MEDICAL EDUCATION, Colleges and Schools, Legal Supervision, etc. Before the establishment of medical schools in this coun try medical students either went abroad to study or served an apprenticeship with some practising physician. The latter custom was common in view of the expense incident to work abroad, and continued till very recently. As a rule the apprentice had little opportunity for study, but was forced to depend on what he could absorb by contact with his preceptor. The physicians of the 17th and 18th centuries who had studied abroad were usually classical students and in their preliminary training set an example that it would have been wise to fol low. The first public lectures on anatomy be fore a class of students in this country are said to have been delivered by Dr. William Hunter of Newport, R. I., in 1752. It seems, however, that Dr. Giles Firmin as early as 1647 delivered readings on human osteology in New England; that Dr. Thomas Cadwallader of Philadelphia gave instruction to students in anatomy be tween 1745 and 1751; and that Drs. John Bard and Peter Middleton dissected the human body in New York City in 1750 for purposes of medi cal instruction. 1762 Dr. William Shippen of Philadelphia gave a course of lectures on anatomy, illustratel by actual dissections. These lectures were continued till the organization of the Medical College of Philadelphia (now the medical department of the University of Penn sylvania) in 1765. Dissections were rarely per formed prior to 1760 and even autopsies were seldom permitted. At the time of the Ameri can Revolution, with a population of 3,000,000, there were probably about 3,500 physicians in the colonies, of whom it is estimated that not more than 400 had received medical degrees. In New England the clergyman was often the only available physician. Two medical schools were organized in the colonies, the Medical College of Philadelphia (now a department of the University of Pennsylvania) in 1765, and the medical department of King's (now Colum bia) College, in 1768. The first medical degree conferred in this country, that of bachelor of medicine, was granted to 10 men by the Medi cal College of Philadelphia in 1768. The de gree of doctor of medicine was first conferred in 1770 by the medical school of King's College on two students who had taken the bachelor's degree in 1769. Fifty-one medical degrees had been conferred by these institutions before 1776, operations were suspended by the war. In the colonial period two medical soci eties (the State Medical Society of New Jer sey, in 1766, and the Delaware State Medici, Society, in 1776) and one permanent genera. hospital were organized. Harvard University Medical School was organized in 1782, Dart mouth Medical College in 1797, the School of Medicine of the University of Maryland ant'.
the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York in 1807. In 1813 the medical department of Columbia College was finally discontinued; the College of Physicians and Surgeons took its place in 1860. Of the 148 medical schools now existing in the United States and regis tered by the University of the State of New York three were established between 1765 and 1800, 12 between 1801 and 1825, 19 between 181 and 1850, 29 between 1851 and 1875, 80 between 1876 and 1900, 5 between 1901 and 1904.
At the time of the organization of the early medical schools the practice of obstetrics was relegated as a rule to ignorant midwives; physi ology, histology, organic chemistry, pathology, and surgery, as now recognized, were hardly known. The schools at first conferred the de gree of bachelor of medicine on those who had studied two years with a preceptor and attended one course of lectures, the degree of doctor of medicine after threeyears of study and two courses of lectures. The bachelor's degree was abandoned in 1813. At first the Medical Col lege of Philadelphia required for admission some knowledge of Greek and Latin, physics, natural history and botany, but the require ment was abandoned about the time of the reor ganization of the University of Pennsylvania in 1792. For a century there were as a rule practically no requirements in preliminary gen eral education for admission to medical schools and even to-day this is their greatest defect In 1839 the New York State Medical Soci ety resolved that teaching and licensing ought to be separated as far as possible. Further dis cussion of this question led to a convention of delegates from all medical schools and societies in the United States, held in New York in 1846; from it sprang the American Medina: Association. This national organization, thor oughly representative in character, gave a new impetus to medical societies. The following societies have exercised an important influence in promoting higher standards: Association of American Medical Colleges (1890) ; American Institute of Homoeopathy (1844) ; National Confederation of Eclectic Medical Colleges (1871) ; Southern Medical College Association (1892). These prescribe for admission to med ical schools a preliminary general education equivalent to one year in a high school. All prescribe four courses of lectures in different years as a condition for an M.D. degree, though they give an allowance of one year to of reputable „literary colleges and of other pro fessional schools. All tend to improve facili ties for teaching, dissections and clinics. The schools registered by these societies are 72, 19, 7 and 13 respectively.