Chapter 32
Trustees Defend the Medical Department
1912-1914
During the crucial period from 1912 through 1914 the rapid advance and promising
outlook of the Department of Medicine so impressed the Trustees that one of
them remarked to President Pritchett (who continued to advocate union with the
University of California) that "the medical school was the only thing that had
put any life into the University." The Department had so completely won
its way into the affections of the Trustees that the plans announced by the
Board at the May 1913 meeting included the following support for the medical
program: [1]
| In
recognition of the leading position and progress of the Medical Department, and
in order to at least partially provide for the increased expansion to the teaching
as well as to the hospital facilities, it is intended to entirely renovate the
present large hospital building, to add a substantial wing for private patients,
and to start the erection of a new woman's hospital. |
Lane
Medical Library
As an earlier evidence of their favorable disposition
toward the Medical Department, the Trustees moved promptly to honor their commitment
in the articles of consolidation to erect and maintain a library to be named for
Dr. Levi Cooper Lane and located on land already purchased.
Before their
deaths, as previously noted, Dr. and Mrs. Lane had architectural drawings prepared
for a truly monumental library building to be known as the "Hall of Aesculapius."
However, Dr. Ellinwood's appropriation of two thirds of the Lane endowment for
his personal use so reduced the funds available for a library that construction
of the "Hall" was no longer feasible. Instead the Stanford Trustees advanced funds
to the amount of $80,000 against the real property in that portion of the Lane
estate deeded to Stanford in the consolidation agreement. With the addition of
the $20,000 contributed by the Cooper Directors, the Board of Trustees under the
presidency of Trustee Timothy Hopkins constructed a spacious library building
on the corner of Sacramento and Webster Streets across from the original buildings
of Cooper Medical College.
On November 3, 1912, this substantial edifice
intended to house the Lane Medical Library of Leland Stanford Jr. University was
formally dedicated at San Francisco. Addresses were given on that occasion by
Dr. Emmet Rixford, Professor of Surgery; Mr. Timothy Hopkins,
President of the Board of Trustees; and David Starr Jordan, President of the University.
[2]
The first address was
delivered by Professor Rixford who was from the beginning the driving force behind
the founding and development of the Library of Cooper Medical College. From before
his formal appointment as Librarian in 1895 to this Dedication of the Lane Medical
Library in 1912, Dr. Rixford gave as much of his time to library affairs as he
could spare from his busy surgical practice. His address was a tribute to the
careers and contributions of Cooper and Lane, and included the history of Lane
library which he referred to as his "most beloved hobby."
He spoke of Dr.
Adolph Barkan, Professor of Ophthalmology, Laryngology and Otology as the "angel
of the library" and told how Dr. Barkan, when he retired from practice, gave his
entire library in the specialties to form the nucleus of a library on ophthalmology,
laryngology and otology. Earlier Dr. Barkan had given Cooper College $5000 to
create a so-called Teacher's Fund designed to assist teachers in the school to
travel for study and instruction. When the College properties had been given to
Stanford there was no longer need for the Teacher's Fund. The $5000 was therefore
turned into an endowment for the Barkan Library of Ophthalmology, Otology and
Laryngology within the Lane Library. To this endowment Dr. Barkan contributed
another $5000. Later he gave $10,000 as the beginning of an endowment fund for
a library on the History of Medicine. Today, the generosity of Dr. Barkan is still
gratefully acknowledged by the designation in 1996 of a spacious room in the Department
of Ophthalmology as: The Barkan Library in memory of Drs. Adolph and Hans Barkan
for their contribution to the advancement of ophthalmologic teaching, research
and treatment.
Dr. Rixford traced the growth of the Cooper College Library
which, after the death of Dr. Lane in 1902, inherited Dr. Lane's personal library
of 2000 volumes. Also included was much valuable historical material as well as
many important monographs and bound periodicals.
By 1905 the College Library
had grown to 10,000 volumes. At about this time Cooper College purchased the New
York Hospital Library from the New York Academy of Medicine as we have already
mentioned. This acquisition increased the College Library to some 40,000 volumes.
In addition Dr. Rixford, by assiduous cultivation of other sources, acquired numerous
and sundry gifts of books and periodicals. It now became clear that Cooper College
had a great library - certainly the greatest in the West and among the best nationally.
Small wonder then that President Jordan, when negotiating the consolidation
of Cooper Medical College with Stanford University, made it a sine qua non that
the Cooper College Library (to be known as the Levi Cooper Lane Library of Medicine
and Surgery) should go into Stanford's possession along with the other properties
of the College. To this the Directors of the College readily agreed but stipulated
that the Library remain in San Francisco and with the other properties be used
for "Medical Education in the sense of teaching young men and young women to be
practitioners of Medicine." The Directors would not agree to
Dr. Jordan's suggestion at the time that the College properties be used merely
as a research institution. [3]
Trustee Hopkins's remarks at the Dedication were, as behooved a man of
wealth and business interests, concerned with the broader community implications
of the Lane Library which he viewed as a capacious reservoir
of learning destined to enhance the cultural life of San Francisco: [4]
We
meet to dedicate this handsome library building to the cause of education and
to humanity, and in behalf of the Board of Trustees of Stanford University, I
welcome you. It is no severe strain upon the imagination to believe that,
as time rolls on, the three great metropolitan cities of the United States will
be Chicago, in its center, and New York and San Francisco upon its two seaboards.
A city becomes a metropolis, in the broad acceptance of the term, at that stage
in its development when, the commercial and financial resources being firmly established,
it can turn attention to the Arts and Sciences and adorn itself with libraries,
museums, art galleries, opera houses, and other evidences of the cultural side
of life. Today, in opening this Medical Library to the public, our city
by the Golden Gate has met one more requirement for entrance into the metropolitan
sisterhood, she is one step nearer the brilliant destiny awaiting her. The
cities of the Unites States in which special buildings are devoted to medical
libraries are few in number, and this building, in addition to marking an epoch
in our metropolitan progress, has the distinction of being the first structure
of a strictly non-utilitarian character (other than churches) to be completed
in the rebuilding of our municipality. The collection of books it contains may
also well be a subject of civic pride, since it ranks among the greatest in size
and importance of the medical libraries in America. |
President
Jordan's lengthy and wide-ranging closing address called attention
to the role of the private university in the challenging years ahead: [5]
We
have met today to mark a milestone in the history of Stanford University on the
one hand, and in the history of medical education on the other. It is a milestone
that we mark, not an epoch, for epoch-making events do not often appear more than
once in a life time. But a milestone marks progress even though after it is set
up all shall go on as before. Stanford University is now twenty-one years
old. Its days were opened on a hopeful morning of October in California, where
all days are hopeful, just twenty-one years ago. It has come of age. It is old
enough to be doing the work of a grown university. And there is no work
of the University more worthy or more needed than medical instruction and medical
research, the training of men who shall help their fellows in all their bodily
ills, on the basis of the best and fullest knowledge, while themselves adding
day by day to the world's stock of wisdom. In these days medical research stands
on the firing line of the advance of science. There is no branch of knowledge
which is moving more rapidly and there is none which contributes equally to the
aggregate of human welfare. We dedicate today the home of the Lane Medical
Library of Stanford University to medical practice and medical research. It is
the gift of the will of Mrs. Levi Cooper Lane. It begins its existence with a
handsome building adequate for its needs for years to come. When it must be extended
we hope that the grateful people of San Francisco will be here to see that all
its needs are met. It has already on this initial day a library of nearly
forty-thousand volumes, all relating to medical practice and medical research,
a good number of books as you will see when you compare it with other libraries
devoted elsewhere to the same subject. The importance to San Francisco
of such a collection of medical books kept up-to-date by a steady inflow of the
best journals and monographs is obvious. The library is the natural center for
creative effort hence for all research, since there is no loss of energy so needless
as in the doing again that which has been well done before. All new work must
be based upon knowledge that has gone before. The breath of life of all research
is the joy of seeking for the unknown. Chance discoveries of great moment in medicine
are no longer to be made at random. Piece by piece must new truths be found and
correlated. Each investigator must rest his work upon that of others. He must
stand on the shoulders of the past if he is to look into the future. . . . |
Dean
Ray Lyman Wilbur, who was deeply involved in the planning of the library building,
was not one of the speakers at the Dedication Ceremony but was invited to contribute
the following appendix to the published proceedings. He used this opportunity
to describe the library facilities and to make a progress report
on the academic development of the Medical Department: [6]
The
new Lane Medical Library Building, in which the volumes of the University's Department
of Medicine are now shelved and at the service of the students of the Department
and of the medical profession, is not only thoroughly modern and convenient, but
beautiful as well. Constructed on a steel frame, the
exterior is of smooth Colusa sandstone of a soft gray color, while the interior
gives an impression of spacious substantiality and quiet. [7]
[8] The
general reading room, with its open shelves of reference volumes, its broad reading
tables and its quiet green walls, is particularly fortunate . . . The forty-thousand
volumes which at present constitute the library and make it the largest of any
of the university medical libraries in
America, are easily accommodated on the shelves, which can hold half as many more,
without further addition. [9]
[10] The dedication of
the Lane Medical Library Building marks the completion of the
first stage in the development of the Stanford University Medical Department.
In fact its possession is a great asset in the development of proper medical teaching
and makes the new Medical Department unique in this country. 
The
high standard that Stanford set in medical education, requiring three years of
University work for admission into medicine, placed the Medical Department at
once in the front rank of such institutions. The requirements are equal to those
of Cornell and Western Reserve University and not unlike those of Harvard, Columbia
and Pennsylvania. Johns Hopkins requires an A. B. degree for admission; Harvard
admits upon an A. B. degree but permits students who have covered certain special
subjects to enter after two years of University work. It has been a source
of gratification that, in spite of these high requirements, forty-six students
have registered in Medicine even before a single class has been graduated. The
class of five, sent up to San Francisco in January, 1910, has now been increased
to ten, two students having joined it from the University of California last year,
and one each from Johns Hopkins, the University of Chicago and Cooper Medical
College this year. It is anticipated that there will be a slow but steady growth
in the number of students but that the number admitted will always be small. The
space made available in the Clinical and Laboratory Building by the removal of
the Library, together with a portion of the former auditorium, is being remodeled
and within a month the Medical Department will have the best equipped outpatient
clinics west of Chicago. On 1 July 1912, the control of Lane Hospital passed into
the hands of the Clinical Committee of the Medical Department so that the University
Hospital is now under the direct supervision of the instructing staff, a most
important advantage in proper medical teaching and one possessed by but few American
medical schools. Furthermore, arrangements have been made by the Board of Trustees
to facilitate the business management of the Hospital and Medical Department in
San Francisco and to improve the service for the private rooms. It is of sentimental
interest that the home formerly occupied by Dr. and Mrs. Lane, which is in the
block opposite the hospital, is now being used as a temporary nurses' home. As
at present organized - with the Lane Medical Library, Lane Hospital; the outpatient
clinics and the laboratories in San Francisco; the excellent services at the San
Francisco Hospital; and with the laboratories of Chemistry, Physiology, Anatomy,
Bacteriology, Pharmacology, Physics, Zoology and Botany on the campus - there
is no better Medical Department for a limited number of students in this country.
Like all growing things, the Medical Department has many pressing needs.
Among them are the construction of a new nurses' home and women's clinic, for
which land is likewise available, and the construction of a new children's hospital.
The further endowment of Lane Hospital and the endowment of certain professorships
is very much needed in order that the institution may grow in the best way. A
number of alumni and others have contributed books and money to the Library and
money to the Hospital, both for the upkeep of beds and for special expenses. .
. In general, it can be said that for the short time that Stanford has
been engaged in medical education, she has made a good record. Future development
has been planned for in such a way that advantage can be taken of any help, great
or small, that comes to the Medical Department. The advent of Stanford
into San Francisco is of much significance. The number of people concerned is
alone worthy of mention. Besides the Faculty and students, there is a metropolitan
hospital with an average of 150 patients, changing from day to day, a Training
School of 80 nurses, and employees of like number and from 50,000 to 60,000 visits
per year in the out-patient clinical departments. |
Medical
Department entitled School of Medicine and Executive Head, the Dean. As chairman
of President Jordan's Committee of Three on Organization of
the Department of Medicine, Professor John M. Stillman wrote the following letter
to Dr. Emmet Rixford, Secretary of Cooper Medical College: [11]
20
November 1908: Dear Dr. Rixford: It has been suggested that the
designation of the medical organization as "Department" or "School" may have some
influence on the prestige of the school or department in the future development,
and the members of the Medical Committee might consider that question. I
enclose for reference a list of the official titles of the medical organizations
of a number of the prominent universities of this country. If there occur
to you any reasons for believing that there would be a gain in adopting the designation
of "School" instead of the name "Department" which is at present the only unit
recognized in the University, I should be pleased to hear from you. Also I should
be pleased to hear your individual preference as to the name which would be most
advantageous and dignified. Very truly yours,
J. M. Stillman |
Professor.
Stillman listed 15 universities of which only three (Harvard, Columbia and Indiana)
used the title "medical school." The remaining 12 universities (including Johns
Hopkins, Yale, Pennsylvania, Cornell, Chicago, California, etc.,) used the title
"department" or "college."
Stanford retained the titles "Stanford University
Department of Medicine" and "Executive Head of the Department
of Medicine" until the Board of Trustees adopted the following resolutions at
its meeting in May 1913: [12]
| Resolved,
That the recommendation of the President of the University that the use of the
term "Medical School" be authorized to designate the professional work within
the Department, the relation of the Department of Medicine and its students to
the University at large to be in no wise changed by the use of this phrase, be
approved; |
And, That the title of Executive Head of the Department
shall be "Dean."
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