The Engineering BuildingThe Engineering Building
The Medical BuildingThe 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, '64m, 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, '87m, 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, '64m, 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, '72m, 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, becomingJunior 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, '91m, (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 theUniversity 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, '01m, 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 hasbeen 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 twoamphitheaters, 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.
Panoramic View of the Old HospitalsPanoramic View of the Old Hospitals
The New Hospital BuildingThe New Hospital Building(From the architect's plans)
The Law BuildingThe Law Building
Finally, in spite of the financial problem involved, the new Department was formally opened in October, 1859, with anentering 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 punctuatedwith 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 withthe 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 havebeen 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 ofa 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, '74e, '78l. 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. Thisproved 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. Thoughthe 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, '68e, 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 hasnow reduced the degrees to two, B.S. in Engineering and B.S. in Architecture.
The Engineering QuadrangleThe 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 knowledgeof 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, '75p, 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.
The Dental BuildingThe Dental Building
The Homeopathic Hospital and Children's WardThe 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 theUniversity. 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 from1875 to the time of his death in 1903. Dr. Cyrenus Darling, '81m, 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, '02d, 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.
Michigan's position as a state university has been strongly reflected in its ideals and policies. It could not be otherwise. But this relationship, the source of its strength in many aspects, has also carried with it certain dangers. The University has a two-fold function: it must teach the youth of the State and the Nation; but to do this effectively, it must also aim to do its share in enlarging the field of knowledge by encouraging scholarship and research on the part of members of the Faculties as well as by a certain proportion of the more advanced students. It is this latter function that is too easily overlooked in the demand for the ordinary and more "practical" courses which necessarily form so large a part of the modern curriculum. Yet even the most elementary college work cannot be given properly unless the instructor is in touch with the latest developments and discoveries in his own field, and this familiarity only comes through research, on his own part or by his colleagues.
But more than this the University, if it be worthy of the name, owes it to the State to be a leader and a guide in the development of the highest cultural standards; it should be a reservoir upon which the people of the State can draw for truth and guidance in the difficult problems of modern life. This cannot come without a strong emphasis on original and productive scholarship.
It has always been one of the sources of the University'sstrength that this fact was understood, almost from the first, and that the claims of true scholarship and research have been increasingly recognized. It has been shown that in its first years Michigan was to all intents a replica in the West of the older and conservative colleges of the East; though there was a certain idealism and progressive spirit that tempered even then this recognition of long-established precedent. The West was liberal and disposed to create its own institutions upon a new basis, so that when the new ideals in education began to make themselves felt, about the middle of the nineteenth century, Michigan was ready for them.
With the coming of Dr. Tappan the movement, already foreshadowed by the Legislature in the very terms under which the University was organized, gained a new impetus and effective guidance, and it was not long before a remarkable series of constructive measures in the interest of higher education began. Most of them have been mentioned elsewhere, but it may not be amiss to suggest some of them once more; such as the emphasis on modern science, with the parallel classical and scientific courses within the academic department; the wide range of elections eventually introduced; the early inauguration of professional and graduate schools; the introduction of seminary and laboratory methods; the admission of women; the diploma system of admission from the high schools; and the recognition of the claims of special students.
Until within recent years also, the University had no marking system. The students were merely "passed," "not passed," or "conditioned." This undoubtedly stimulated interest in study and scholarship for its own sake in the case of many students, though, in the absence of any ofthe usual college honors it encouraged a certain level of mediocrity in others. The change in the system and the introduction of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and similar organizations after 1907 resulted in a marked alteration in the attitude toward study and has undoubtedly raised appreciably the general level of scholarship.
Thus, though the University throughout its whole history necessarily has had to recognize the first claims of the students for instruction, often of a somewhat elementary character, there have always been influences which have kept the ideals of higher scholarship constantly in view. In the older days the idea of research in its modern sense was hardly understood; but as the atmosphere of European learning began to pervade American academic life the double function of a true university came to be more clearly recognized. Not only were facilities for research developed, but the scientific spirit, which refused to accept the limitations long established, and sought new truths, or new interpretations of old principles, became the order of the day.
This was the ideal of Michigan's first President. But in his time the need for less advanced work was too pressing, the foundations had to be laid; though his efforts bore fruit long after he left, the victim in part of his high ideals of scholarship. Even in his time, however, certain steps were taken, aside from his effort to inaugurate true graduate study, which had a vital bearing on the development of research work in the future. These came through the establishment of the Astronomical Observatory and the Chemical Laboratory. Dr. Brünnow, the first Professor of Astronomy, came to Michigan inspired by a prospect of scholarly leadership and the results of his investigations and those of his pupil and successor, Professor Watson, gave to the University a world-wide reputation among scholars. The same was true, though perhaps to a lesser degree, of the Department of Chemistry, whose little Laboratory, the first separate building for that purpose in America, attracted advanced students from all quarters—the enrolment of special students sometimes reaching seventy, of whom at least some were doing work corresponding to the graduate courses of the present time. The students of this department as a whole have had a profound influence upon the development of the industrial and commercial resources of the State.
With the succession of Dr. Haven to the Presidency, the emphasis was thrown almost entirely on the immediate and practical problems of general instruction. He was not a scholar in the modern sense, as was Dr. Tappan, and the University's first requirement was fairly obvious. But the higher function of the University was not forgotten by the leading men of the Faculty. President Hutchins tells how he was drawn to Michigan in 1867 from his hillside farm home in Vermont by the reputation of Michigan's Faculty. He had become greatly dissatisfied with the educational facilities offered in the East, though he did not know exactly what he wanted to do. Just at this time his father returned from a business trip in the West and reported that he had found the right place for him in the University of Michigan. The young man replied, "Oh, I know about Ann Arbor." The father was somewhat surprised and asked how that happened. "Well," said Michigan's future President, "I have noticed that the editor of the Virgil I study is Professor Frieze, at Ann Arbor, and in Greek there is a Professor Boise; my French textbooks are by Professor Fasquelle; while in mathematics my books are by Professor Olney. It seems to me that must be a pretty good university." Sodespite dire warning, from his grandmother as to the dangers from the desperadoes of the West, to say nothing of the Indians, he came to Michigan; drawn by the scholarly work of the men of that early Faculty, as were hundreds of other students.
It will of course be suggested that this work on the part of the Faculty was not "research" in the modern sense, though it was just as truly "productive scholarship." And it was what was so regarded in those days. Besides it was evident that the University was amply fulfilling one of its great functions in laying the foundations for the present system of higher education. The teachers of the secondary schools as well as the colleges looked to these strong men for guidance and they found the support they needed. Their books were the necessary basis for the training of future scholars.
The gradual broadening of the University curriculum and its effect upon graduate study has already been mentioned. There was one development, however, which deserves special mention here. This was the inauguration of the so-called "University System." President Tappan had laid down the principle that a student should be able to study "what he pleases, and to any extent he pleases," and gradually the University had made such a course possible through the introduction of electives and the admission of special students, a privilege that was greatly appreciated by many students of mature years, who, after entering as special students, often remained to take a degree. In 1882 there came a third step in the removal of any fixed requirement as to the last two years of work. Such students as elected to follow the new plan known as the "University System," were permitted to select, subject to approval, the general linesof study to be pursued during this period with a prescribed examination at the end. This work was to be in charge of a committee composed of the Professors in the subjects chosen, and was designed to give the students the advantages of such specialization as was suitable, as soon as practicable. The plan, however, did not prove popular, most of the students preferring the credit system; but the scheme "constituted for a time the constitutional basis of the Graduate School, in so far as that School had any real existence." Probably the same general purpose, as far as preparation for the professions was concerned, was served at a later period by the combining of the literary and medical, and later, the law courses, enabling the student to begin his professional studies after his second year. Elsewhere such specialization as seemed desirable was attained after 1901, through the regular elections, when practically the whole curriculum was thrown open to general election, subject of course to a certain sequence of courses.
The professional departments have had a marked influence upon the University's standing as a center of learning. This is particularly true of the Medical School, which naturally emphasized the value of scholarly training and investigation from the first. It is probably not an exaggeration to say that it was the impetus given by the Medical Faculty which was responsible for the high reputation the University enjoyed from the first, particularly in the sciences. To this fortunate development the two recruits from the Literary Faculty, Dr. Sager, who had been Professor of Botany and Zoölogy, and Dr. Douglas, who served as Professor of Chemistry in both departments, contributed especially, though the influence of the other members of the Medical Faculty, more interested perhaps in the strictly professionalaspects of their work, cannot be overlooked. These men were alive to the value of original investigation, their field offered too many opportunities to be neglected by scholars of their caliber, and it was therefore in the Medical School that the first research laboratories were developed. As the numbers in the Medical Department and its prestige increased, this influence grew, so that it may be said that for many years the strongest impulse toward research and the highest scholarship, particularly in the new fields of science, came from the men of the Medical Faculty. Nor has this influence ever weakened, though the eventual establishment of advanced courses and the recognition of research in all departments has tended to make it less conspicuous than in the early days.