Fig . 10 Anatomy class from the one-year life of the Louisville and Hospital Medical College .
Moreover , progressively increasing entrance requirements , longer school terms and additional years ( three and then four ) were required to achieve an M . D . degree , and matriculations begin to wane . This markedly increased competition and financial stress among schools , which had over-proliferated .
first floor contained the Dean ’ s office and reception ( southeast corner ), faculty rooms , the chemical laboratory , the library and janitor ’ s rooms . The second floor contained a two-story amphitheater ( located where the current museum room sits , above the Chestnut Street entrance ), which seated 600 students and claimed perfect acoustic properties . The second floor also contained an anatomic museum , chemical room , clinical room and professors ’ rooms . The third floor contained the lecture rooms for the new sciences of histology , microscopy and bacteriology . The fourth floor contained the anatomy dissecting room under a skylight , with a tilting , tiled floor for washing , and another amphitheater for anatomy classes on the Chestnut Street side . It was “ perfectly ventilated by natural means ” and claimed to be “ well-nigh odorless .” The following year ( 1894 ) a dispensary ( teaching clinic ) was built in the same style immediate adjacent on 1 st Street ( now the current Ronald McDonald House ) ( Fig . 8 ). It contained another two-story amphitheater for surgical demonstrations . There , surgical procedures improved from those of a few years earlier ( Fig . 9A ), demonstrated emerging practices of better anesthesia and more aseptic technique ( Fig . 9B ). The dispensary also had an “ etherizing ” room , drug room , recovery room and reading room for students .
HARD CHALLENGES OVERWHELM A BRIGHT BEGINNING
The building immediately brought great pride to the faculty , as well as the Louisville community . However , severe financial challenges promptly arose . The panic of 1893 was created by depletion of US gold reserves to purchase silver , as required by the Sherman Silver Act . The four-year depression that followed severely threatened the financial stability of many institutions , including LMC .
Louisville was a perfect example of those dynamics , with five competing schools engaging in bitter public rivalry . This spilled over into the medical journals , city politics and newspapers of the time . At the turn of the century , pressure mounted for medical education reform locally and nationwide . In Kentucky , a committee of the State Medical Society was formed to facilitate merger of the Louisville schools . Also , Kentucky ’ s J . N . McCormack , M . D ., a crusading public health advocate had become a national figure . He created additional pressure for education reform and school reorganizations by urging stricter licensure laws . McCormack led a 1900 reorganization of the American Medical Association to strengthen its reputation and influence . In 1904 , the strengthened AMA formed a Council on Medical Education , which aggressively pursued education reform through a national agenda of school inspections led by Council President , A . G . Bevan , M . D ., and Executive Secretary Nathan Colwell , M . D . One of their first targets was Louisville , which Bevan described as “ one of five especially rotten spots .” These pressures caused Louisville ’ s schools finally to consolidate . In 1907 , LMC merged with the Hospital College of Medicine into the Louisville and Hospital Medical College ( Fig . 10 ). Simultaneously , U of L merged with Kentucky University . The following year , these institutions joined with the Kentucky College of Medicine to form one school under the banner of the U of L Medical Department . The elegant LMC building , the largest and most modern facility , was chosen to house the re-structured school . Opening on November 18 , 1908 with 700 students from the merged classes , U of L instantly became the largest medical school in the nation . Thus , the Louisville Medical College era came to an end , and a new chapter began for the historic Old Medical School Building , as the Medical Department of the University of Louisville .
This chapter will be told in the next article of this series .
Dr . Tobin is a professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine , Department of Surgery , Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery . He practices with UofL Physicians-Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery .
FEBRUARY 2017 21