The 2024 Hunt History of Medicine Lecture: From Leeches to Lasers

Leeches to Lasers: 225 Years of Service

Since the earliest days of Maryland’s founding, there have always been medical practitioners in the population. Some had formal training, but many others did not. Many early physicians studied in Europe and then migrated to America. The first medical school in America opened in Philadelphia in 1765, and Marylander, John Archer was the first person to receive a medical diploma in America, mostly by dint of his last name.

Archer returned to his hometown of Bel Air, Maryland and opened the small Medical Hall,

a rudimentary medical school. His sons were his first students, and others gradually joined the student body. Medical Hall still stands in Bel Air, but is now a private home.

In 1779, Dr. Charles Weisenthal,

a Prussian physician in Baltimore, gathered other physicians to put a letter in the local paper to tell the population that they would be setting prices for certain common services, and not undercutting each other.

In June of 1790, physicians suggested a “humane society” where patients would know that their physician was reputable, and not a quack.

This was the first inkling of a medical society, although Dr. John Archer had established one in Harford County at his Medical Hall. In local papers in 1785, ‘86 and ‘88, there were discussions between physicians on the Western Shore of a “medical establishment,” limited to qualified physicians. It would also create a Board of Physicians who would license applicants to practice medicine.

Applicants and now members would pay a sum, which would also be used to maintain a medical library. And perhaps, eventually, a medical college might be established, with members of the board serving as its faculty. When this proposal went before the Maryland State Legislature, it was soundly rejected.

Small “medical schools” which mainly featured lectures, sprang up around Baltimore, and in 1788, anatomy students who had “acquired” a body of an executed prisoner, were set upon by a mob who took the cadaver by force. This is evidence of the first dissection mob.

By 1799, the original petitioners to the Maryland State Legislature had gathered more knowledge and additional supporters, and when the Charter

was brought before the Legislature on January 20 early in the session, the Legislature signed it into law and the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland was established. 

As Dr. Eugene Fauntleroy Cordell says in his magnum opus,

The Medical Annals of Maryland, 1799-1899:

“It would be interesting to know the details of the Charter’s passage, to pry into the past and see the old doctors as they conferred over this document of such far-reaching significance. But these, like many other events connected with those early days, are hidden from us, perhaps forever, and we can only picture them to ourselves in our imagination.”

This might be a place to tell you to visit our YouTube page, MedChi Museum and Archives, for some five-minute videos on the founding of MedChi and the first meeting of the organization.

For the first few years of the organization, the members met every other year on the first Monday in June, and the meetings dealt with executive functions rather than medical knowledge. Board of Physician members continued to examine prospective members, and gradually elaborate orations were added to the meetings.

In 1807, the second part of the early discussions, establishing a medical school, came to fruition with the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty establishing one, which eventually became the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

On December 18, 1807, the College of Medicine in Maryland was chartered into law by the Maryland State Legislature.

The Charter established a close relationship between the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty and the College of Medicine which continues until today. Early members acted as the Board of Regents of the College, and as the faculty, which led to the shortening of the name to “The Faculty” for the next century and a half.

The Faculty’s president was the chancellor of the college and members were the original professors and lecturers at the college. Progress reports from the college were presented to the biennial meetings of the Faculty.

Although a number of early physicians had not formally attended medical schools, they used a system of preceptorship, or studying with an established physician, and became “Doctors of Medicine by Act of Assembly” from the College of Medicine.

In the early years, classes or lectures were held at the homes of the faculty members, but in 1813 the College of Medicine built what is now known as Davidge Hall, the oldest operational medical school building in the United States.

In addition to teaching medicine and surgery, conducting anatomical classes, the College and Faculty worked to contain diseases which ravaged the population.

The Faculty’s John Crawford, one of the earliest vaccinators, received strings which had been run through cow pox from his brother in England. When Crawford received them, he re-hydrated them, made a nick in between a patient’s thumb and forefinger, and ran the string through that, thereby vaccinating them.

Although the Faculty did not have a permanent location in Baltimore where the original Charter mandated meetings be held, Davidge Hall,

the city Athenaeum, and members’ homes were used for gatherings.

In 1830, the Faculty established a medical library, subscribing to a range of medical journals and other publications, so that each member did not have to. 

This established a congenial atmosphere where members could exchange information and knowledge, a hallmark of the organization for the next century and a half. The Faculty’s library went on to become one of the leading medical libraries in the states, and number more than 60,000 volumes.

As a part of the College of Medicine, Dr. Horace Hayden established one of the earliest schools of dentistry in the world in 1837. 

Hayden was a polymath, having been a cabin boy on sailing ships, a teacher, an architect and a renowned geologist. Our portrait of Dr. Hayden was painted by the famed Rembrandt Peale.

At the request of the Faculty, the American Medical Association had its first convention in Baltimore in 1848. It was the most important medical event of the year. In 1838, members of the Faculty had advocated for a national medical society, but it took a few years to come to fruition. One of the hot topics at the meeting was the use of anesthetics. The next time the AMA held their annual meeting in Baltimore was in 1899.

The Maryland Medical Journal was established in 1877, and continues until today. 

In fact, the November issue of Maryland Medicine will feature numerous articles on the history of our organization. Many of the earliest volumes have been digitized and are available on-line and are fully searchable.

Medicine was changing and medical schools were no longer limited to white men only.

Blacks and women were beginning to attend medical schools in greater numbers, and the first of each were admitted to membership at the Faculty in 1882. By 1885, numbers indicated that the by-laws needed to be changed to reflect this new reality, and the wording was changed from “gentlemen” to “persons.”

Medicine shifted again in 1889 when Dr. William Osler arrived for a 16-year stay in Baltimore.

He was appointed the first Chief of Medicine at Johns Hopkins, and eventually taught at the School of Medicine. His approach to teaching combined traditional academic learning with a personal touch, visiting patients on the wards to see how and what they were feeling. He also established the system of residency, feeling that students weren’t quite ready after medical school, and that they needed more “hands on” education.

While Osler (as a reminder, Osler rhymes with dose) was teaching medicine, he was also lecturing around the world, hosting numerous luminaries visiting Baltimore, and working on his best-selling “Principles and Practice of Medicine,” which was in publication for more than 70 years.

His impact on medicine still echoes today.

Osler, a huge bibliophile, became president of the Faculty in 1896, and was eager to re-establish the library which had gone dormant, as did the Faculty, during the Civil War years. To accomplish that, he hired a young librarian to oversee the library.

Marcia Crocker Noyes eventually became the Executive Secretary of the Faculty, and worked there for 50 years. She and Osler worked to establish the Medical Library Association, which is still a vibrant organization and whose highest award is named for Marcia Noyes.

One of Osler’s fondest wishes was to have a permanent headquarters building after moving from place to place for almost a century. After he moved to Oxford, England to become the Regius Professor of Medicine, the Faculty acquired a piece of property on the west side of the Mount Vernon neighborhood in Baltimore.

Marcia visited several other medical societies’ headquarters to get ideas about what worked and what didn’t, and got together with the architects, Ellicott and Emmart, to design a building for the benefit of the members. It included several large meeting rooms, a dining room, reading rooms and a four-story stacks library with room for 60,000 books!

The building on Cathedral Street opened in 1909 with many luminaries in attendance, including Dr. William Osler who had arrived from England to be part of the opening for which he had long advocated, and to which he had generously donated.

In a letter to Marcia Noyes, Osler said that the building was perfect and that he had never been so proud of anything in his life.

With some slight changes, the building remains almost exactly as it appears on the original blueprints.

Sir William Osler died in 1919 of heart-break after the death of his only son in France during World War One. Memorial services were held around the world, including here in Baltimore. His books eventually ended up at McGill University in Montreal, although the Faculty benefitted from his generosity over the years, and they are now in our Rare Book Room.

Marcia Crocker Noyes died in 1946, four days after her 50^th anniversary of being hired to work at the Faculty. Her funeral was held in Osler Hall and 60 physicians acted as her pallbearers.

She is buried at Baltimore’s historic Green Mount Cemetery, along with her sister, Kitty, who brought her to Baltimore in 1895.

Soon after Marcia’s death, the first official Executive Director was hired at the Faculty, and began to professionalize the organization.

The membership had topped 2,000 and after many members had returned from World War II, the Faculty was more active than ever, and getting ready to celebrate the 150^th Anniversary.

Medical advances seemed to be coming faster than ever, and at the summer meeting in 1963, a group of members presented something new and un-heard of at the time, but in common parlance today. 

It was CPR, Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation. 

Sudden cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, but CPR has been used to “bring people back to life.” It is one of the most important things that a layman can do to help a dying person. Combining the engineering skills with medical skills of professionals from Johns Hopkins, this new method of resuscitation was perfected and sent out to the masses who could possibly save a life.

Small and large advances in medicine have been made by members of MedChi over the centuries, but it’s not often that one has the impact that CPR has had.

When the Faculty built its headquarters space in 1909, we were flanked on one side by a row-house and on the other by a junior high school.

In the 1970s, the school was closed because of a reorganization, and the volume of asbestos in the space.

We were offered the building and the gymnasium for the sum of one dollar, and of course, accepted it! A few years later, after enough money was raised, the main building and the accompanying gymnasium were both fully renovated and merged with the original building, which was given some cosmetic updates.

In 1999, MedChi celebrated its 200th Anniversary with a series of events across the state of Maryland.  And now, we are celebrating our 225th  Anniversary.

When I think about the original 101 founders, I often wonder if they could ever have imagined that the organization they fought so hard to establish would still flourish all these many decades later. Would they be shocked to learn about medicine today, with radiation, laser surgery, gene replacement therapy, organ replacement surgeries, in vitro fertilization and so much more. 

Thank you.