MEDICAL, SCHOOLS
OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED BY STATES AND PROVINCES
Alabama
Population, 2,112,465. Number of physicians, 2287. Ratio, 1: 924.
Number of medical schools, 2.
BIRMINGHAM: Population, 55,945.
Birmingham Medical College. Organized 1894. A stock company, paying annual dividends of 6 per cent.
Entrance requirement: Nominal.
Attendance: 185, of whom 168 are from Alabama.
Teaching staff: 32, 18 being professors, none of them whole-time teachers.
Resources available for maintenance: Fees, amounting to $14,550 (estimated).
Laboratory facilities: The teaching of anatomy, for which there is abundant material, is limited to dissecting on old-fashioned lines; there is the usual chemical laboratory and a small outfit for instruction in bacteriology and pathology; the material used for the latter is purchased in the east, not obtained from autopsies or clinics. No animals are provided for experimental purpose beyond the use of dogs for surgical work. There are no physiological, pharmacological, or clinical laboratories. The building is poorly kept, and there is neither library nor museum.
Clinical facilities: The school adjoins the Hillman Hospital, 98 beds, of which the faculty has charge during term time. Bedside clinics are held, but the students make no blood or urine examinations; obstetrical cases are rare; the hospital is largely given over to surgical patients,—gunshot and other wounds being decidedly abundant.
The dispensary service is as yet unorganized.
Date of visit: January, 1909.
MOBILE: Population, 56,385.
Medical Department of the University of Alabama. Established 1859. Now an organic department of the state university, with which, however, its connection is legal only. The two institutions are at opposite ends of the state, so that the medical department is practically a local school.
Entrance requirement: Less than three-year high school education.
