Maxwell McDowell

Maxwell McDowell was born in 1771, although it’s not noted where. He attended Dickenson College and graduated in 1792, and began practicing in York, Pennsylvania. From 1810 to 1811, he was an attending physician at the Baltimore General Dispensary. 

He received an honorary MD from the University of Maryland in 1818, and became a professor of the Institutes of Medicine at the University from 1814 to 1933. He was the Dean of the University in 1820, and then from 1825 to 1827. He was the physician to the St. Andrew’s Society in 1826 and Secretary to the Bible Society in 1827.

In 1832, Dr. McDowell, along with Dr. Samuel Baker, devised one of the first Codes of Medical Ethics in America. The same group also drew up the first fee table in Maryland, which was adopted and published by the Faculty in 1848.

From 1836 to 1841, he was the President of the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland. He died in Baltimore in 1847.