Forty-third annual circular of the medical department ... session 1850-51, and catalogue of students attending lectures session 1849-50.

University of Maryland

Date:: 1850

Credit: Forty-third annual circular of the medical department ... session 1850-51, and catalogue of students attending lectures session 1849-50. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$but a fracture, or dislocation, or bleeding artery, or strangu¬ lated hernia demands a ready hand and knowledge to guide it. True clinical instruction, therefore, includes a demonstra¬ tion of the actual application of medical and surgical art to the emergencies of practice ; shows the student how he must act under like circumstances, and teaches him to rely upon his own knowledge and judgment, guided by the recollection of those cases which he has had opportunities to observe. It has been stated, by the author of the Report before al¬ luded to, that “he is credibly informed that even in New York and Philadelphia not more than one in ten” [of the medical students] “attend regularly at the Hospitals.” The Faculty of the University of Maryland have reason to congratulate themselves that this remark does not apply to their pupils: conscious that the advantages for hospital instruction are no where exceeded, they are also conscious that they are no where more valued. The Faculty refer to these two departments of medical edu¬ cation, “Practical Anatomy” and “Clinical Instruction,” from a conviction that, in these respects, the Institution under their charge may challenge comparison with any school in the coun¬ try. An abundant supply of anatomical material, at a mode¬ rate pecuniary expense, is the habitual condition of the school. The hospital,—containing a hundred and fifty beds, admitting all forms of acute and chronic disease, open to the students without charge throughout the year, attended by members of the Faculty,—furnishes a great variety and amount of disease for medical and surgical treatment. In the effort which has been made to place the course of in¬ struction in the schools upon a more elevated basis, this Fa¬ culty have participated actively and sincerely. As evidence of their practical compliance with the recommendations made by the National Association, they adduce the following extract from their reply to a circular received from the chairman of one of the Committees of that body. “The Faculty have modified their requirements as follows :—1st. They have ex¬ tended the session from four months to four months and a$