History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

Medical Education in Illinois 429to three, each course consisting, as before, of a separate group of subjectsor studies. Still the college was in the advance, no medical school in theUnited States having then adopted so complete and extended a curriculumof study.The year 1869 marks another epoch in the life of this institution. Anarrangement was made by which Chicago Medical College, while retainingits name, became a department of Northwestern University. What wasalso important, besides its name, it retained control of its professorships andcurriculum of study.More extended facilities for instruction were already demanded andground had been leased from die authorities of Mercy Hospital and adjoiningthat institution for the erection of a suitable and commodiousbuilding. This was completed and occupied in September 1870. The introductorylecture was delivered by Dr. Johnson, which marked the openingboth of the new building and the college session of 1870-71.The structure thus occupied by the Chicago Medical College, whichseemed to possess more of an element of permanency about it than any inwhich the institution had hitherto been established, was a substantialbuilding of brick costing $25,000. It contained two large lecture rooms oramphitheaters so that instruction could be given to different classes duringthe same hour. The dissecting rooms of the Anatomical Department wereairy and well lighted, and there were well appointed laboratories forchemical and microscopic work. In the museum was a large and continuallyincreasing collection of anatomical and pathological specimens, while thelibrary and reading rooms supplied the students with many valuable booksand periodicals, enabling them to keep abreast of the medical literature ofthe day. Located in the basement of the college building was also the SouthSide Dispensary, its patients being subdivided into classes, each class havinga separate room and an attending physician. For clinical instruction herethe students were divided into small groups and assigned in rotation to thedifferent rooms and afforded an opportunity for them to make personalexamination of the patients with their instructors.The college occupied this site for 24 years, under the contract made withthe authorities of Mercy Hospital. During this period great progress wasmade in all directions. One most important feature of this growth was thefirm establishment and extension of itssystem of clinical instruction, itsbasis being the material furnished by Mercy and St. Luke's Hospitals, thedispensary and such ambulatory patients as could advantageously bebrought before the classes in the college amphitheaters. At the time of theremoval of the college to its present location in 1894, some 15,000 patientswere being treated annually at the dispensary. The clinical classes weredistributed among Mercy, St. Luke's and Wesley Hospitals.