|
|
1844-1857
Lecture Tickets
The MCG faculty revived the Southern Medical and Surgical Journal(SMSJ)
in 1844 at the request of students with the first issue of the new series appearing in January 1845.
Evidence of the growth of sectionalism in the
United States appeared in the resumed journal with it focusing more on Southern
medicine and diseases. According to the faculty minutes in November 1844,
the number of professors missing or late to the meetings forced Dean Newton to
impose a $1 fine for tardiness and $2 fine for absenteeism. He also
required faculty members to write two articles a year for the SMSJ or pay $20. MCG
awarded the first honorary MD degrees in 1846 to Drs. Tomlinson Fort and Alexander
Means, who taught chemistry at the school. The faculty purchased Grandison Harris, a
slave from Charleston, S.C., in 1852 for $700. He worked for over 50 years for MCG as a
janitor and resurrection man. Brothers Henry and Robert Campbell opened the
Jackson Street Hospital for Negroes in 1854, which gave students two hospitals to
practice clinical skills. The college graduated 73 students in 1856, the largest
class before the Civil War.
SMSJ 1845
|
Library Record Book 1854
|
|
Dr. George Madison Newton (1810-1859)
Dean, 1844-1857
Dr. George Newton was raised in Augusta and earned a bachelor's of medicine from the Medical Academy of Georgia.
He then obtained his MD degree from the University of
Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He was appointed to the faculty of the Medical College of
Georgia in 1833, and served as chair of anatomy and dean of the faculty. Because
of his family's financial position, he was the first faculty member to devote his
time fully to teaching, administration and civic duties without having a private
practice of medicine. He joined his stepfather, Isaac Tuttle, in providing
philanthropic care to the orphans of the city and their estates provided for the
Augusta Orphanage Asylum (later known as the Newton Building).
|
Jackson Street Hospital
Drs. Henry F. and Robert Campbell built the Jackson Street Hospital and Surgical Infirmary for
Negroes in 1854. Located on Jackson (Eighth) and Fenwick Streets, the hospital accommodated 60
to 70 beds. An "ornament" to the city, this three-story facility had a large hallway on the first
floor, providing ample lights for operations. With use of ropes and pulleys, patients could be
transported to upper-floor rooms from the operating room. Rooms were equipped with gaslights,
fireplaces, and hot and cold water. The Jackson Street Hospital operated until the Freedmen's
Bureau opened a hospital in Augusta after the Civil War.
|