THE PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
The first steps toward the establishment of a Faculty of Medicine and
Surgery were taken in 1847. The Medical Building was not completed,
however, until two years later, and the formal opening of the new
Department did not take place until October 1, 1850. On this occasion
Abram Sager, the first President, or Dean of the Faculty, as we should
now call him, delivered an address to ninety matriculates, at a time
when there were only sixty-four students all told in the Literary
Department. The period was propitious for the installation of a strong
school, for although there were a few struggling medical institutions in
the West, the vigorous growth of the new Department showed how
inadequately this part of the country was served in medical education.
The entrance requirements were simple; a fair high school education,
with Latin and Greek sufficient for the understanding of medical terms.
For graduation, at least three years' study with a reputable physician
was required; but this might include the two six-month courses of
lectures which comprised the work of the Department. Even this very
slender medical preparation was not required of college graduates, or of
students who had already practised medicine four years, for whom one
course was deemed sufficient. A thesis was also necessary for
graduation, and tradition has it that in a few cases during the earlier
days of the Department, they were actually written and delivered in
Latin. Special attention was given to laboratory work in chemistry and
anatomy, though for the most part the training was given through
lectures and quizzes. The conservatism of the Literary Department in
educational methods here also found its parallel, even in the
comparatively new sciences.
The introduction of clinical methods came slowly, though the growing
city of Ann Arbor furnished many opportunities for actual diagnosis and
treatment. The lack of practical facilities for study was early
recognized, however, and within a few years some of the members of the
Medical Faculty established a school for clinical instruction in
Detroit, which eventually led to the first effort for the removal of the
school mentioned in the last chapter. In spite of this difficulty the
Department grew so rapidly that within ten years it had an enrolment of
242 matriculates and 43 graduates; more students than were enrolled at
Yale, Harvard, or Virginia, the leading medical schools of that day. The
growth came so rapidly, in fact, that it proved embarrassing and the
Regents experienced great difficulty in finding accommodations for the
students. In 1864 an addition was made to the original Medical Building
which more than doubled its capacity and in 1868 one of the professors'
houses on the north side of the Campus was fitted up as the first
University Hospital. By 1874 Latin and Greek had been dropped from the
requirements for admission; a possible backward step which was more than
counterbalanced three years later by the extension of the annual course
of lectures to nine months. Finally in 1880 an extra year was added to
the course.
The long roster of the Medical Faculty has included many distinguished
names, of which but a few can be mentioned, and none with the detail
their services to their profession and to science deserve. The first
Faculty consisted of the two recruits from the Literary Department, Dr.
Sager, who became Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and
Children, and Dr. Douglas, who assumed the chair of Chemistry, Pharmacy,
and Medical Jurisprudence in the new school; as well as four other
members, Moses Gunn, who was a graduate of Geneva Medical College, 1846,
Professor of Anatomy and Surgery; Samuel Denton, Castleton Medical
College (Vermont), '25, a former Regent, who became Professor of the
Theory and Practice of Medicine and Pathology; J. Adams Allen,
Middlebury, '45, Professor of Therapeutics, Materia Medica, and
Physiology; and R.C. Kedzie, '51_m_, demonstrator of anatomy, who later
was for nearly forty years Professor of Chemistry at the Michigan
Agricultural College.
Dr. Sager, the first Dean of the Department, was one of its most learned
and versatile members; so thoroughly possessed of the scientific spirit
that his abilities were not always appreciated by his students, or, it
must be confessed, by his colleagues. Of his ability as a practitioner
"a few of the older residents of Ann Arbor speak reverently and
lovingly." Dr. Gunn, who had charge of the Anatomical Laboratory, the
first laboratory to be established in the University, deserves, in the
opinion of Dr. Vaughan, the present Dean of the School, to be called the
founder of the Department. This honor, however, might properly be
divided with Dr. Zina Pitcher of Detroit, who, as a member of the first
Board of Regents, was responsible for the early introduction of the
teaching of medicine in the University. But Dr. Gunn was on the ground
as early as 1849, and from the first he labored earnestly and
effectively in the organization of the new Department, which was beset
by many difficulties, particularly in his own field, where the problem
of finding adequate material for the study of anatomy was almost
insuperable for many years. Many are the hints given in the
reminiscences of the older men of the practical ways this difficulty was
met, but for the most part the matter is shrouded in a discreet silence.
Dr. Gunn was of a commanding character and presence and his "trained
hand dared to do many operations, the landmarks of which were not then
described in the works on surgery." He soon gave up his work in Anatomy
and was succeeded in 1854 by Dr. Corydon La Ford, Geneva, '42, a
sensitive and earnest teacher, who had a way of "making dry bones and
anatomical tissues of absorbing interest." It is said of him that in his
day he probably taught more students than any other teacher of anatomy.
Occupying hardly a lesser place than Dr. Ford in the memories of the
older medical graduates was his factotum, Gregor Nagele, better known as
"Doc" Nagele. As an immigrant just landed, he helped in the construction
of the old Medical Building and remained to become for years the
presiding genius of the Department, and, through his long association
with Dr. Ford, an unofficial demonstrator of anatomy to the "boys."
Dr. Denton, another member of that first Faculty, was long remembered by
his students because of his high hat and his buck-board wagon, as well
as by his belief in the medical efficiency of alcohol; in which he came
into violent conflict with one of his confrères and eventual successor
in the Professorship of Pathology and Theory and Practice. This was Dr.
A.B. Palmer, a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in
1839, who in 1854 succeeded Dr. Allen, the first of the original Faculty
to go. Dr. Palmer was a conspicuous personage in Ann Arbor for many
years, energetic in public welfare and a lover not only of his
profession but of his professorship and its duties. One of his
students remarks: "He would have been willing to get up in the night and
lecture if asked, so enthusiastic was he in his efforts to help the
student." He was the first member of the Medical Faculty to apply for
leave of absence that he might study abroad. That was in 1858.
[Illustration: THE ENGINEERING BUILDING]
[Illustration: THE MEDICAL BUILDING]
Other appointments of particular importance in the earlier years of the
Medical Department were those of Samuel G. Armor, Missouri Medical
College, '44, who became Professor of the Institutes of Medicine and
Materia Medica in 1861, and of Albert Benjamin Prescott, '64_m_, who
entered the same year upon his long term of distinguished service in the
Chemical Laboratory and later the Department of Pharmacy, loved and
honored by many generations of students. Changes in the personnel of the
Faculty were frequent, however, and few men remained long enough to
identify their lives wholly with that of the University. When Dr. Sager
retired as Emeritus Professor and Dean in 1874, Dr. Edward S. Dunster,
New York College of Medicine and Surgery, '59, was appointed to his
chair, and held it until his death in 1888. Dr. Palmer succeeded Dr.
Sager as Dean, but in 1887, the position passed to Dr. Ford, and then,
in 1891, to Dr. Victor C. Vaughan, Mt. Pleasant (Mo.) College, '72; M.D.
(Michigan), '78, the first graduate of the School to become its Dean. He
has been a member of the Faculty since 1879, serving as Professor of
Physiology and Pathological Chemistry and Assistant Professor of
Therapeutics and Materia Medica.
As the growth of the School continued and as the field of medical
knowledge widened, new laboratories and professorships were continually
becoming necessary. The early history of the Anatomical Laboratory has
been touched upon. Dr. Ford remained in charge until 1894, when he was
succeeded by Dr. J. Playfair McMurrich, Toronto, '79, who did much for
the advancement of the scientific study of anatomy until his return to
Toronto in 1907, when George Linius Streeter, Union, '95, assumed the
chair. He resigned in 1914, and Dr. G. Carl Huber, '87_m_, Professor of
Histology then became Director of the Anatomical Laboratories. Mention
should also be made in this place of the services of Dr. George E.
Fothingham, '64_m_, Professor of Ophthalmology from 1870 to 1889, who
for some years was connected with the Department of Anatomy and drafted
the first good anatomical law.
Courses in histology were given as far back as 1856 but the emphasis on
scientific methods did not come for many years, and the courses in both
histology and physiology were long taught solely by lectures. In 1877,
however, the Legislature appropriated $3,500 for a laboratory in those
subjects and Dr. C.H. Stowell, '72_m_, was appointed instructor,
becoming Assistant Professor in 1880. About the same time a separate
chair in physiology was created with Dr. Henry Sewall, Wesleyan, '76, as
the first Professor. Under Dr. Sewall the Physiological Laboratory grew
rapidly; new apparatus was purchased and many valuable researches were
conducted, not the least of these being the proof, published in 1887,
that pigeons might be immunized against rattle-snake poison,--one of the
first cases of the production of an artificial immunity. The two
departments were again united in 1889 under Dr. William H. Howell, Johns
Hopkins, '81. He was succeeded in 1892 by Dr. Warren P. Lombard,
Harvard, '78, who held both Professorships until 1898, when Dr. Huber,
at that time Assistant Professor of Anatomy, was made Director of the
Histological Laboratory, becoming Junior Professor in 1899 and
Professor of Histology and Embryology four years later.
A Laboratory in Electro-Therapeutics was opened in 1878, the first of
its kind in America, largely through the efforts of Dr. John W. Langley,
Harvard, '61, M.D. Michigan, (hon.) '77, Professor of General Chemistry
at that time; but the subject did not become a compulsory part of the
course until the appointment in 1890 of Dr. William J. Herdman, '72, who
had been a member of the Medical Faculty since 1875, as Professor of
Nervous Diseases and Electro-Therapeutics. Practical instruction in
pathology was inaugurated in 1879 under Dr. Herdman and Dr. Victor C.
Vaughan, but the beginnings were modest and laboratory work only became
incorporated in the course in 1888 under Dr. Heneage Gibbes, Aberdeen,
'79, called from London as Professor of Pathology. Even then the
quarters were extremely limited and the laboratory was moved several
times before its final establishment in the present Medical Building in
1903. In 1895 Dr. George Dock, Pennsylvania, '84, Professor of the
Theory and Practice of Medicine and Clinical Medicine since 1891,
succeeded Dr. Gibbes in the chair of Pathology but resigned it in 1903
to Dr. Aldred Scott Warthin, '91_m_, (Indiana, '88), who became also
Director of the Pathological Laboratory.
A request from the State Board of Health led to the opening of a
Hygienic Laboratory in 1888, with the threefold object of instruction,
research, and the examination of suspected food and water, with Dr. V.C.
Vaughan, who had come to the University in 1875 as an assistant in the
Chemical Laboratory, as its first Director.
The first officially recognized Laboratory of Clinical Medicine was
established by Dr. Dock, when he came to the University in 1891, with
the purpose of carrying out the instrumental investigation of disease,
and teaching the technique of diagnosis. This was followed the next year
by demonstration courses in the different branches of medicine and
surgery. Dr. Dock was succeeded, upon his resignation in 1908, by Dr. A.
Walter Hewlett, California, '95, who returned to Leland Stanford, Jr.
University after six years' service.
A Surgical Laboratory, established soon after Dr. Charles de Nancrède,
Pennsylvania (M.D.), '69, came as Professor of Surgery, speedily proved
its educational value, and increasing facilities were offered students
for the demonstration of surgery on bodies and on animals, with the same
care taken as to antiseptics, asepsis, and dressings as in actual
operations. Dr. de Nancrède retired in 1917, and in 1919 Dr. Hugh Cabot,
Harvard, '94, succeeded to the chair. A Laboratory in Experimental
Pharmacology, still another instance of a brand new venture on the
University's part, was established in 1891 under Dr. John Jacob Abel,
'83. He only remained two years, however, and was succeeded by Dr.
Arthur R. Cushny, Aberdeen, '86, of London, under whom the new
laboratory assumed its present important place. Dr. Cushny returned to
the University College in London in 1905 and the Professorship of
Pharmacology eventually passed to Dr. Charles W. Edmunds, '01_m_, at
present Secretary of the Medical School. As the result of long effort on
the part of Dr. Herdman, who held the chair of Nervous Diseases, a State
Psychopathic Hospital, the first of its kind in the country, was
established at the University in 1903 under the joint supervision of the
Regents and a State Board, affording a practical laboratory and clinic
for students specializing in nervous diseases. It has been under the
direction of Dr. Albert M. Barrett, Iowa, '93, Professor of Psychiatry
since 1906.
The old make-shift hospital on the Campus was enlarged in 1876, but it
was never able to overtake the ever-increasing demand, and a new
building eventually became imperative. This came in 1891, when the
present Hospital, soon fated to go the way of the first, was erected
northeast of the Campus on the hills above the Huron River. Designed to
accommodate about eighty patients, it has been enlarged again and again,
until finally in 1919 the State appropriated over a million dollars for
an entirely new building, which will cost eventually three times that
sum, to be completed in 1922. Not only will this new Hospital
accommodate nearly six hundred patients under the far more exacting
requirements of modern hospital practice, but it will also be by far the
largest hospital controlled entirely by a medical school and maintained
for the sole benefit of the people of a state.
The medical course was finally increased in 1890 to four years of nine
months, while the entrance requirements were placed on the same basis as
the admission to the classical or scientific courses in the Literary
Department. At the same time a "combination" course enabled the student
to graduate from both the Literary Department and the Medical School in
six years. The final evolution of the curriculum up to the present time
came in 1914 when this combination was made compulsory. This meant that
at least two years' preliminary work in the Literary College was
required before the student was permitted to enter the Medical School.
In 1903 a new Medical Building was completed at a cost of about
$200,000, to provide the class rooms and laboratories for the work of
the first two years. It contains two amphitheaters, two lecture rooms,
and the laboratories of hygiene, bacteriology, physiological chemistry,
anatomy, histology and embryology and pathology, as well as the
pathological museum. To the great regret of many medical alumni, and in
fact all who loved the relics of the University's first days, the
picturesque old Medical Building with its simple Greek portico was razed
in 1914. It had been considered unsafe for some time, and stood
abandoned and unused at one side of the new building.
Although the original University Act called for a Law Department, and
even gave it first place in their scheme for organization after the
Literary College, the favorable time for its establishment did not
appear for nearly twenty years. There were already a number of law
schools in operation elsewhere, one of them at the University of
Pennsylvania dated as far back as 1790; but for the most part legal
education was haphazard and primitive. Candidates for the bar ordinarily
prepared for practice by reading in a lawyer's office, a good old method
that perhaps has some merits, but one which did not, save in the case of
a teacher of exceptional qualifications, give a uniform preparation or
an insight into the principles of legal philosophy. As the general level
of education advanced, however, the advantages of some systematic
instruction in law became more and more apparent, and it was not long
after the establishment of the University before demands for a Law
School began to be heard. This sentiment grew, in spite of the
conservatism, and even active opposition, of the lawyers of the old
school who believed the established office method of education the only
practical one.
[Illustration: PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE OLD HOSPITALS]
[Illustration: THE NEW HOSPITAL BUILDING (From the architect's plans)]
[Illustration: THE LAW BUILDING]
Finally, in spite of the financial problem involved, the new Department
was formally opened in October, 1859, with an entering class of
ninety-two students. It had long been assumed that only one
Professorship would be required; but when the Board really faced the
problem it had a wider vision, and the first Faculty consisted of three
men. These have sometimes been called "the great triumvirate," Judge
James V. Campbell, St. Paul's College, '41, of the State Supreme Court,
who became Marshall Professor of Law, with Common and Statute Law as his
field; Charles I. Walker, a practising lawyer of Detroit, Kent Professor
of Pleading, Practice and Evidence; and Thomas McIntyre Cooley of
Adrian, who came as Jay Professor of Equity Jurisprudence, Pleading, and
Practice. These men had all been trained through the usual course of
"reading" in a lawyer's office--all the higher education they received,
with the exception of Judge Campbell.
Never has a law school started under more favorable auspices, certainly
never with such a Faculty. To the learning and personal character, as
well as to the ability as teachers, of these three men thousands of
graduates of the School ascribe their remarkable success in later life.
Judge Campbell, the first Dean, was characterized by his wide, accurate,
and scholarly knowledge; while the refinement of his literary style and
his stimulating personality made him one of the most delightful of
lecturers. Professor Walker was the type of man who was willing to
sacrifice one day a week out of a large and remunerative practice for
the education of young men in his profession. His interests extended
beyond his legal labors, for he was well known through his scholarly
investigations in the early history of the State. His courses, which
might so easily have been perfunctory, were on a par with those of his
distinguished confrères, stimulating and profound and sometimes
punctuated with a dry wit, well illustrated by his epigram that "some
men live by their practice and some by their practices."
Thomas M. Cooley, the youngest one of this group and the only one to
make his home in Ann Arbor, probably, in his later years, gave more
distinction to the University than any other teacher upon its long
rolls. He became known, not only nationally but internationally, for his
great work on "Constitutional Limitations" which will probably always be
the standard work on the American Constitution. This appeared in 1868.
He was also the author of many other books, including a "History of
Michigan." During his service of twenty-one years on the State Supreme
Bench, the Court acquired a national reputation. At the time of his
death he was a member of the first Interstate Commerce Commission. His
home, which stood on the site the Union now occupies, and which for nine
years was used as the Union Club House, was long a center of the
intellectual and social life of Ann Arbor. One of his pupils, William R.
Day, '70, now of the United States Supreme Court, says of him: "Here was
a man of world-wide fame as a jurist--the author of a book which is at
once the greatest authority upon the subject of constitutional
limitations upon our government, and a classic in legal
literature--whose recreations seemed to consist in change of occupation,
and whose energies seemed never to tire."
The enrolment in the new school grew with even greater rapidity than had
that of the Medical School during its first years. By 1911 the Law
School, as it came to be known after 1910, had given 9,041 degrees,
almost equaling the 9,225 granted up to that time by the Literary
College and more than double the 4,260 degrees granted by the Medical
School. The balance of attendance, however, has been with the Literary
College since 1897, when the requirement in the Law School was increased
to three years. It must be understood, too, that any comparison of this
character between the Law and the Literary Departments can only be on a
quantitative basis, for the traditional four years' work had always been
demanded in the Literary College; whereas in early days, the law course
consisted only of two terms of lectures of six months each, with only
one requisite for admission; that the candidates should be eighteen
years of age and of good moral character. Nevertheless these early
students stood well in respect to ability, some "were already practising
lawyers, and others were on the verge of being admitted to the bar"; men
who came to take advantage of the lectures before entering definitely
upon practice. Only seniors were quizzed, but they were quizzed on
junior as well as senior subjects, while at the end an oral examination
was given. If this ordeal was passed satisfactorily and an acceptable
thesis presented, the candidate received his LL.B.
Professor Hinsdale in his "History," in speaking of these earlier years,
said: "A feebler organization and a looser administration could hardly
have held the School together. Indeed, if the mark of a school is to be
found in organization and administration, then this was hardly a school
at all; but if such mark is to be found in the ability of teachers, the
value of the instruction given, and the enthusiasm of students, it was a
school of high order. In a word, it was the Professors and the
conditions, not organization, administration, and discipline, that made
the School what it was."
Since 1877, when it was announced that students henceforth were expected
to be well grounded in at least a good English education, the
requirements in the Law School have been gradually raised; in fact one
may almost trace the reflection of the increasing requirements in the
fluctuating attendance. Following a requirement that an examination in
ordinary high school branches must be passed by all students except
those who had completed a high school course, the standard of admission
was made in 1898 the same as for the admission to the old B.L. course in
the Literary Department. In 1884 the two annual terms which had
heretofore made up the course were lengthened from six to nine months;
and in 1886 a graduated course of instruction was introduced, resulting
in the separation of the two classes which, up to that time, had always
recited together. In 1895, after due notice, a third year was added.
The last and perhaps most far-reaching steps in the history of the Law
School were taken in 1912, when one year in the Literary College was
required, and in 1915, when another year was added, making the law
course one of five years. Other significant advances have also been made
of late years; the establishment of the special degree of J.D. (Juris
Doctor) for exceptional students, and particularly the addition of an
optional sixth year of special studies for those who wished to carry
their work further, leading to the degree of Master of Laws.
With these changes in the requirements has come also a revolution in
methods of teaching and even in the fundamental policies of the School.
There are three methods ordinarily applied in teaching law; the lecture,
the textbook, and the study of selected cases. The early courses were
almost entirely lectures, textbooks not appearing until 1879, while the
study of cases, used somewhat even at the very first, has now become the
principal method of establishing legal principles. The question is
largely one of the aim of a school, whether to make the student
familiar with the actual rules and practice in the different parts of
the country so that he will be able to take up his profession, if only
in a limited way, at once; or whether to emphasize fundamental
principles and the evolutionary character of the law, which can best be
discovered from the study of decisions and cases, in order to prepare
for the far more significant and useful career open to one who has the
background, as well as the ordinary rules of law, upon which to base his
actions. President Hutchins, when Dean of the Law School, emphasized
this when he said: "The Law School of today should teach and should
encourage the study of law in its larger sense." This policy has been
consistently developed by the present Dean, Henry M. Bates, '90, who not
only insists on the higher mission of the Law School in this regard but
also believes it "must not only train men to be effective lawyers
adhering steadfastly to high ethical standards, but it must also instil
into them a strong sense of responsibility to the community, and those
ideals of service which are among the oldest and finest but, perhaps,
sometimes forgotten traditions of the bar."
The Faculty of the Law School has always remained relatively small in
proportion to the numbers of students--largely because of the methods of
teaching, and the absence, inherent in the subject, of any laboratory
save the practice court. A fourth professorship was created in 1866 and
named after the Hon. Richard Fletcher of Boston, who had given his legal
library to the University. This was occupied in 1868 by Charles A. Kent,
Vermont, '52, who was Dean of the Department at the time of his
resignation in 1886. The Fletcher Professorship has been held since 1897
by Judge Victor H. Lane, '74_e_, '78_l_. A Tappan Professorship was
established in 1879, an honor acknowledged with great pleasure by the
first President, then living in Switzerland, and was held for four years
by the Hon. Alpheus Felch, Bowdoin, '27, one of the most distinguished
citizens of the State, who had served as United States Senator,
Governor, and Regent. The Professorship passed eventually to Henry Wade
Rogers, '74, afterward Dean of the Yale Law School, and in 1903 to Henry
M. Bates, '90. Mr. Walker resigned in 1876 and Judge Cooley in 1884,
though the latter continued to give lectures on special subjects and
remained on the Faculty as Professor of American History and
Constitutional Law. Judge Campbell became the first Dean of the
Department but resigned in 1871, when he was succeeded by Judge Cooley.
After the latter gave up his active duties Charles A. Kent became Dean,
to be followed by Henry Wade Rogers, '74, in 1885; Jerome C. Knowlton,
'75, in 1890; and Harry Burns Hutchins, '71, in 1895. The present Dean,
Henry M. Bates, '90, succeeded Dr. Hutchins when he was elected to the
Presidency of the University in 1910.
The Law Library, which contains over 40,000 volumes, is the largest of
the departmental collections. In addition to Judge Fletcher's early gift
of eight hundred volumes, two other considerable gifts have added to its
resources, the Buhl Collection, presented by Mr. C.H. Buhl of Detroit in
1885, with a fund of $10,000 for additions to it, and the library
presented by Judge S.T. Douglas of Detroit in 1898. The Library now
occupies a large room at the south end of the second floor of the
present Law Building.
The first courses of the Law School were given in the old chapel in the
North Wing, or Mason Hall, where the Law Library was installed with the
General Library above. This proved a most unsatisfactory arrangement
for the growing school and in 1863 a new Law Building was dedicated on
the northwest corner of the Campus. This building in turn quickly became
inadequate for the needs of the still rapidly expanding department. Some
relief was given in 1872 by using the Chapel in the new University Hall,
and again in 1882, when the University Library which had been housed up
to this time in the Law Building was moved to its new quarters. The Law
Building was remodeled and enlarged in 1893 and a second time in 1898,
when it was almost completely made over into its present form.
The College of Engineering, the fourth of the larger divisions of the
University, was in fact the last to be established, as it was not until
1895 that the Regents authorized its organization as an independent
department with Professor Charles E. Greene, Harvard, '62, as its first
Dean.
The history of the course in engineering, however, is almost as old as
the University, and really begins with the designation of a chair in
Civil Engineering and Drawing in the article authorizing the University.
That was as far as the matter went, however, for the first fifteen
years, or until the appointment of Alexander Winchell in 1853 as
Professor of Physics and Civil Engineering. Physics is the science upon
which the profession of the civil engineer rests and the two subjects
were closely associated in those days of small beginnings. There is
little to indicate that Professor Winchell or his successor to the chair
in 1855, William G. Peck, West Point, '44, did much to advance the
engineering half of their charge. But with the coming of DeVolson Wood
as Assistant Professor, immediately upon his graduation in 1857 from
Rensselaer Polytechnic, the cause of engineering was properly presented
to the students. Though the fourth institution in this country to offer
courses in engineering, the first two students were not graduated until
1860, so that actually Michigan became the sixth institution in America
to grant degrees in that branch of scientific training.
Professor Charles S. Denison, whose long service in the University began
as an instructor just before Professor Wood's resignation, pays a
tribute to his sturdy and at the same time genial character, his
powerful intellect, and singularly virile influence on his students. He
showed remarkable energy and administrative ability, in spite of many
difficulties and a general lack of understanding of his aims in
technical education, characteristic of those days. It is told of him
that he even recommended an adaptation of one of the professors' houses
on the Campus to the needs of the work in engineering, exactly thirty
years before it was actually done. While he was here a course in
military engineering was organized in 1862 and he delivered a course of
lectures on that subject, but after the war it was abandoned. A similar
fate overtook the School of Mines established in 1864-65, owing to the
desire of the residents of the Northern Peninsula to have a state
institution in that section, although a number of degrees in mining
engineering were granted. A course in mechanical engineering was also
authorized by the Regents in 1868, one of the very first to be organized
in this country, but the degree was abolished two years later and the
course was merged with civil engineering. One of the last acts of
Professor Wood, before his resignation to accept a similar chair at
Stevens Institute of Technology, was to present to the Regents a
detailed plan for a School of Engineering and Technology as a fourth
department of the University--foreshadowing the action taken
twenty-three years later when engineering was made a separate
department in the University.
The appointment of Charles Ezra Greene, Harvard, '62, Mass. Inst.
Technology, '68, in 1872 marks a definite period in the history of this
department. He found himself associated with two other men who had been
instructors for a short period under Professor Wood, J.B. Davis, '68_e_,
Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, who became Professor of
Geodesy and Surveying in 1891, and Charles S. Denison, Vermont, '70, who
was to be in later years Professor of Stereotomy, Mechanism, and
Drawing. These men saw the Department grow almost to its present
proportions, and, as the first Faculty, formed a most harmonious
combination of unusually varied elements. Professor Greene was a scholar
and scientist who had a wide reputation as an engineer and an author;
Professor Davis, on the contrary, was a practical man, a genius, whose
love of the outdoors and fatherly care of his "boys" even extended to
their "rubbers" on wet days, while his homely and wise sayings endeared
him to every student. Professor Denison was a bachelor, small and very
particular in personal appearance, who was long known by the students as
"Little Lord Chesterfield," but an able teacher who was loved for his
big heart and his very mannerisms. A course in mechanical engineering
was again inaugurated in 1881 when Mortimer E. Cooley, Annapolis, '78,
Assistant Engineer, U.S.N., was detailed to the University by the Navy
Department and became the first Professor of Mechanical Engineering. In
1885 he resigned from the Navy and definitely cast his lot with the
University, becoming Dean of the College of Engineering in February,
1904, after the death of Professor Greene in October, 1903. At the same
time Professor Davis became Associate Dean and maintained an intimate
and paternal care over the students until his retirement in 1910.
The Department of Electrical Engineering was organized in 1889, under
the charge of Henry S. Carhart, Wesleyan, '69, Professor of Physics, and
one instructor, George W. Patterson, Yale, '84, who became the first
Professor of Electrical Engineering in May, 1905. In 1899 a course in
Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering was created with Herbert C.
Sadler, Glasgow, '93, as the first Professor. The following year the
first degree was conferred in a new Department of Chemical Engineering,
and in 1902 Edward DeMille Campbell, '86, became head of the new
division as Professor of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Chemistry.
The first plan for the University called for a Professorship of
Engineering and Architecture, but no attention was paid to the latter
subject until the appointment of W.L.B. Jenney, to the Professorship of
Architecture in 1876. Appropriations failed, however, and the chair was
discontinued in 1880, not to be revived until 1906, when a Department of
Architecture was organized under the charge of Emil Lorch, A.M.,
Harvard, '03, with the two departments associated under the title of the
Department (later Colleges) of Engineering and Architecture. Within
recent years special courses have been organized leading to degrees in
Architectural Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Aeronautical
Engineering, as well as special groups of courses in such branches as
sanitary, transportation, automobile, hydro-mechanical, industrial, and
gas engineering and paper manufacturing. A reorganization of the
numerous degrees given at one time in the Engineering College has now
reduced the degrees to two, B.S. in Engineering and B.S. in
Architecture.
[Illustration: THE ENGINEERING QUADRANGLE]
Originally the work in engineering was centered in what is now the old
south wing of University Hall. The first building on the Campus used
exclusively for the engineering courses was the first section of the
Engineering Laboratories built in 1881-82, as the result of the
insistence of Dr. Frieze, then Acting President, that an unexpended
appropriation of $2,500 be used immediately. At short intervals further
additions were made and in 1900 the building, now known as the
Engineering Shops, assumed its present form. In 1895 a further extension
of the work in engineering was required, and the adjacent campus
residence was remodeled for the purpose. This proved inadequate almost
before completion and in 1902 the construction of the present
Engineering Building was authorized. Standing across the southeast
corner of the Campus and with the diagonal walk carried through it under
a picturesque archway, this is one of the University's largest buildings
and forms, with its two wings, and the Engineering Shops and the old
Heating Plant, a square known as the Engineering Quadrangle. It was
completed in 1904, but a further addition was necessitated in 1909, so
that it now has a floor space of about 136,000 square feet, and cost
with equipment about $400,000. In the basement of the long wing which
extends down East University Avenue is the naval experimental tank, 300
feet long and 22 feet wide, in which models of various types of ships
are tested by the Department of Marine Engineering. The only other tank
of this character in the United States is at the Washington Navy Yard,
and the facilities of the University's tank, therefore, were used
extensively by the Government during the late war.
The development of the College of Pharmacy, actually the fourth separate
department in the University, is closely interwoven with that of the
Department of Chemistry. Its history has already been in part suggested
in the references to the growth of the Chemical Laboratory and the
appointment of Dr. Prescott as the first Dean of the Department, or
later, College, of Pharmacy. At first the study of chemistry was
presented only in lectures and a few simple demonstrations. Dr. Douglas,
however, was among the pioneers in this country in realizing that the
way to teach the subject was to help the students perform their own
experiments, and accordingly he established a small laboratory for
special students in the Medical Building. From this grew the idea of a
laboratory building which was finally completed in October, 1857, at a
cost of $3,450, the first building erected in America for this purpose,
with facilities which were, in President Tappan's words, "unsurpassed by
anything of the kind in the country." Even then it proved almost at once
too small, and a long series of enlargements came at intervals of about
five years, until finally the new Chemistry Building was completed in
1910.
All the work in chemistry in the different Departments was, from the
first, provided for in this building, with no distinction between
academic and professional students except such as the special courses
require. The work in pharmacy grew naturally with the Department of
Chemistry. Following its establishment in 1868, the course eventually
grew into a separate Department, which became independent in 1876. The
school prospered under the wise and scholarly administration of its
first Dean, Dr. Albert B. Prescott, and it was soon recognized as one of
the best in the country. The early entrance requirements were only a
good knowledge of the English language, but soon a high school course
became requisite. The curriculum, which at first consisted of two years'
work, was eventually lengthened to three years in 1917-18, leading to
the degree of Ph.C; while for a regular four years' course a B.S. in
Pharmacy is granted.
Upon the death of Dr. Prescott in 1905, Dr. Julius O. Schlotterbeck,
'91, succeeded him as Dean of the College. Dr. Schlotterbeck died in
1917, and Professor Alviso B. Stevens, '75_p_, became Dean until his
retirement in 1919.
The inauguration of a Department of Homeopathy in the University, which,
as has been noted, did not come without a struggle, was finally effected
in 1875; though only after long opposition from the Medical Faculty and
the regular medical profession throughout the State. The first Faculty,
which was appointed soon after the Legislature finally authorized the
establishment of the School, was composed of Dr. Samuel A. Jones,
Pennsylvania Homeopathic Medical College, '61, of Englewood, N.J., who
was Dean and Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, and Dr. John
C. Morgan, Pennsylvania Medical College, '52, who took the chair of
Theory and Practice. Dr. Jones soon became one of the most interesting
and stimulating figures in the life of the University. Small and spare
in physique, he possessed an extraordinarily keen mind and an interest
in literature and learning far beyond the limits of his profession. His
library, which was particularly rich in material on Thoreau and Carlyle,
became upon his death in 1912 one of the valuable acquisitions of the
University Library.
The Faculty grew slowly as new students came, though the Department
never became as large as the older school, the record enrolment being 79
in 1892. The Department eventually found that the original quarters in
one of the two professorial residences on the north side of the Campus,
to which a long wing had been added at the rear, were inadequate, and in
1900 the present Homeopathic Hospital was erected opposite the northeast
corner of the Campus. To this a nurses' home was added later, and in
1918 an adequate children's ward. An effort made in 1893 by Dr. H.L.
Obetz, Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital College, '74, at that time Dean,
to amalgamate the two schools proved unsuccessful, and eventually led to
his resignation and a reorganization that necessitated the resignation
of the remainder of the Faculty. A law passed in the same year by the
Legislature reversing its previous position and directing that the
School be removed to Detroit, was successfully resisted by the Regents
on the same ground that had already been urged in the case of the
regular school. Dr. E.C. Franklin, M.D., University of New York, '46,
followed Dr. Jones as Dean in 1878. Dr. T.P. Wilson, Western Homeopathic
College, '57, succeeded him in 1881 and Dr. H.L. Obetz in 1885. After
the reorganization in 1895 mentioned above, Dr. Wilbert B. Hinsdale,
Hiram College, '75, the present Dean, was appointed, and the later and
more untroubled history of the School may be said to date from that
time.
[Illustration: THE DENTAL BUILDING]
[Illustration: THE HOMEOPATHIC HOSPITAL AND CHILDREN'S WARD]
Though the incorporation of a Dental College in the University was
suggested as far back as 1865, the first steps were not taken until 1873
when the Michigan State Dental Association requested the establishment
of a dental course as soon as possible. This was supplemented two years
later by a similar petition to the Legislature on the part of a large
number of citizens of the State, which led to the appropriation of the
sum of $3,000 for each of the next two years for the establishment of a
Department of Dentistry in the University. The Regents thereupon took
action in 1875, establishing the College, and in addition to the
facilities offered by the Medical Department and Chemical Laboratory,
created two Professorships in Dentistry. A little later Dr. Jonathan
Taft, Ohio College of Dental Surgery, '50, of Cincinnati, was appointed
Professor of Principles and Practice of Operative Dentistry and Dr. John
A. Watling, Ohio College of Dental Surgery, '60, Professor of Clinical
and Mechanical Dentistry. The precedent of long standing in the other
professional departments was followed, both in the matter of entrance
requirements and the course, which consisted for many years of two terms
of six months. This was lengthened, however, in 1884 to nine months and
in 1899 a third year was added.
The Dental College first occupied a portion of the Homeopathic Building
on the north side of the Campus; later it was removed to one of the old
professors' houses on the south side which had been enlarged and fitted
up for its reception. Upon the removal of the University Hospital from
the Campus in 1891, the building it had occupied, which it may be
remembered was an adaptation and extension of one of the residences on
the north, became the home of the school. Never well adapted for this
purpose and becoming entirely too small with the rapid growth of the
College, a new building eventually became necessary. This led to the
construction of the present Dental Building, one of the most completely
equipped structures for the purpose in the United States. It was
dedicated in May, 1909, and cost, with equipment, over $150,000. The
department has grown consistently from the first year, when the
attendance was twenty students, the lowest in its history, to 353 in
1915-16. Dr. Taft was Dean of the College from 1875 to the time of his
death in 1903. Dr. Cyrenus Darling, '81_m_, of the Medical School then
became Acting Dean, resigning active work four years later to be
succeeded by Dr. Nelville S. Hoff, Ohio College of Dental Surgery, '76,
Professor of Prosthetic Dentistry since 1903, who received the full
title in 1911. Upon his resignation in 1918, Dr. Marcus L. Ward, '02_d_,
succeeded to the position.
The Summer Session was first established by the Regents in 1900 as a
separate division of the University. Courses in the summer had been
given since 1894 under the direction of a committee from the Faculty of
Literature, Science, and the Arts, but the Regents had assumed no real
responsibility for this work and the fact that the chairman and all the
members of the committee, save one, were of the rank of instructor
indicates the minor place it assumed in university affairs. With a
reorganization in 1900 under the chairmanship of Professor John O. Reed,
'85, of the Department of Physics, a new life was given to the School.
From that time it grew rapidly, until in the summer of 1919 it had an
enrolment of almost 2,000, including students in the Law School, Medical
School, Engineering College, and a summer library course, though the
majority, of course, were enrolled in the Literary College. When
Professor Reed became Dean of the Literary Department in 1907, Professor
John R. Effinger, '91, became Dean of the Summer Session. After the
death of his predecessor, he in turn became Dean of the Literary
College, and Edward H. Kraus, Syracuse, '96, Professor of Mineralogy,
who had been Secretary, took his place as administrative head of the
Summer Session.