Medical education received an almost com plete setback everywhere throughout the Colo nies by the Revolution, though in New York the practice of the surgeons who accompanied the British army proved instructive for the physicians who remained in the city, and courses in anatomy and some other medical subjects were given. Immediately after the Revolution steps- were taken to restore the medical schools, Philadelphia indeed granting degrees at a com mencement held June 1780, but personal and professionaljealousies led to trouble about the charter of the college of Philadelphia and it was not until this was reorganized that the medical schools settled to work. Over 100 medical students were in attendance there in 1790. Medical teaching in New York suffered from a similar friction of personalities, but it lasted much longer. The Medical Department of King's College, changed after the Revolution to Columbia, was reorganized, but there was a hitch with the educational authorities of the State. An independent medical school was or ganized mainly through the influence of Dr. Nicholas Romayne and when this was refused recognition by the Regents he appealed to Queen's College (now Rutgers), at New Brunswick, N. J., for authority to confer de grees. This appeal to outside institutions came to be a favorite device of medical faculties throughout the country who had severed their connection with regularly incorporated medical institutions. No less than three times in the first half century Rutgers was thus appealed to, again in 1811 and 1826, and then a Geneva Medical Faculty was organized in New York City, until the practice was declared illegal.
After the Revolution other medical schools soon began to make their appearance. Harvard organized its medical faculty in 1783. Dart mouth established a medical department in 1797. The medical department of the University of Maryland in Baltimore was founded in 1807 and continued under that name though there was no university, and that of Yale University in 1810. Unfortunately anatomical teaching was very much hampered by popular prejudice. There was no legislation permitting the use of or providing bodies for dissection purposes. The bodies of those killed in duels were by law devoted to anatomical purposes, but resurrec tionism had to supply the rest. As a result of popular suspicions there were attacks on dis secting rooms in many places. New York had its Doctors' Riot in 1789, Philadelphia, Balti more, Ncw Haven and Saint Louis had theirs much later, well on in the 19th century, the last actually as late as 1844. This was not a media val reversion as it is often called, for dissection had been very freely permitted in many places, in the Middle Ages, but a modern intolerance not unlike that which now hampers animal ex perimentation in this country.
The early medical schools in this country, as pointed ont by Dr. Nathan S. Davis, although originating in different States wholly independ ent of each other and in direct rivalry for patronage, were remarkably similar in their organization and requirements. At first the number of professors in each school was small and the college term eight or nine months. The bachelor's degree in medicine was conferred after three years of study with a preceptor fol lowed by one college term, and the doctor's degree after one or two added years of prac tice and a second course of college attendance. The degree of Bachelor of Medicine was aban doned by the College of Philadelphia in 1789, by the University of Pennsylvania in 1791 and by all the medical colleges in this country in 1813.
Medical schools soon began to multiply. In 1810 there were the six schools already men tioned. In the 30 years down to 1840, 26 medi cal colleges were added. They were in the order of their foundation. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western Dis trict of the State of New York at Fairfield, Herkimer County, founded in 1812. Though in rural surroundings this did excellent work, had some noteworthy men on its faculty and up to 1840 about 3,000 students • on its rolls. In 1817 Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky., finally succeeded in organizing a medical department. There had been chairs of medicine before. Samuel Brown, M.D., was appointed in 1799 to the professorship of anatomy, surgery and chemistry. In 1801 Frederick Ridgley, M.D., was elected professor of medicine. In 1805 James Fishback, M.D., was appointed to the chair of theory and practice. Twenty students attended the first full course of medical lectures in 1817-18. One of them received the degree
of M.D., the first degree conferred west of the mountains. In 1818 the Castleton Medical School, afterward named the Vermont Academy of Medicine, was founded, the degree of Doc tor of Medicine being conferred under the authority of Middlebury College until 1827, after which it was conferred directly by the medical faculty under its amended charter.
Dr. Daniel Drake resigned from Transyl vania University in 1818 and organized the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati which held its first course of lectures in 1820. Alto gether he held 11 chairs at six different medi cal schools at various times. The Medical School of Maine was organized in 1820 also as a department of Bowdoin College at Bruns wick with Dr. Nathan Smith as the faculty. In 1821 a medical school developed at Brown University, Providence, but did not continue long. The Medical School of the University of Vermont was organized at Burlington in 1822. In 1823 The Berkshire Medical Institu tion was organized at Pittsfield, Mass., under the charter of Williams College. In 1824 the Medical College of South Carolina was organ ized at Charleston. In 1825 the medical depart ment of Columbian College, District of Colum bia, was organized. This school suspended 1834 35 but resumed in the latter year under the name of the National Medical College, now as the medical department of Columbian Univer sity. In 1825 Jefferson Medical College, Phila delphia, was chartered. The charter was granted to Dr. Barton in 1819 after an unsuccessful attempt in 1816. Jefferson owes its name to its connection with Jefferson College, Cannons burg, Pa., through which its degrees were granted. In 1825 the medical department of the University of Virginia, charter 1819, was organized. In 1826 the Medical School of the Valley of Virginia, familiarly called The Win chester Medical College, was organized at Win chester, Va. Both of these Virginia colleges prosposed to have terms of nine months instead of the shorter terms in vogue and the method of teaching was by recitations and demonstra tions as in other departments of scientific and literary study and not merely by lectures. About the middle of the 19th century the University of Virginia was graduating men after two courses of four and a half months each given in the same calendar year, but its examination standards were high and its graduates were taking the best places in the army and navy service. In 1827 the Washington Medical Col lege, so-called because its degrees for the first six years were conferred by Washington Col lege, Pennsylvania, was organized in Baltimore. Afterward a charter was granted by Maryland. In 1831 the Medical College of Georgia was chartered and the first course of instruction given the following year. An Academy of Medicine preliminary to this had been organ ized in 1827 at Augusta by Dr. Milton M. Anthony, the founder of the Southern Medical and Surgical Journal, the first medical periodical published in the South. It was from him that came the suggestion of a convention of the faculties of the medical colleges of the United States for the regulation of medical education and the improvement of the professional status of physicians. The movement thus initiated ripened into the organization of the American Medical Association. After this the medical schools multiplied rapidly. In 1834 the Medical School of Willoughby University, Willoughby, Lake County, Ohio, was chartered and its first course of instruction commenced in 1835. In 1835 the medical institute at Geneva College at Geneva, N. Y., the medical department of Cin cinnati College at Cincinnati, Ohio; the Ver mont Medical School at Woodstock, Vt., and the medical department of the University of Louisiana at New Orleans were chartered by the respective legislatures. In 1837 the medical departments of the University of Louisville, Ky., and of the University of the City of New York were organized, and in 1838 the medical department of Hampden Sydney College at Richmond and in 1839 the Albany Medical College at Albany, N. Y., and the medical de partment of the Pennsylvania College at Philadelphia. Philadelphia continued to be for long as it had been from the beginning of the nation's history the principal centre for medical education. It was our largest city in the early days and New York's development was ham pered by professional bickerings.