“The light we want in the lecture-room may still be had without displacing a single timber of the roof as it at present stands, but after the copper is put on, any change will be attended with delay and expense, and I am satisfied that the Board (if not now) will hereafter be disposed to yield to the just complaints of the pupils with respect to the want of light. I think it will be generally acknowledged that, after the experience of teaching in different lecture-rooms for twenty-five years, my opinion ought to have more weight than that of any architect. I wish to add that I have no direct interest in the matter; whether there be good or bad light would not increase or diminish my class, as is fully proved by the number of pupils who attend in my present room, where one half of the objects used at lecture cannot be seen for the want of light, and where, from want of space, some are obliged to stand in the lobby; but I should think myself deficient in public duty if I did not persist in stating to the Board the inconvenience and injury that will be sustained by the pupils, of what they have now for several years anticipated the removal, by the erection of a suitable building for carrying on the business of the School.”
These Medical School buildings were in use from 1825 for more than fifty years. When of late years the number of medical students increased so largely, and it was found that this latter building was altogether unsuited for the modern requirements of the school, the present chemical laboratory and dissecting-room were erected, and a histological laboratory and physiological lecture-room were added. In 1884 a bone-room, a preparation room, and private laboratories were built. In the same year the new chemical theatre was opened, and in the following year the new anatomical theatre was completed, which is fitted for a class of 230 students. Since that time the entire of the new great Medical Schools have been finished, which, in addition to Professors’ rooms and lecture-rooms, contain a fine chamber specially fitted up for the great pathological collection originally purchased from the late Doctor Robert Smith, whose lectures as Professor of Surgery had a large share in the great recent success of the school. This collection has been largely added to by the indefatigable labours of his successor, Doctor Edward H. Bennett. The anatomy and chemistry lecture-rooms of 1824 were completely removed, in order to make a space for part of the present range of buildings, which have been completed at a cost of over £20,000.
In a lecture delivered in 1837, the Professor of the Practice of Physic (Doctor Lendrick) attributed to Provost Bartholomew Lloyd the improvements which were even at that time beginning to be effected in the medical education of the members of the College. “The candidate for a medical degree,” he said, “no longer finishes his medical education in a single year, nor is he compelled to complete a septennial period of (perhaps) idleness before being permitted to practise his profession.” In the years 1832-42, inclusive, the average number of degrees of Bachelor of Medicine annually conferred by the University was 18. In the next decade this number fell to 11·7. After the great improvements in the medical education and the appointment of more attractive lecturers, this number rapidly increased. In the decade 1872-1881 the average was 39, in the following ten years the annual average was 43·6, being nearly four times that of forty years before the present time.
During the first half of the present century the University conferred degrees in Medicine only. The Irish College of Surgeons, towards the end of that period, refused to recognise the lectures delivered in the Medical School of Trinity College as a part of the professional education required for a surgical diploma, although two of the Trinity College Professors had previously occupied a similar position in the College of Surgeons’ School. The University of Dublin was consequently, in 1851, obliged to institute for their medical graduates a diploma or license in Surgery. This they did, following the best legal advice, under the clause in their charter which gave them authority to grant degrees “in omnibus artibus et facultatibus.” This was followed by the institution, in 1858, of the degree of Master of Surgery. This degree was, by the Act 21 and 22 Victoria, chap. 90, recognised as a qualification for the holder to be placed in the Medical Register—a privilege which was afterwards, by the Act 23 Victoria, chap. 7, extended to diplomas or licenses in Surgery. In 1872 the degree of Bachelor of Surgery was instituted, and placed on the basis of Bachelor of Medicine. To be admitted to either of these degrees the candidate must have previously graduated in Arts, and must have spent four years in the study of Medicine and Surgery. Degrees are now given also in Obstetric Art. The University of Dublin was the first in modern times to institute degrees in Surgery, and its example has been since followed by Cambridge and other English, Irish, and Scotch Universities.
The change of opinion in the Universities with respect to the status of the profession of Surgery is well illustrated by a correspondence, which has been preserved in the College Register, between the University of Cambridge and the authorities of Trinity College, Dublin. On June 30, 1804, a letter was received from the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, in which it was stated that that University had declined to consider any student who had, subsequently to his admission, practised any trade or profession whatsoever as qualified for a degree, and consequently had refused this to Frederick Thackeray, who, since the time of his admission as an undergraduate, had been constantly engaged in the practice of surgery. The Provost and Senior Fellows, in reply, informed the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge that, after consideration of his letter, they had agreed to adopt the same regulation.
In the early part of this century, before Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital was erected, great difficulty was experienced in the clinical instruction of the medical students. In 1800 the Governors of Stevens’ Hospital permitted Dr. Crampton to give reports of medical cases under his care in the Hospital for the winter six months to matriculated medical students, and to none others. Attendance on these lectures was required for medical degrees. In 1804 clinical lectures by Dr. Whitley Stokes at the Meath Hospital were considered to be adequate for this purpose. In 1806, attendance for six months with Doctor Crampton at Stevens’ Hospital was sanctioned by the College of Physicians as adequate for a medical degree. On the completion in 1808 of the west wing of Dun’s Hospital, which had been commenced in 1803, the clinical instruction connected with the School of Physic was given in the wards and lecture-rooms of the Hospital; and in 1835 candidates for medical degrees were required to present a certificate of one year’s attendance at this institution. Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital was originally intended for medical cases only, but in 1864 the College of Physicians, which had hitherto occupied the central position of the building as a library and Convocation Hall, transferred this part of the building to the Governors of the Hospital, and it was enlarged and changed into a medico-chirurgical institution for the complete instruction of the students both in Medicine and Surgery. Attendance at this hospital is no longer compulsory on the candidates for degrees; nine other Dublin hospitals are joined with it, and the student may, if he wishes, receive his clinical teaching in any of these.
In the early part of the century, Trinity College for a short time granted diplomas in Medicine to matriculated students who were not students in Arts, but who attended the same lectures and passed the same examinations as were required of Bachelors of Medicine. This system prevailed up to 1823, when the Board received a letter from the College of Physicians in London, in which it was stated that that College did not consider such a diploma as sufficient to warrant them to grant an examination for a license to practise physic in England. The issue of these diplomas was then discontinued. For a short period the degree of Bachelor of Medicine was granted to students who had completed two years’ study in Arts, but this was found to be so unsatisfactory, that the University decided that no one should be admitted to a degree in Medicine or in Surgery who had not previously graduated as Bachelor of Arts.
As to the method of conducting examinations for degrees in Medicine, we gather some curious information from a letter which the College of Physicians sent to the Provost and Senior Fellows in October, 1814, in which they informed the Board that they had ordered the King’s Professor not to be present at any examination for medical degrees in the University in which any question may be put, or answer received, in the English language. The Registrar was directed to write to the Regius Professor of Physic (Dr. Hill) to inquire whether these examinations were conducted in Latin. In reply, Dr. Hill assured the Board that he would not, under any circumstances, examine in English. It may be conjectured that the newly-elected Professor of Anatomy (Mr. Macartney), who was not a University man, broke through the old rule as to the language in which he examined.
The great growth of medical and surgical studies in the University may be gathered from the number of the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine which have been conferred at different periods of the present century. In nearly all cases, students of the University who now graduate in Medicine take also degrees in Surgery and the Obstetric Art. The number of Medical Matriculations for the last three years has been as follows:—1889—Students in Arts, 55, Externs, 28; 1890—Students in Arts, 61, Externs, 26; 1891—Students in Arts, 100, Externs, 28. During the five years previous to 1889 these numbers averaged—Students in Arts, 62; Externs, 34; total of each year, 96. The religious professions of the medical students who were matriculated in 1891 were as follows:—Church of Ireland, 85; Church of England, 10; Presbyterian, 12; Roman Catholics, 12; Methodists, 6; other denominations, 3;—total, 128.
Arts Course. 1792-1892.—At the beginning of this period, and for some years after, there were four academic Terms each year, during which the students, both undergraduates and graduates, attended lectures. In each Term two days were set apart, according to the directions of the Statutes, for the general examinations of all the undergraduate classes. It was found that the increasing number of students could not be properly examined in this limited time. Application was made to the Crown for a Royal letter giving power to the Provost and Senior Fellows to increase the number of days for this purpose in each Term, and a Statute to that effect was enacted in 1792. In the following year a new and greatly improved list of the subjects for each examination in all the parts of the Undergraduate Course was adopted.[102] At the same time, a scheme was devised for stimulating the study of the Greek and Latin Classics, and for extending the cultivation of Latin Composition, both in prose and verse, by special prizes at these examinations.[103] The subjects for the examination for admission to the College were also carefully re-modelled and set out for the use of schools; and in 1794 a well-devised system of examinations and of prizes for proficiency in Hebrew was instituted. Yet at this period there were no special lectures for advanced students, either in Mathematics or in Classics. The dull and the clever student were taught together, both at the public lectures and by the College Tutor; and at the Term Examinations all the students in each division were taken together, the Examiner having at the same time, in a very limited number of hours, to satisfy himself of the progress which each undergraduate had made in his studies, to distinguish between the idle and the diligent, between the badly and the well-prepared, and at the same time to pick out and reward the best answerer in each division of about forty students.