We are 227 Years Old Today!

On this exact day, in 1799, the Maryland State Legislature passed an order to establish the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland.

Happy 227th birthday to us!

The Mistake on the Seal!

I am going to tell you a story about MedChi’s historic seal.

It became part of our “brand” soon after our founding in 1799. Eventually, it was one of several bookplates for book collections that were funded by donors, such as the Frick Family.

It was a rather dour looking piece, with the figure of Aesculapius with his serpent-entwined staff. It was originally rendered in red and black, with deep-set eyes. He was known as “old potato head.”

In our centennial book, there is a slightly different version of the potato head with more hair and more rays emanating from his head.

After we moved into the new building in 1909 and the library continued to grow, we asked the medical illustrator, Max Brödel to design an updated seal for us. You can see the date on Brödel’s original sketch of the seal.

It wasn’t until the 1930’s that it was finally engraved, and hundreds of copies were printed to place in our book collections.

Soon, we received a letter from one of our members, letting us know that there was a mistake on the seal. Around the bottom edge of the seal are a few words in the Greek alphabet. One of the letters is incorrect. 

And because that letter is wrong, it changes the meaning of the sentence! It should read, “A physician is of more value than many other men for the dressing of wounds and the stilling of pain,” from Homer’s Illiad, Book II, Line 514.

The mistake was combining a Greek Z and a Greek X, when there is no such letter. It should have been three parallel lines, with the middle one a little shorter.

The mistake was corrected, and new bookplates were printed.

We still have some digital copies of the mistaken seal, but I try and check to make sure we’re using the correct one.  

Happy Maryland Day!

Today marks the 391st anniversary of the founding of the state of Maryland. The Medical & Chirurgical Faculty is proud to have been a part of Maryland for 225 of those years. 

If you're interested in learning about the founding of MedChi in 1799, please click here. 

As long as there is a State of Maryland, there will be a Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland. 

The End of the 225th Anniversary

I often wonder what the 101 original founders of the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland would have thought if they knew that their organization would still be thriving after 225 years. 

Those of us who work at MedChi, serve on the boards and committees, and volunteer in myriad other ways, are proud to continue the tradition that was started in 1799. 

We keep to the original mandate from the original charter documents, which we were pleased to have with us at our celebration at the Maryland State House: To prevent the citizens from risking our lives in the hands of ignorant practitioners and pretenders to the healing art.

As we wind down this celebratory year, we thank you for being a part of it, celebrating our history, and continuing to support our work. 

Happy New Year!

We Need Your Support!

This has been a big year, for many reasons:

• In January, we started the 225th Anniversary year with a ceremony at the Maryland State House, where we were lucky enough to have the original charter documents on display. 
  
• In March, we held a reception for local non-profits, foundations and friends to show off the Museum of Maryland Medical History. 
  
• In June, on the exact 225th anniversary of the first meeting of the Founders of the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty, we hosted the Grand Opening of the Museum.
  
• In September, the Director of the History of Maryland Medicine became a full-time, privately-funded, one-year position.
• In October, we launched our social media accounts on YouTube and Instagram, and reached 300,000 unique visits on this blog!
  
• In December, we are adding a significant amount of information on our portraits collection, gleaned from searching our historic Maryland Medical Journal.

This is what we've done, but now we need you to step up and help us with some funding, and with donations of items to be added to our Museum. 

Here's what we need funding for:

• The History of Maryland Medicine Director's position.
• Preservation of the art collection and archives.
• Acquisitions for items for the museum, which come up at auctions with some frequency.

Click the QR code below to make a financial donation. You will be able to select where you want your donation to be directed. 

We are also looking for material donations to the Museum.

• Items should be 100 years or older and have some relevance to our current collections. 
• Portraits of Founders or Past Presidents.
• 1700s and 1800s medical equipment.
• Pre-1900s medical books.
• Smaller medical collections.

If you would like to discuss making a material donation to the Museum, please contact Meg Fielding. 

Thank you for considering our request!

Tee Off for 225!

 

Join MedChi and the Center for a Day of Golf!

MedChi, The Maryland State Medical Society and the Center for a Healthy Maryland, the Foundation of MedChi, are pleased to announce Tee Off to Celebrate 225, a golf tournament in honor of MedChi's 225th Anniversary!

Join us at Renditions Golf Club in Davidsonville, Maryland on Monday, September 9th, and the check-in begins at 7:30 a.m. and the shotgun start begins at 9:00 a.m. Each player receives breakfast, complimentary beverages, a mid-course snack, a networking luncheon and a swag bag! All funds will go towards the Center for a Healthy Maryland's important work on ensuring the health of all Marylanders! So, grab your golf clubs and let’s make a difference together.

To register to play individually, or as a foursome, please click here or on the graphic above. 

It Was a Grand Grand Opening!

More than 85 members and friends of MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society gathered on Monday, June 3 to celebrate the 225th anniversary of the first meeting in 1799, and to open Phase III of the MedChi Museum of Maryland Medical History. 

The group was entertained by the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra who played classical music from the marble staircase landing.

Then the group gathered in Osler Hall for welcome speeches by CEO, Gene Ransom;

MedChi President, Ben Lowentritt, MD;

Center for a Healthy Maryland President, Steve Rockower, MD;

and Center Executive, Allan Browder.

After this, everyone gathered for a ceremonial ribbon cutting,

complete with a giant pair of scissors.

We were so pleased to feature an exhibit of "Urine and War" courtesy of our friends at the American Urological Association and their fascinating museum in Linthicum, Maryland, which included a panel on Napoleon at Waterloo, coinciding with our display of Napoleon's medical chest from the Battle of Waterloo.

The evening ended with a tour of the building, including the Krause Room and the Stacks, as well as one or two ghost stories, given by Meg Fairfax Fielding, head of the History of Medicine in Maryland. 

We're Going to Party, Like it's Our Birthday!

Sigh, we're 115 years old today, and sometimes we feel every year of that. 

But because it's the BIG birthday year for MedChi, we are reaping some of the benefits. We are so excited to get some new bathrooms on the first floor. Honestly, I think those have been there since the 1940's, and do they ever need an update!

We were delighted when someone thought to pull up the carpet in the original entrance and find the beautiful tesserae tiles that had been hidden for decades. It's hard to tell, but the marble tiles are green and black, over white. 

The catering kitchen, which has been around since the 1960s is getting a good scrub and a facelift. Just what's needed at my advanced age, don't you think?

Best of all, we're getting a new elevator! Sadly, the original elevator, which probably dated to the 1940s, and had unusual doors which were perpendicular to each other, and have to be artisanally-crafted by hand. Only the best!

When Sir William Osler came to Baltimore for the opening of the new building, and to help with the dedication of the hall and assembly room named for him, he sent Marcia this note:

If Osler's happy, we're happy. And Happy 115th Birthday to our dear building!

  

The Founding Document

On January 22, 2024, a group of MedChi's members, friends, Board members, and staffers gathered in Annapolis to celebrate 225 years. We worked with the Maryland State Archives for nearly a year to arrange for the original founding document to be present at the Procamation events at the State House. 

The Archives were kind enough to send us very high resolution scans of the original document. Please take a look and if the script is too difficult to read, the transcription is below the images.

An Act to establish and incorporate a Medical and Chirurgical Faculty or Society in the State of Maryland.

Whereas it appears to the General Assembly of Maryland that the establishment and incorporation of a Medical and Chirurgical Faculty or Society of Physicians and Surgeons in the said State, will be attended with the most beneficial and salutary consequences for promoting and disseminating Medical and Chirurgical knowledge throughout the State, and may in future prevent the citizens thereof from risking our lives in the hands of ignorant practitioners and pretenders to the healing art; Therefore,

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland, that Gustavus Brown, William Lonsdale, Barton Tabbs, Elijah Jackson and William H. Roach of Saint Mary’s County;

James M. Anderson, Junior, Morgan Browne, Junior, Edward School, Robert Geddes, and Edward Warrell of Kent County;

Charles Alexander Warfield, Richard Hopkins, Wilson Waters, Thomas Noble Stockett and William Murray of Anne Arundel County;

Thomas Bourne, Thomas Parran, Joseph Ireland, Daniel Rawlings and James Gray of Calvert County;

John Parnham, Gustavus Richard Brown, Daniel Jenifer, John M. Daniel and Gerrard Wood of Charles County;

Thomas Cradock, Thomas Love, John Cromwell, Philip Trapnell, and Christopher Todd of Baltimore County;

Perry E. Noel, Stephen Theodore Johnson, Tristram Thomas and Ennalls Martin of Talbot County;

Levin Irving, Arnold Elzey, Ezekiel Haynie, John Woolford, and Mathias Jones of Somerset County;

Edward White, James Sullivane, Dorsey Wyville, William Hays and Thomas Goldsborough of Dorchester County;

Abraham Mitchell, William Miller, Elisha Harrison, John Grome and John King of Cecil County;

Richard J. Duckett, William Beanes, Junior, William Marshall; William Baker and Robert Pottinger of Prince Georges County;

Upton Scott, James Murray, John Thomas Shaff, and Reverdy Ghiselin of the City of Annapolis;

James Davidson, John Wells, Samuel Thompson, Robert Goldsborough and John Thomas of Queen Anne’s County;

John Neille, Thomas Fassett, George Washington Purnell, John Huston of Worcester County;

Philip Thomas, Francis Brown Sappington, William Hilleary, John Tyler and Joseph Sim Smith of Frederick County;

John Archer, Thomas H. Birckhead, Elijah Davis, and Thomas Archer of Harford County;

Jesse Downes, John Young, Junior, Benjamin Keene, Joseph Price, and Henry Helm of Caroline County;

George Brown, John Coulter, Miles Little John, George Buchanan, Lyde Goodwin, Ashton Alexander, Arthur Pue, Daniel Moore and Henry Stevenson of the City of Baltimore;

Richard Pindell, Samuel Young, Peter Waltz, Jacob Schnively, and Zachariah Claggett of Washinton County;

Edward Gantt, Charles Worthington, Joseph Hall, Zadock Magruder, Junior, and Charles Beatty of Montgomery County;

Benjamin Murrow, James Forbes and George Lynn of Allegany County;

And such persons as they may, from time to time, elect and their successors, are hereby declared to be one community, corporation, and body politic, forever, by and under the name and title of The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland, and by and under the same name and title they shall be able and capable in law to purchase, take, have and enjoy, to them and their successors, in fee or for less estate or estates, any lands, tenements, rents, annuities, chattels, bank stock, registered debts or other public securities within this State, by the gift, bargain, sale or devise, or any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate, capable to make the same, and the same at their pleasure to alien, sell, transfer or lease and apply to such purposes as they may judge most conducive to the promoting and disseminating medical and surgical knowledge, or to alleviating the calamities and the miseries of their fellow citizens; provided nevertheless, that the said Faculty or body politic shall not, at any time, hold or profess property, real, personal or mixed, exceeding in total the sum of ten thousand dollars, per annum.

And be it enacted, that the members of the said Faculty above designated, may and shall hold their first meeting at the City of Annapolis on the first Monday in June next, or as soon thereafter as a number not less than fifteen of them can be convened, at which meeting they may appoint a President, a Secretary and Treasurer, make a common seal, and may elect into their body, such a medical and chirurgical practitioners, within this State as they may think qualified to become members of the Faculty.

And be it enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for the said Medical Faculty or any numbers of them, then attending, (not less than fifteen) to elect by Ballot, twelve persons of the greatest medical and chirurgical abilities in the State, who shall be styled the Medical Board of Examiners for the State of Maryland, seven of whom shall be residents of the Western and five of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, whose duty is shall be to grant licenses to such medical and chirurgical gentlemen as they, either upon a full examination, or upon the production of Diplomas from some respectable college, may judge adequate to commence the practice of the Medical and Chirurgical arts, each person so obtaining a certificate to pay a sum not exceeding Ten Dollars, to be fixed on or ascertained by the Faculty.

And be it enacted, that any five of the Examiners appointed for the Western and any three of those appointed for the Western Shore, shall constitute a Board on their respective shores for examining such candidates as may apply on the said shores respectively, and shall subscribe their names to each certificate by them granted, which certificate shall be also countersigned by the President of the Faculty and have the seal of the Faculty affixed thereto by the Secretary, upon the payment into the hands of the Treasurer of the sum of money to be ascertained as above by the Faculty, and any one of said Examiners may grant a license to practice until a Board in conformity to this act can be held

And be it enacted, that after the appointment of the aforesaid Medical Board, no person not already a practitioner of Medicine or Surgery, shall be allowed to practice in either of the said Branches, and receive payment for his services, without having first obtained a License, certified as by this Law directed, under the penalty of Fifty Dollars for each offense, to be recovered in the county court where he may reside by Bill of Presentment and Indictment, one half for the use of the Faculty and the other half for that of the Informer.

And be it enacted, that every person, who upon application, shall be elected a member of the Medical Faculty, shall pay a sum not exceeding Ten Dollars to be ascertained by the Faculty.

And be it enacted, that the said Medical Faculty be and they are hereby empowered from time to time to make such bylaws, rules and regulations, as they may find requisite; to break or alter their common seal; to fix the times and places for their general meetings, for the meetings of the Board of Examiners, the modes and times of electing Officers, filling up vacancies in the Medical Boards, and to do and perform such other things as may be requisite for carrying this act into execution and which may not be repugnant to the Constitution and Laws of this State or the United States.

By the House of Delegates                                      By the Senate

January 20, 1799                                                      January 20, 1799

Read and Assented to                                             Read and Assented to

By Order                                                                    By Order

Wm. Harwood                                                          A. Van Horn

Celebrating Where It All Started 225 Years Ago!

Although our founding date is actually January 20, we had to wait until January 22 to celebrate our first 225 years with the Maryland State Legislature. Members and friends gathered at Acqua Al restaurant in Annapolis, just up from our offices on Main Street.

I am sure that the founding physicians gathered in the pubs and taverns of Annapolis to celebrate their accomplishments, and here we were, 225 years later, treading in their footsteps, and making our way to Maryland's State House. 

About a year ago, we began working with the Maryland State Archives to have them bring the original founding documents that chartered the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland to the State House for the proclamations in the House and Senate. (Unfortunately, because of the mylar covering the document, it was very hard to photograph.)

That moment when the documents arrived where they had been signed 225 years ago was pretty moving. Although the original document is eight pages long, we only had the first and last pages. 

Past Presidents and friends took turns having their photos taken with the founding documents, then everyone adjourned to the House and Senate Chambers to watch the proclamations given by the sponsoring legislators, Senator Clarence Lam, MD and Delegate Terri L. Hill.

To see the House Proclamation, please click here. It starts at about the 2:00 mark. Drs. Ben Lowentritt, MedChi's current President, and Renee Bovell, represented MedChi. 

To see the Senate Proclamation, please click here. It starts at about 2:20. Drs. Padmini Ranasinghe and Loralie Ma represented MedChi. 

Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated with us last evening, and to the Maryland State Archives who lent us the original documents!

Photos by Colleen George

Today's the Day! We are 225 Years Old!

“In all ages of the world, men engaged in the same pursuits have united together for purposes of mutual advantage or protection.” So begins Eugene Fauntleroy Cordell’s  masterwork, “The Medical Annals of Maryland, 1799 to 1899.”

Prior to the American Revolution, all but one of the Thirteen Colonies had a medical society.  Although Maryland was one of the oldest colonies, it was the seventh state to establish a medical society.

In 1779, Dr. Charles Wiesenthal made the first attempt at establishing a state-wide society of physicians, but the idea did not catch on. In 1790, Dr. George Buchanan wrote a letter to the citizens of Baltimore, and suggested the registration of deaths and the organization of a humane society. Again, the idea did not catch the attention of the city’s physicians.

Beginning in 1785, physicians were discussing medical reform and the prevalence of quackery in Maryland,and these discussions led to an outline of a plan for a medical establishment. They petitioned the Legislature asking for the appointment of a board of physicians whose duty would be to examine and license all applicants.

However, many “physicians” objected to this proposal and the original petitioners concluded that they were surrounded by “swarms of quacks.” The petition was presented to the legislature, but it did not pass. At the time, there were no formal medical schools in Baltimore, so Drs. Buchanan and Wiesenthal began to lecture on the topics of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and operative surgery.

In Harford County, a group including Dr. John Archer,

his sons and the students at Dr. Archer’s Medical Hall,

a rudimentary medical school, gathered on a regular basis to discuss medical issues.

It was 1797 and the group was known as the Harford Medical Society.

The first attempt at organizing left an impression in the minds of physicians for more than a decade and in 1798, the organizing began again. Several physicians were recruited from each of the then-19 counties of Maryland, and from the

towns of Annapolis and Baltimore, and eventually they became the 101 founders. These men had trained at the best medical schools of the time – in Paris, Oxford, Edinburgh, and Dublin in Europe, and locally, in Philadelphia.

In January of 1799, an act to establish and incorporate the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty in the State of Maryland finally secured the majority vote of the legislature.

The act directed physicians to promote and disseminate medical and chirurgical knowledge and prevent citizens from risking their lives at the hands of ignorant practitioners and pretenders to the medical arts.

The first officers were to be a President, Secretary, and Treasurer, as well as a 12-member Board of Examiners “of the greatest chirurgical abilities in the State.” Seven of the members would come from the Western Shore and five from the Eastern Shore. Each person who was examined and received a medical license would pay the sum of $10.00. Members elected to the Society would pay the same fee.

A name was given to the organization, and was declared to be “one community, corporation and body politic, known forever by and under the name of The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland.

The annual meetings were set for the first Monday in June, beginning in 1799 and then on the same date every other year afterward.

However, nothing documents the first gathering of the group, and it’s left up to Dr. Cordell’s imagination. He mentions that he has a medical diary and notebook from Professor Nathaniel Potter from 1799, but the establishment of the organization is never discussed.

Additionally, for the first half century of the Faculty’s existance, there are very few records, save the brief “Summary of Proceedings” published in 1807.

The yearly Transactions weren’t published regularly until 1853.

However, members published occasional papers and presented orations over the years and some of them remain in their original hand-written form.

Additionally, notices and advertisements were placed in local newspapers and medical journals, especially in Baltimore, document our earliest days.