HISTORY
( continued from page 9 )
entrance ( a site that included the “ Museum Room ” after the 1980 ’ s renovation ). No photograph of this amphitheater has been located , but a similar one is shown in Figure 8A . A smaller anatomical amphitheater was constructed on the fourth floor above the main amphitheater . This remained in use throughout the University of Louisville ( U of L ) years until 1969 , and many senior physicians of today remember exactly their seats . This site is represented by Figure 8B , which shows first use of the “ magic lantern ” by LMC in local medical teaching . However , this illustration is from the rented facility LMC used in 1884 , just prior to construction of the new building . The fourth floor housed the dissection room of LMC and later , the U of L Anatomy Departments , both of which were legendarily strong . Physiology and Pharmacology ( then called Materia Medica and Therapeutics ) occupied the second floor . The Dean ’ s suite , Chemistry and Library were on the first floor .
THE DISPENSARY AND CLINICAL AMPHITHEATER
A significant clue of the LMC building to increasing clinical exposure in the late 19 th century is the attached Dispensary , which was built with a large clinical amphitheater ( Fig . 8C ). The LMC faculty escalated their Dispensary from a pharmaceutical clinic for the poor to a major teaching facility by adding this large clinical amphitheater with attached “ etherizing room ” and a recovery room . These newly emerging anesthesia and aseptic surgery advances could be demonstrated . These advances , including gowns , gloves and sterile instruments , would have been of enormous interest at the time . This amphitheater was dismantled early in the 20 th century , and no pictures of it have been found . A similar one from 1902 at Philadelphia ’ s Jefferson Medical College is shown to illustrate ( Fig . 8C ). The Dispensary façade has been the Ronald McDonald House entrance since the 1980 ’ s renovation ( Fig . 9 ).
MICROSCOPY AND BACTERIOLOGY FLOOR
Another clue to great 19 th century medical progress is the major space given to the emerging sciences of Microscopy and Bacteriology , with a well-equipped suite occupying the entire third floor . LMC would be at the “ cutting edge ” of this science due to this facility and engagement of a stellar bacteriology faculty . Louis Frank , MD ( 1867-1941 ), a young surgeon freshly trained by bacteriology pioneer Dr . Robert Koch in Berlin , returned to Louisville in 1893 just as
Fig . 6 ( A and B ) Ribbed barrel vaults of old Romanesque churches ; and ( C ) the motif expressed in LMC ’ s main hall .
the LMC building opened , and was immediately appointed Bacteriology Demonstrator . He was shortly followed by Carl Weidner , MD , who trained with Koch at the same time and who became an LMC professor . Dr . Koch ( 1843-1910 ) was then at the peak of his groundbreaking bacteriology discoveries ( Fig . 10 ). After creating and publishing his postulates in 1882 , Koch discovered specific organisms causing major infectious diseases . In succession , he identified mycobacterium tuberculosis ( 1882 ), vibrio cholerae ( 1883 ), corynebacterium diphtheria ( 1884 ), tetanus bacillus ( 1985 ), anaerobic growth ( 1889 ), and the organisms of malaria , plague , leprosy , surra and Texas fever in the 1890s . Thus , Drs . Frank and Weidner were introduced to landmark achievements in medical history , and they immediately transported these breakthroughs to Louisville at the new LMC building . In 1905 , Robert Koch was awarded the Nobel Prize , and this honor would be proudly acclaimed by his followers , such as Dr . Frank , Dr . Weidner and their students .
CONCLUSION : THE RIGHT PLACE AND THE RIGHT TIME IN MEDICAL HISTORY
With these architectural clues , the Old Medical School Building is a “ Rosetta Stone ” that gives insight to a heroic era of monumental medical advances . There are few places of such historical significance remaining worldwide , and we are most fortunate for its preservation . As will be told in subsequent chapters , the significance of these features was to last , and threats of destruction to the building were to come , but heroic efforts by our Medical Society preserved this priceless treasure . This monument continues to remind us of the higher purpose and enduring achievements of the medical profession we serve .
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 .
10 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE