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Corporate Name Recipient
Virginia. General Assembly
Date
1863-10-01
Description
Copy of a petition from the Faculty of the Medical College of Virginia to the General Assembly of Virginia requesting a change in the age limit in the proposed bill to reorganize the militia.
Transcription
To the General Assembly of Virginia The undersigned Professors of the Medical College of Va respectfully represent: That the "bill to reorganize the militia" which has passed the Sen ate, and is now pending in the House of Delegates, provides, in Section _____ that students of the University of Virginia and incorporated Colleges, under the age of 21 years, and the professors thereof shall be exempt from enrollment under the said act, during their connection with such institutions, on condition of being organized as one or more companies and regularly drilled etc. We beg leave to urge upon your consideration the {expedi} proprie- {ency} ty of {removing,} rescinding the limitations in regard to age, at least so far as medical students are concerned. While the major- ity of such students are generally [crossout] are under the age of twenty one, a certain number, (in every class) will be {generally} found above that age; and this is especially true of those who are advanced in the studies, and are on the point of completing their professional education. It is {on grounds of public expediency} precisely this latter class are more entitlted to protection during their collegiate course that those who are beginners, and who are therefore generally younger, because they are approaching the time of that preparation which will qualify them for usefull ness in this public service as medical officers or to the general public as practitioners. We deem it important to call your attention to the fact that the College in which we have the honor to hold chairs, and the medical dept of the U. of Va are the [Margin note:] Civil War [Margin note:] Copy of Memorial to General Assembly only medical school within the limits of the C[onfederate] S[tates] which have been [crossout] are now in operation for [crossout] have survived the troubles of the times and have continued in regular operation since the commencement of the war. The education of physicians for the whole South, therefore, must be carried on for the present in the schools of Virginia, a circumstance which gives them institutional [crossout] a strong claim to your consideration. We would {remark} suggest that it is neither necessary nor [crossout] wise that the business of medical education [crossout] should be suspended [crossout] That medical education should be contin- ued without interruption {even} during {a state of war} the existance [crossout] is evidently a public necessity. That it is im- portant in reference to the public services itself, is proved by this fact, which we would take the liberty of citing viz: that {more than half} of the graduates of the Medical College of Va at each of the two last sessions have already entered the pub- lic service in professional positions, nearly all of them hav- ing been commissioned as Surgeons and Assistant Surgeons of the Army and Navy, after an approval of their qualifications by the proper Examining Boards. We would further remark that the annual course of this institution at present commences on the first Monday in November, and continues [crossout] {closes} on the first of March, being confined therefore to a period of the year during which active military operations are for the most part suspended. We trust that your honorable body will find sufficient reason in the foregoing considerations to extend the {temporary} protec- tion afforded by the bill to all medical students in attendance upon collegiate instruction, without regard to age.
Corporate Name Subject
Medical College of Virginia -- History -- 19th century
Topical Subject
Medical colleges -- Virginia -- Richmond -- History -- Archives
Geographic Subject
Richmond (Va.) -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Archives
Corporate Medical Subject
Medical College of Virginia -- history
Topical Medical Subject
Schools, Medical -- history -- Virginia
City/Location
Richmond (Va.)
Original Item Size
2 p.
Genre
petitions
Local Genre
text; archives
Type
Text
Digital Format
application/pdf
Rights Statement URL
Rights
This material is in the public domain in the United States and thus is free of any copyright restriction. Acknowledgement of Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is requested.
Collection
Sanger Historical Files (1859-1865), Excerpts
Physical Folder
Miscellaneous Letters
Source
Original letter: Petition from the Faculty of the Medical College of Virginia, 1863 October 1; Letters, Miscellaneous; Sanger Historical Files, Accession Number # 82/Jan/1, Special Collections and Archives, VCU Health Sciences Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Va.
File Name
san_lettersmisc_18631001.pdf