College of Physicians and Surgeons
Baltimore, Maryland
1872-1915
E-Travel
Internet Archive has the catalogs (1880-1915) and the yearbooks (1907-16) for College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore. HathiTrust has Medical Education in the United States and Canada by Abraham Flexner.
History
College of Physicians and Surgeons was incorporated in 1872 with 43 students beginning classes that fall. In 1878 it was merged with Washington University School of Medicine. By 1880 the combined school could boast of an enrollment of 336 students from 23 states. In 1911 the Flexner Report lists an attendance of 252. But in 1915 enrollment was down to around 150, with only 11 matriculates. All students were men.
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore prided itself on the clinical adantages it was able to provide for students.
The Clinic, the school yearbook, lists four professional fraternities. Each sponsored a "smoker" for the students. The school sponsored a "College Night" at the theatre when most students attended. The Y.M.C.A. was a strong presence on campus, helping incoming Freshmen to find suitable housing, providing reading materials for the library, and offering weekly programs with speakers.
While not especially critical of the school, the Flexner Report notes that it was a "large commercial enterprise whose financial responsibilities are far too extensive for their capital or fees," This, the report notes, resulted in the undeveloped character of the laboratories." It notes that only one faculty member was a full-time employee. The report was also critical of the fact that admission requirements were "less than high school."
Following the Flexner recommendation, College of Physicians and Surgeons merged with the Medical College of the University of Maryland in 1915.
Bricks and Mortar
College of Physicians and Surgeons (corner) flanked by wings of the Mercy Hospital. (<archive.org/stream/collegephys16unse#page/n397/mode/2up)accessed 2-07-2017
The college had total medical control over Mercy Hospital, Maternity Hospital, the Maryland Lying-in Asylum, the Hospital for the Colored Race, the Dispensary, and the Pasteur Department for the treatment of rabies. C.P.&S. also used the Bay View Hospital and the Nursery and Child's Hospital, so that students had excellent opportunity for clinical experience.
Sports
Colors: Purple and Gold
Under "Athletics" the 1910 Clinic states, "There aint none." The 1912 Clinic notes that because of laboratory and clinical work in the afternoons, upperclassmen were unable to participate in sports. Both the Sophomore and Freshman classes had baseball teams, with the Sophomore team representing the school in games against outside teams such as Loyola, Washington, Mount St. Joseph's and Rock Hill.
College Football Data Warehouse shows eight games in 1898-1900 with two wins. Opponents included Maryland, St. John's, Gettysburg, Georgetown, Baltimore Medical College, Johns Hopkins, and Western Maryland.
After the merger with Washington University in 1878, C.P.&S. moved to the Washington campus at the Northeast corner of Calvert and Saratoga streets. That building adjoined and was connected to the Baltimore City Hospital. The Maryland Women's Hospital was in the same block. The Maryland Lying-in Asylum at Lombard Street was connected by a covered walkway to the college building, so that students and staff could move from lecture halls to hospital wards without venturing outside.
In 1891 a new Baltimore Mercy Hospital building was constructed next to the college building. Then in 1899 a new College Building was constructed in accordance with the "needs of the modern medical student." The ground floor
contained the dispensary; the second floor contained two classrooms, two laboratories, and the library, the third had two amphitheatres and four laboratories, the fourth had an amphitheatre seating four hundred with supporting clinical rooms.
The 1914 College of Physicians and Surgeons baseball team. (Clinic <archive.org/stream/clinic1915coll#page/105/mode/1up) accessed 2-08-2017
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