Rush
Medical College.—" Fire,"
says Professor Allen, "'the good servant but bad master,'like
Aladdin's genius when the charm was broken, assumed its terrible
supremacy, and on that fatal October night we all remember, one
of our number, looking across to the sea of flame from a distant
height, saw the walls and the roof lapped by fire; and then the
crash came; a column of blazing gases and lurid smoke rose
upward like a huge bouquet culled from Tartarus; then the ruin
and shapeless heaps," of what was Rush
Medical College.
Three days after the fire,
several students having returned, lectures re-commenced in the
amphitheatre of
the old County Hospital. A temporary building was erected on the
grounds of the hospital, known as the " Eighteenth-street
Tabernacle," in which succeeding sessions were held until 1876.
In 1875, a lot on the corner of West Harrison and Wood streets
was purchased for $i 1,000, upon which was constructed the new
building, at a cost of $43,000, nearly all contributed by
members of the faculty. The building is complete in its
provisions for every department of
medical instruction. Being located near the Cook County
Hospital, the clinical department of instruction has unexcelled
advantages. The anatomical and physiological departments are
furnished with large rooms, supplied with all the modern
conveniences and improvements.
The faculty of this college
(since 1871-72) has been as follows:
Professor of anatomy and
surgery: Moses Gunn, 1866-85.
Professor of chemistry and
toxicology: Henry M. Lyman, 1871-77: Walter S. Haines, 1877-85.
Professor of theory and
practice of medicine: J. Adams Allen, 1859-85 (President of the
College).
Professor of obstetrics:
DeLaskie Miller, 1859-85.
Professor of anatomy: K. L.
Rea, 1859-75; Charles T. Parkes, 1875-85.
Professor of hygiene, etc.:
Norman Bridge, 1882-85.
Professor of physiology and
diseases of the nervous system: Joseph W. Freer, 1864-77; Henry
M. Lyman, 1877-85.
Demonstrator of anatomy:
Charles T. Parkes, 1868-75; Albert B. Strong, 1875-85.
Professor of surgical anatomy
and military surgery: Edwin Powell, 1863-77 (chair abolished
since 1877).
Clinical lecturer on diseases
of the eye and ear: Edwin L. Holmes, 1859-85.
Professor of materia medica
and medical jurisprudence: lames
H. Etheridge, 1871-85 (Secretary of the College).
Professor of gynecology:
William H. Byford, 1879-85.
Professor of clinical
medicine and diseases of the chest:
Joseph P.
Ross, 1868-85.
Professor of skin and
venereal diseases: Jam^s N. Hyde, 1879-85.
Professor of pathological
histology: Isaac N. Danforth, 1881-82.
Professor of orthopaedic
surgery: John E. Owens, 1879-82.
(The personal edited research notes of Michael Echols, the
source of which may or may not be completely documented)
