The Midwest pioneer, his ills, cures, & doctors - University Library ...

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racy," "scoundrel," "seduction and adultery," "character
gangrene," "gross impudent upstart," "hypocrite," "foul
ambition," and "Bacchanalian revelries" flew back and
forth. Professors appealed to their students as well as their
publics; they even quoted poetry at each other. It was not
an edifying spectacle, but on the other hand not an unusual
one.
Transylvania had made a valiant eflfort to overcome these
odds. In 1839 two of the faculty members made a trip
abroad to purchase equipment for their medical department.
Dr. Robert Peter reported the purchase of: "Books
[bringing the total up to eight thousand] and plates, six
thousand dollars; chemical apparatus, two thousand five
hundred dollars; preparations for anatomy and surgery,
one thousand five hundred dollars; models for obstetrics,
five hundred dollars; specimens for materia medica and
therapeutics and drawing, five hundred dollars. A total of
eleven thousand dollars." Apparatus included a new daguerrotype
outfit, which had just been revealed by its
French inventor. Said Dr. Peter, "Transylvania will shine.
No institution in our part of the world will be able to
compare with her in the means of instruction. In fact, I
have seen none in Europe that is more completely prepared
to teach modern medicine." Faculty members, however,
could not be purchased.
In 1850, after the retirement of Dr. Dudley, the winter
session was conducted at the Kentucky School of Medicine,
which had been formed at Louisville by local physicians
and various Transylvania faculty members under the leadership
of Dr. James Mills Bush; Lexington retained only a
summer school. The winter session was later resumed with
only half-hearted interest. The important period of Transylvania's
medical school had ended. In 1856-57 the medical
department ceased to operate and in 1859 was formally
abolished. The Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville
continued, however, until in 1908 it united with Louisville's
two other medical schools to form the present University
of Louisville School of Medicine.