During the session of 1856-57 there were twenty-seven students in attendance upon the Savannah Medical College, as the institution was then called, nine of whom received diplomas at its close.

At that time the faculty, inclusive of a demonstrator of anatomy, numbered eight professors. Prominent among the instructors and lecturers were Dr. Richard D. Arnold, professor of theory and practice of medicine,' and Dr. Joseph Jones, now of New Orleans, who had charge of the department of medical chemistry. The former, as has been seen, was intimately connected with the organization of the college. The latter, Doctor Jones, through his writings and discoveries, is well known to the scientific world, and is distinguished as a chemist, an original investigator, and a physician.

The exercises of the Savannah Medical College were interrupted by the War. The suspension thus occasioned continued until 1866. In that year the college was reopened, and its operations were conducted as well as the impoverished condition of its resources 2 would allow. But after struggling on for a period of some fourteen years, the doors of the institution were permanently closed to students about 1880.

THE GEORGIA COLLEGE OF ECLECTIC MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 3 There are three medical colleges located at Atlanta. The first of them which we will consider is the Georgia College of Eclectic Medicine and Surgery. This institution was chartered by an act passed by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia in 1839. It was at first located at Forsyth, Monroe County, and was known as the Southern Botanico-Medical College. In 1846 it was removed to Macon, and 1 Doctor Arnold remained in this chair, reflecting honor on himself and the college of which he was one of the chief ornaments, until his death, which occurred about 1872. After the capture of Savannah, in 1864, the college building was used as a United States hospital, and from it the Federal troops carried off the fine apparatus, the valuable collections of minerals, the engravings and paintings for illustration, the anatomical preparations, and the pathological specimens which belonged to it.

3. Sixth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Illinois. Appendix A: Conspectus of the Medical Colleges of America, pp. 19–21.

4 The preamble of the act incorporating this college, approved December 11, 1839 (Laws of 1839, pp. 134-6), recites that "Whereas the friends of the Botanic (commonly called the Thomsonian) System of Medical Practice in the Southern States are desirous of establishing a medical college at the town of Forsyth, Monroe County, in which the doctrines they advocate may be scientifically taught, together with the