On the evening of May 23rd 1870, barely six weeks before the scheduled opening of the Seventh Annual Session of Toland Medical College, an historic meeting was convened in the office of Dr. Gibbons at 26 Montgomery Street, San Francisco. Those present were Drs. Henry Gibbons, Levi Lane, Thomas Price, Beverly Cole and Henry Gibbons, Jr. The minutes of the meeting read: [1]
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Drs. Gibbons, Lane and Price announced their intention to resign within a few days from the Faculty of Toland Medical College, if it were decided to revive the old Medical School. After some conversation as to the best course to pursue, Dr. Gibbons moved that it be considered expedient to revive the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific. Seconded by Dr. Cole and carried unanimously. |
Following this meeting, Drs. Gibbons, Lane and Price submitted their resignations from the Toland College.
Dr. John F. Morse, who was still recuperating in Europe, elected to join Drs. Gibbons, Lane and Price and sent his letter of resignation to Dr. Toland from there. [2] [3]
We do not know what precipitated the decision of Drs. Gibbons, Lane, Price and Morse to resign. Dr. Gibbons was diplomatically vague: "Several years have elapsed, and the hopes entertained by the (Medical Department) Faculty when they withdrew from the field have not been realized." There are also "additional causes," he said, which it would be unprofitable to mention.
We can only speculate as to the "additional causes" which led to the abrupt exodus of the Cooper followers. It is reasonable to assume that Drs. Lane and Gibbons were deeply offended by the disdain with which Cooper's pioneer school and its lingering shadow within the Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal were viewed by Toland, Bennett and others like-minded. Gibbons and Lane resented being considered outsiders, invited to join the Toland Faculty only at the behest of the Cooper students whose loyalty, incidentally, they still retained. As the years passed, it became increasingly clear that the Toland School was simply an extension of the bitter factional rivalry that Cooper endured. They suspected that Toland and his inner circle had two goals in mind: to be rid of the last vestiges of the Cooper institution (including the former Cooper professors), and to acquire the imprimatur of the State of California for the Toland College. When Lane and Gibbons were finally convinced of these aims, they acted decisively to revive the Cooper school to whose ideals of sound learning and independence they were still committed. [4]
Special News Bulletin. We interrupt the narrative here to interpose, without comment, two items of "Personal News" that appeared in PMSJ for May 1870: [5]
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1. The (first) State Board of Health, as appointed by Governor Haight, consists of Drs. T. M. Logan and J. F. Montgomery, of Sacramento; H. Gibbons, Sr., and L. C. Lane of San Francisco; etc. The Board met at Sacramento on 22 April 1870 and elected Dr. Gibbons, President, and Dr. Logan, Secretary. 2. Dr. L. C. Lane, of San Francisco, was married on the 16th of March 1870, to Mrs. P. C. Cook, of the same city. (At the time of their marriage, Dr. Lane was 41 and. Mrs. Cook was 33 years of age.) [6] |
Reorganization of the Medical Department, University of the Pacific. As a memorable example of patience and loyalty, all seven physician-members of the Faculty of the Medical Department, as it stood at the conclusion of the Sixth Session of the Department in 1864, promptly responded to the call to reunite. Once the decision was made to reopen the school, reorganization proceeded at a hectic pace, with Dr. Gibbons assuming the major role in planning. The Faculty met five times during the last ten days in May 1870, and five times in June to elect officers; recruit five new members; design the curriculum; acquire facilities; publish announcements; and reinstate the Medical Department with the Board of Trustees of the University of the Pacific. All meetings were held in the office of Dr. Gibbons.
Faculty. It was rapidly determined that the reorganized Faculty would consist of the following twelve professors: [7]
Faculty
Medical Department, University of the Pacific 1870
A. J. Bowie, M. D.,
Emeritus Professor of Surgery, and President of the Faculty
J. F. Morse, M. D.,
Emeritus Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine
J. P. Whitney, M. D.,
Emeritus Professor of Physiology
Henry Gibbons, M. D.,
Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine, and Clinical Medicine
L. C. Lane, M. D.,
Professor of Surgery and Surgical Anatomy, and Clinical Surgery
Edwin Bentley, M. D.,
Professor of Descriptive and Microscopic Anatomy and Pathology
R. Beverly Cole, M. D.,
Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women
Isaac Rowell, M. D.,
Professor of Diseases of Genet-Urinary Organs, and Orthopedic Surgery
C. N. Ellinwood, M. D.,
Professor of Physiology
W. F. Smith, M. D.,
Professor of Ophthalmology and Otology
Thomas Price, M. D.,
Professor Chemistry and Toxicology
Henry Gibbons, Jr., M. D., Dean,
Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics
The Faculty now included five more physicians than when the school was inactivated in 1864. The new members were Drs. Bentley, Smith, Price, Ellinwood and Henry Gibbons, Jr. We know little of Drs. Bentley and Smith except that the former received an M. D. from the University of the City of New York in 1847, and the latter from Miami Medical College, Cincinnati, in 1868. We have already met Dr. Price as Professor of Chemistry in Toland College. He is listed as an "M. D." in both Toland College and Medical Department announcements but we can find no record of his medical degree or of his having engaged in medical practice. Dr. Ellinwood probably arrived in San Francisco after 1859 for he is not listed in the California State Register for that year [8] , but he is recorded in the San Francisco News Letter for 10 July 1875 as a graduate of Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1858.[9] Dr. Ellinwood will come later to our special attention when he succeeds to the Presidency of Cooper Medical College upon the death of Dr. Lane in 1902.
Of all the new recruits to the Faculty, the thirty year-old Henry Gibbons, Jr., (1840-1911), graduate of the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific in 1863, contributed most to the school in the long term. He was elected Dean at the Faculty meeting held on 1 June 1870, and served in that capacity with a kindly proficiency until his death forty-one years later. [10]
Curriculum. The primary reason for expansion of the Faculty was to improve coverage of recent advances in the science and practice of medicine, with special reference to Microscopic Anatomy and Pathology (Professor Bentley); Ophthalmology and Otology (Professor Smith); and Genito-Urinary Diseases (Professor Rowell).
In keeping with the national movement to raise the standards of medical education, the Faculty lengthened the term of instruction from four to five months (July through November) with a vacation of two weeks late in the term. This increase in the duration of the term was, of course, a very modest advance and fell far short of the changes being advocated by the American Medical Association to which we have previously referred. [11]
Requirements for graduation. These continued to be the same as in preceding years except that the candidate now also "must have attended at least one course of practical anatomy in the dissecting room." [12]
Fees. The fees for the 1870 Session were set to conform with those of the Toland Medical College and were slightly lower than in 1864: [13]
Fees for the Full Course: $ 130 (formerly $140)
Matriculation Fee (paid but once): $ 5
Graduation Fee: $ 40 (formerly $ 50)
Demonstrator's Ticket (dissection fee): $ 10
Facilities. Arrangements were made for the lectures to be given in the Chapel of the University (City) College. The Chapel was located on Stockton Street, south of Geary, adjoining the extensive laboratory of Professor Price which was employed to illustrate the chemical lectures. Ample means for dissection were provided and the wards of St. Mary's Hospital were, as before suspension of the school, made available for clinical instruction. [14]