In so far as the McGill College was concerned, however, the Royal Institution at once took action by applying for a royal charter. Such was granted in 1821 and the Royal Institution prepared to take possession of the estate. But owing to protracted litigation this was not surrendered to them till 1829, when the work of teaching was begun in the incipient arts course and the faculty of medicine. That of medicine, however, had been in existence five years previously as a teaching body under the name of the Montreal Medical Institution, with power to admit to practice but not to confer degrees.
Since this body afterwards became the medical faculty of McGill and saved the projected university from dying of inanition it is entitled to special recognition. Its origin is closely connected with the founding of the general hospital. When this great charity was accomplished the attending medical staff was composed of the most prominent and ablest men in the city, Drs. W. Robertson, W. Caldwell, A.F. Holmes, J. Stephenson and H.P. Loedel. On October 20, 1822, these men met together “for the purpose of taking into consideration the expediency of establishing a medical school in this city,” and it was resolved “that the considerations which seemed to warrant so desirable an object should be drawn out and laid before the next meeting of the Board, to be held on the 27th of the same month, and that Drs. Stephenson and Holmes be appointed a committee for the said purpose.” Thus was started the first Canadian medical school, which afterwards, as we shall see, became the medical faculty of McGill University. The school was called the “Montreal Medical Institution,” and received the approval of Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-in-Chief of Lower Canada, and he appointed the members of the Institution a Board of Examiners for the district of Montreal. Formerly these examinations had been conducted by a board of army medical officers, appointed by the Governor.
The first course of lectures was given in 1824, in a small wooden house in Place d’Armes, the site of which is now occupied by the Bank of Montreal. Twenty-five students attended the first session, and for some years there was no increase in the number.
The following is the advertisement of the lectures:
Anatomy and Physiology, J. Stephenson, M.D.; Chemistry and Pharmacy, A.F. Holmes, M.D.; Practice of Physic, W. Caldwell, M.D.; Midwifery and Diseases of Women, W. Robertson, Esq.; Materia Medica, H.P. Loedel, Esq.;[2] Surgery, J. Stephenson, M.D. In the course of the summer, 1825: Botany, A. F. Holmes.
The leading spirits of the school were Stephenson and Holmes, both Canadians, Stephenson by birth and Holmes by adoption, for he arrived in the country when only four years of age. They both received their preliminary education here and then went to Edinburgh, where they took their doctor’s degree. The Montreal Medical Institution, which afterwards became the Medical faculty of McGill University, was modelled on the lines of the Edinburgh University, and to this day the McGill Medical faculty bears the marks of its relationship to the Alma Mater of its founders.
For four years the Medical Institution continued its work, when, in 1828, to prevent the lapse of the McGill bequest to the residuary legatees, the Montreal Medical Institution became the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University in this wise.
Owing, as said, to litigation the Royal Institution could not get possession of Mr. McGill’s’ bequest until 1829. Also it was a condition of the gift that lectures should be given within a certain number of years or the bequest would lapse and the property revert to the Desrivières family. Only one year remained, and no arrangement having been made for the establishment of a faculty of arts, in fact, no money being available for that purpose, the Montreal Medical Institution was constituted a faculty of the University and this was chiefly accomplished by the exertions of Doctor Stephenson, to whom the University, in a large measure, owes the preservation of the bequest of the Hon. James McGill.
The governors of the Royal Institution held a meeting 29th January, 1829, with the members of the medical school, and the following minute occurs:
After public business was over, the governors of the Corporation held an interview with the members of the Medical Institution (Drs. Caldwell, Stephenson, Robertson, and Holmes), who had been requested to attend a meeting for that purpose. Owing to this interview it was resolved by the governors of the Corporation that the members of the Montreal Medical Institution be engrafted in the College as its Medical faculty, it being understood and agreed upon between the contracting parties that, until the powers of the charter would be altered, one of their number only should be university professor and the others lecturers. That they should immediately enter upon the duties of their respective offices, all of which arrangements were agreed to. The first session of the new Medical Faculty of McGill College was held in 1829, with thirty-five students on the register. Thus the Medical saved McGill University.