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CIRCULAR.
PRIVATE  MEDICAL INSTITUTE

           OF BALTIMORE.
 
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Dc/^r  j: £.  h/
CIRCULAR.
PRIVATE MEDICAL INSTITUTE
         OF BALTIMORE. 
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Publication Rooms, No. 7 S. Liberty st., Bait. 
CIRCULAR
   The  well-informed  members  of  the  Medical  Profession  in
Europe  and  this country, are  de\ofing great attention to a reform
in medical education.   Various plans for the improvement of the
mode  of public teaching  in the medical schools have been sug-
gested, doubtless of great  value.  The subject of private  elemen-
tary instruction  in  the office of the  preceptor  has  also occupied
attention, but not so much as its great importance demands.   The
influence Avhich the study of the elements of medicine must exert
over the whole subsequent career of the physician  no  one Avill
question.  If the foundation be formed of bad materials, loosely put
together, it will be impossible to rear a superstructure, Avhich will
either  be useful or valuable.  The study of the branches prepara-
tory to attending lectures should be thorough.   Every thing should
be understood  and completely mastered.    Nothing should be
slightly  passed  over  or  taken for granted,  if it be possible  to
submit it to  the examination of the senses.  Observation  and de-
monstration,  should  be  the guiding stars, and the student should,
A\7henever it is practicable, see and  feel and examine every thing de-
scribed  by the masters of the  art.  Medicine  thus  studied,  in the
mode pointed out by nature, would no longer be that  dry and unin-
teresting study which it is too  often proclaimed to be by students;
but Avould prove to be one of the most interesting, as it is one of
the noblest and most important that can occupy the study of the
human mind.  Every step  would be a pleasure to  the student; for
he would find that he Avas no longer engaged in advancing among
shadows and doubts, but  continually  progressing on  the sure and
certain basis  of demonstration.
   The subscriber, ardently attached to his profession, the choice
of early  youth and  the preference of more matured  years, has, in
pursuing his  own  improvement with a conscientious desire to pos-
sess  all  the  means of  acquiring knowledge, collected at  a  great
expense, and Avith  the labour of years, the  materials Avhich enable
him to afford to the  student of medicine a combination of peculiar
advantages.  These he will briefly detail, Avith  the  plan of  study
proposed.  His private  institution for students is in a large building
adjoining his residence and office, located in a central and agreea-
ble part of the city. The rooms  are large, aivy and well  light? J,
-f o 7-7-33 
                              4
communicating with  balconies which may be used  for exercise in
unfavorable  Aveather.  His anatomical and surgical museum, and
the adjacent  apartments, will form the student's room for study,
Avhich will afford the advantage of being secluded from the intru-
sion of visitors or patients;  and  thus, every portion of the short
time appropriated to medical study in this country will  be profita-
bly employed.   In  addition  to the  seclusion and retirement, the
student has continually before him, AvhereArer he may cast his eyes,
the materials for demonstration, which Avill  be  referred to under
their appropriate heads.
   In anatomy, the foundation of all the other branches of practical
medicine, peculiar facilities are afforded, consisting of plates, casts,
skeletons, articulated and separated,  injected arterial preparations,
some of full size, but especially those triumphs of art, the anatomi-
cal models of Professor Auzoux, of Paris.  As these are  the firsl
that haA'e been  imported  into this city, a condensed description of
them, extracted  from the "Reports of the Royal Academy," will
now be given:
   " These models of Dr. Auzoux  are formed of Papier Machc, a
composition which  is flexible and solid, and which  receives and
retains the most  delicate impressions.  The large preparation  pre-
sents the anatomical  subject deprived of the integuments and cellu-
lar membrane, and exhibits, true to life, the muscles, aponeuroses,
cartilages, nerves,  viscera, and  blood  vessels, with  their  form,
color, and natural position.   By means  of ingenious sections .1/.
Auzoux has  succeeded in exhibiting all that relates to myology,
angeology, neurology, and splanchnology;  and  even the bones are
^o naturally represented that it is not easy to distinguish them from
the real  bones of the dead body.   The minutest parts of the hu-
man system, the most delicate as  well as the most voluminous are
exhibited with the  greatest accuracy, in their forms, colours and
connexions.   The representations of the  brain,  heart, spinal  mar-
roAv, lungs, liver, et cetera,  are  remarkably happy, and  with  an
accuracy  of detail,  which  has never been equalled.   The acade-
mies of sciences and medicine have passed the highest encomiums
on these admirable  productions.   The French  Government  have
caused them to  be  placed in the military hospitals of instruction,
and in a majority of the schools  of  medicine.   Numbers  of these
models haA-e been  ordered  for  Russia, Turkey, and  the West
Indies., and  have served  to  found schools of medicine in Cairo, 
5
Constantinople, Persia  and Syria.   At the  last exhibition of the
products of French industry, the Avonderful  models of M. Auzoux
Avere submitted to public examination, and Avere viewed as objects
of great interest  by the king, members of council, and the public
journalists, and especially by the citizens, Avhose anxiety to exam-
ine the preparations Avas such that the administration Avas under the
necessity  of  adopting measures to check the  impulse which M.
Auzoux's  happy and natural  delineation of the  human subject had
created.,:#
   Pathological anatomy will be studied Avith morbid preparations,
and in this department also, as Avell as in  healthy anatomy, the stu-
dent Avill  be  assisted by the skill of the  French  artist, as he will
have access to those admirable pathological models lately imported
from Paris, made by Dr. Felix  Thibert, and Avhich received the
Avarmest encomiums of  such Pathologists as And ml, Breschet and
Cruveilhier, Avhose names are enrolled high upon the  records of the
profession.   These  models  represent to  the life  ulceration of the
glands of Peyer, pathognomic of typhus  fever, the condition of the
larynx and bronchice in chronic laryngitis,  sometimes  called clergy-
 man's sore throat;  also,  in bronchitis, disease of the kidney, polypus
of the womb, idceration of the bladder, fungus hsematodes, apoplexy,
 diseases of the heart, tubercles of the lungs, pthisis, gangrene,  frac-
tures, necrosis, et cetera.  Opportunities will  also  be  presented,
during the course of study,  for seeing the actual  condition of the
various  organs and  structures in the autopsies of public or private
practice.
   A very superior  Solar Microscope, magnifying more than  three
millions of times, has been lately purchased and set up in his Anatom-
ical Museum, which Avill afford valuable aid in the study of the  fluids
 and the internal structure of  the various parts of the body, healthy
 and diseased, Avhich investigations promise important discoveries in
 anatomy,  physiology and pathology.
   Materia Jledica Avill be illustrated by drawings and a large and
   * The facilities afforded by these inimitable preparations  may be judged of by the
 fact stated in the Report of Baron Charles Duphi to the Central  Committee of French
 Industry, as follows : " The workmen employed by M. Auzoux, even the most illit-
 erate, are all in a condition to teach the science.  One of his pupils, taken from the
 country, who scarcely knew how to read, has become, in three years, a learned anato-
 mist.  He now resides at Cairo, is eminently distinguished, and not yet twenty years
 of age."
   Physicians who may visit Baltimore, are cordially invited to see these models of
 Auzoux and Thibert, which must be to every medical  man objects of interest and
curiosity. 
                               6
beautiful collection of choice specimens of each medicinal article-
selected with great care in order to procure the best specimens, by
one of our pharmaceutists, alike distinguished for his science and
practical skill in this  department.   The student will  also have an
opportunity of making up prescriptions in the office,  and thus be-
come familiarized  Avith   the  practical details  of the profession,
which will be of daily use in after life.
   Chemistry, by an arrangement with a professor of  that branch,
will  be taught  experimentally in the laboratory, the only true Avay
to learn it.   This will be  without additional expense to the pupil.
   The Practice of  Medicine.—The facilities connected  with this
branch are highly important.   After a full course of reading of the
best  writers on practice,  the  student can Avitness the daily  treat-
ment of a variety of cases in private  practice, and visit frequently
the Avards of the hospital  and infirmaries connected  Avith  the  medi-
cal schools of this city, and learn disease Avhere it is only to be truly
learned, not from  books  alone,  but from the faithful  teachings of
nature at the  bedside.  Here, at all hours of the day  and night, is
this great teacher giving  lessons full of the most precious instruc-
tion ; and all she asks of  the pupil is an humble and devoted  atten-
tion to her precepts.   At a more advanced period of his studies,
when he is prepared for it, the invaluable advantage of a Resident
student at one of the hospitals can be obtained for him, one so much
sought for by young  men of commendable  ambition,  but which, it
is to be regretted, from the construction of hospitals in  this country,
can be granted to but few.
   It may be important to  state here, under the head  of the Practice
of Medicine, that particular attention will be devoted to the instruc-
tion  of the pupil in the use of the  Stethoscope, and  the knoAvledge
of auscultation and percussion, so indispensable to a correct diagno-
sis of the diseases of the lungs and heart, and  of  great  practical
value in other departments of the science.   From peculiar advan-
tages enjoyed by the subscriber, derived from personal instructions
from some of the  most eminent men in this country in that depart-
partment, he feels  justified in offering to students these  important
aids  to practice.
   The practical details of obstetrics will be exhibited  with the ma-
nakin and machine Avhich Avere long  used  before his class by a
professor of that department in one of the  medical schools of this
country.  The condition  of  the fectus, at different stages of  gesta-
tion, will be illustrated by the  beautiful obstetrical models of Au- 
7
zoux.  His female model for the same purpose will also be procured
for the students.
   In the department of Surgery the late situation of the subscriber
as a public teacher, for some years, of that branch, will enable him to
afford peculiar advantages.   He has a large supply of the materials
for profitable  study  and illustration of this branch.  His library
contains the standard works on that subject, and  he has a very full
collection of instruments, comprehending those for  amputation, tre-
phining, lithotomy,  lithotripsy, aneurism, operations on the mouth
and  lips; on  the eye, cataract, &c; on the ear, for deformities ;
besides a large collection of splints and bandages for the treatment
of luxations and  for dressing.   The  application of all the various
bandages will be taught on the living subject;  and every student,
before he leaves the office, and care of the preceptor, will be car-
ried through a complete series of the different  operations of sur-
gery, so as to acquire that dexterity in the^use of instruments, and
neatness in the application of dressings, so important to success in
his future professional career.
   Since the subscriber has  been appointed surgeon to  the  Uni-
versity hospital, he has been  enabled to exhibit to his pupils a large
number of operations, such as amputations, aneurism, extirpation of
various  tumors, fistula, hydrocele, 8fc, embracing most of the  im-
portant operations of surgery, besides Avhat is of more moment to
the general practitioner, a great variety of the cases coming under
the general practice of the surgeon, as ulcers, wounds, contusions,
luxations, fracture, stricture, &c.  &c.#
   The library of the subscriber, miscellaneous and medical, is Avell
selected, consisting of about  1500 volumes, many of which Avere
imported from London and Paris, comprising the standard authors
in each department of medicine.
   The advantages  of pursuing the  study  of medicine in  a city
Avhere such valuable aids are  afforded, are often Aveighed against
the additional  expense incurred by such  a residence.   We think
that no judicious parent, after being duly informed of the difference,
AArould hesitate a moment as  to the impropriety of permitting the
inconsiderable additional expense to be a barrier  to his son's enjoy-
ing every  opportunity of acquiring a  profession Avhich is to be his
future dependence for support, and Avhich may yield both fame and
  *The chair of Surgery in the University, has been resigned bj Dr. D., in order to
devote himself exclusively to his private practice, and private Institute for medical
students. 
                                8
 fortune.  For  so great is the competition now in the profession of
 medicine that eminence is only to be attained by  those who add to
 great industry superior qualifications.   We do most  sincerely be-
 lieve that the  plan of study proposed in this circular, if faithfully
 adhered to by the student, will greatly abridge some of those years
 of AA-aiting for practice, which lead to idle  habits, dissipation  and
 ultimate ruin.  We would avail  ourselves  of  this opportunity to
 say, in  passing, that the course of study is  calculated to  prepare
 the student for attendance on lectures in  any  institution in our coun-
 try; and as Ave are no longer  connected with any medical school,
 Ave shall not interfere Avith the wishes of the parent, or himself, in
 reference to the city or school Avhere he may desire to attend lec-
 tures ; so far as Ave are concerned he shall  be free to  select  for
 himself.
   Finally, Ave Avish it  to  be  distinctly understood, that as it is  our
 design to devote only so much of  our time to our pupils as Avill be
 compatible with  an increasing  public and private  practice, their
 number must necessarily be limited, and in no case Avould avc con-
 sent to receive  into our office any young man of immoral or dissipa-
 ted habits.  It Avould be unjust to those  young  men already under
 our care, and unfair to the profession to be instrumental in introdu-
 cing such persons into its ranks.  Nor do Ave Avish  to receive any
 one avIio has not a just idea of the dignity and responsibility of  the
 profession he has chosen,  and has not set a high mark for his aspi-
 rations, and determined  to study faithfully  and  perseveringly to
 become a worthy folloAver of the  bright  lights of medicine who
 have preceded him  in the  arduous paths of study and practice.  We
 shall feel proud and honored to be selected as the companion and
 guide of the studies and efforts of any young man avIio is inspired
 with a high sense of the responsibility and dignity of the profession,
 and is determined to press on with every nerve in the  race of use-
 fulness and honorable  ambition.
   Terms.—The terms will, for the present, be the same as those of
 other preceptors—$200 in advance for the Avhole period of study.
 Students will also be received  for the single year at $100, or for
the Avinter session at $50, Avhich will include all the  tickets to  the
lectures  of the subscriber, public  and  private.  Any  parent or
 student  desiring  additional information  will  obtain  the  same  by
 addressing
                      JOHN  R. W. DUNBAR,  M. D.,
    Late Prof, of Surg, and Surg. Anat. Wash. Univ'y of Bait.
1%X^7. 
 
 
 
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