The first meeting of the Toland Faculty was held on 5 November 1864, the opening day of the First Annual Session. The Faculty met in the office of Professor Morse pursuant to a call from President Toland. Those present were Professors Toland, Morse, Oxland, Brown, Blake, Ayres, Lane, and Bennett.
The first order of business was the election of the Dean of the College. Professor Ayres (a staunch friend of Elias Cooper) was chosen and it was agreed that the Dean would also serve as Secretary and Treasurer of the Faculty. (In accordance with Faculty By-laws, later drafted by a Rules Committee chaired by Professor Gibbons: "The Dean shall be elected by ballot at the Annual Meeting in October, and shall hold his office until the election of a successor.")
The second order of business: "On the motion of Professor Morse, it was resolved that the Faculty as a body, assume in future, the expenses of issuing the Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal; it was also proposed that at as early a period as possible, the Journal and the S. F. Medical Press be united in one." [39]
The requirements for graduation from Toland College were the same as in the Cooper school, and in American medical schools generally. That is, the candidate must be twenty-one years of age; must have attended two identical annual lecture courses of four months each; must have studied medicine for three years (the terms of attending lectures included) under the direction of a respectable medical practitioner; must write a Medical Thesis; and must pass examinations.
The College opened on 5 November 1864 and Dr. Toland delivered the Introductory Lecture. The subject was "The History of Surgery." His concluding remarks made it clear that government sanction of the College was crucial and that he would seek local and state support for his school: [40]
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It was from (Dr. Valentine Mott) that I acquired the fondness for surgery which has enabled me to obtain the means with which this building was erected. It will afford the young men of California an opportunity to prosecute the study of medicine in their native State, and become familiar with the diseases which they will in future be required to treat, provided they be permitted to enjoy the advantages that the extensive Hospital of this city affords. Nothing can be learned simply by walking through its wards. (The Hospital) must be placed under the control of men who are capable, and who feel a deep interest in the welfare of the patients as well as the success of this Institution. That alone will stimulate them to prepare clinical lectures creditable to themselves, and instructive to the students. More is necessary than the erection of a building, the appointment of Trustees and Professors, to insure success. By referring to the compend which I have presented of the History of Surgery it will become apparent to all, that devotion and intellect availed nothing, so long as they were opposed by the populace and the authorities of the Government. If this College, which has been established at immense expense, ever becomes worthy of the great State of California, it will be accomplished by the untiring industry and perseverance of the Professors, aided by the fostering care and protection of the authorities of this city as well as the rulers of the State (emphasis added). They have now presented to them the privilege of sharing the disgrace of seeing this Institution languish for want of their protection, or the credit of enabling it to spring into usefulness, and become an ornament to the city and an honor to the State. |
This statement of Toland's determination to place the College under the auspices of the State reveals the foresight and pragmatism that guided his founding of the Institution. He intuitively recognized that the prestige and material support associated with State sponsorship would be the key to its survival and future development - and to his early relief from continuing financial responsibility to underwrite it.
Campaign for the City and County Hospital. Toland's first bid for public support was a petition to the Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco for access to the patients of the City and County Hospital in return for free care by the Faculty. As we previously noted, Cooper requested access to the Hospital on similar terms in 1860 and was rebuffed by the Supervisors. When the Supervisors delayed action on Toland's request due to the opposition of some members of the Board including two prominent physicians, he mounted an aggressive editorial campaign in the Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal. Through the small subsidy granted by the Faculty at its first meeting, the Journal had been secured as the College mouthpiece and, for a time, served that purpose well. [41] [42]
The following excerpts are from a series of Journal editorials by Editor Morse during the period from August through December 1864. The editorials were designed to keep pressure on the Supervisors of San Francisco to turn over patient care in the City and County Hospital to the Toland Faculty.
First editorial: [43]
No response from the Supervisors. Second editorial: [44]
| Is there any reason why Medical Students should be driven to Eastern Schools
of Medicine, while we have such a Metropolis as San Francisco, with its
exhaustless supply of clinical elements, and such a wonderfully excellent
climate for the prosecution of medical studies?. . .
Now will San Francisco refuse to aid an effort which is now being made to found a school of medicine worthy of the State?. . . Will the Supervisors of San Francisco grant the facility which is tendered from every hospital in the principal Eastern cities, to similar educational efforts?. . .By the slightest effort upon their part, we can have the hospital over which they have control, devoted to the highest purposes of medical education. And thus would they evince a kindness which would be warmly appreciated, and at the same time practice an economy to the city which would secure them the approbation of their constituents. . .We make at any rate, one more appeal to them and the authorities generally, to appropriate the clinical facilities of the City and County Hospital to the College. . . Will the Supervisors grant this small encouragement to an effort to build up a medical school which shall be of great benefit to the city and the medical profession? |
Still no response from the Supervisors. The tone of the third editorial is more insistent: [45]
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A MONTH has now elapsed since a Medical College was opened in this city under circumstances which gave at once a guaranty of permanence and credit. At the commencement the Medical Faculty of the institution made a proposition to the Board of Supervisors to take the medical and surgical management of the City and County Hospital, and to furnish an unexceptionable resident physician and apothecary, without one cent of cost to the City, for the mere privilege of allowing medical students to see the practice of medicine and surgery, as they are permitted to do in every hospital of Eastern cities, where such schools are located. The petition was received by the Supervisors, and referred to a committee, where it is as effectually dead as if burned to ashes. . . |
When by year's end there was no reply from the Supervisors, an exasperated Toland issued a veiled threat of opposition to their reelection - a threat that was far from meaningless when emanating from a citizen of his means and influence. [46]
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We desire it to be distinctly understood that the Faculty of the "Toland Medical College." made a proposition to the Supervisors of San Francisco, to take the City and County Hospital, furnish visiting Physicians and Surgeons, a resident Physician and an Apothecary, free of all cost to the tax-payers. It was referred to a committee, and has not elicited interest enough to gain the favor of a report.. . . We supposed there must have been some radical objection (to our offer) for as a saving to the City and County it would have been very considerable. A glance at the prices which the Supervisors are paying for the very services which the Faculty would have tendered for nothing, will show that the City and County would have saved nearly five thousand dollars annually. We do not think the Supervisors have exhibited their usual sagacity in rejecting an offer which, without any conceivable risk, would have saved so much money - nor do we believe that their record in this particular will be any special benefit to them when making up their claims for continuance in office. |
In spite of Toland's persistence, the Supervisors frustrated his efforts to take over medical care in the City and County Hospital. However, beginning in 1865, clinical teaching was provided for Toland students by Drs. Holman and Soule of the Hospital Staff, just as the Staff had done for the Cooper students in 1863. It was not until 1871 that the Board of Health authorized the Professors of Toland College to take charge of the wards assigned to them by the Board. [47] [48]
We have already referred to Dr. Toland's Introductory Lecture in which he demonstrated his preoccupation with gaining access to the City and County Hospital in order to provide clinical experience for the students. Except for continued disappointment on this account, progress during the first Session was gratifying. The construction of the new building and organization of the College were completed. The first course of lectures was concluded with the graduation of eight students and a Valedictory Address by Dr. Toland. In his remarks to the students he emphasized the ethical principles governing medical practice and relations with other physicians, and indicated by the following comment that control of the County Hospital was still very much on his mind: [49]
| All we have to regret is that the authorities of this city have not placed you under great and lasting obligations to them for their cooperation with us, in endeavoring to build up an institution that must succeed, and ere long will become an honor to the state; and for affording you the facilities for instruction to which as citizens you are justly entitled. . .You, the young men of California, by the exclusion of the Faculty, have been denied access to the public hospital of this city, by men occupying a position from which every petty private prejudice should be excluded for your benefit. . . |
In the Valedictory Dr. Toland also alluded to the "public" nature of the College building and appealed for community and student support of the College Library:
| In the erection of this edifice, I have neither asked for nor received assistance; and unlike most public buildings, it is not involved in debt. I have also furnished a chemical laboratory sufficient for its present wants. The building is now completed, but not a single book adorns its walls. You have consequently been deprived of all the advantages to be derived from that source. Yet I hope, through the united efforts of its friends, that ere long they may be covered with standard medical works. And, gentlemen, will not each and all of you, when success crowns your efforts, contribute in proportion to your ability, and prepare a niche in this institution which will bear your names and transmit them to posterity. |
According to the following editorial by Dr. Gibbons in the Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal and Medical Press for April 1865, the former Cooper professors appeared at the end of the first Session of the College to be resigned to the extinction of the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific: [50]
| On the institution of the "Toland Medical College," last winter, a number of the Professors of the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, accepted chairs in that College, and the course of instruction in the older school was suspended. It is not probable that the school will be continued or revived. There is neither necessity nor material for two Medical Colleges in California, and the attempt to maintain more than one might lead to such rivalry and contention as would be injurious to the profession and to the interests of medical science. |