Civil War and Other 1800's Medical College Lecture Tickets & Cards

Medical Ephemera, Graduation Catalogues, Diplomas, Education Documents, Admission Cards

Page One 'A'

The Medical Education (1819 - 1845) of John Agnew, M.D.

During the 1800's medical doctors who taught in medical schools or colleges supported their efforts by selling admission / lecture tickets or cards to their lectures for the semester or whatever period the lecture series would take. This was how they were paid and prospective medical students would buy tickets for the lectures they needed for their course of medical study or to supplement their continuing education. Both the student and the lecturer / doctor would normally have signed the lecture ticket for admission to the course. During the 1800's it was common for doctors and 'surgeons' to attend only two years of lectures. Medical school was not four years plus internship and a multi-year residency after four years of college as it is today. Two years and you were good to go unless you went the preceptorship route, then you would work for a doctor / surgeon as an apprentice for a number of years and supplement your education with some lectures at a medical college.

By example, Jefferson Medical College placed its emphasis on graduation, not entrance requirements. To receive the M.D. degree, applicants were required to be: 21 years of age, have attended two one-year courses of lectures, studied three years with a preceptor, have written a thesis, and passed an oral or written examination given by the faculty. Only then would students receive the coveted Pass Notice.

All medical lecture tickets from the 1700' and 1800's are wanted to purchase by this collector, Douglas Arbittier, M.D..

It's all inter-related on this site: medical schools sold lecture cards, lecturers who were authors of books wrote books used at the medical schools, the surgeons who attended the medical colleges fought in the Civil War, surgeons joined the Army, the Army bought surgical sets for the surgeon's use, the surgeons taught at the medical schools after the War, and round and round it goes.

Lecture Ticket Topics: Physic & surgery, Lectures and theory, Surgery, Medica materia, Materia Medica, Anatomy and physiology, Chemistry, Surgical anatomy, Surgical pathology, Operative surgery, Clinical surgery, Military surgery, Pathology and practical medicine, Medicine and surgery, Principals practice and operations of surgery, Department of medicine, Ophthalmology, Dermatology, Nervous diseases, Gynaecology, Venereal diseases, Laryngology, Obstetrics, Midwifery, Orthopedic surgery, Comparative anatomy. Lecture tickets, Admission ticket tickets, School, college, medical cards, matriculation

Lecture Card Collection..:

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Documentation of the medical education (1819 - 1845) of John Agnew, M.D.

as contained in his personal writing desk including some of his personal letters

Dr. John Agnew was educated at the University of Edinburgh from 1819-1823. He was one of the first members of the Plinian Society in Edinburgh (whose most famous member was Charles Darwin) which was formed by medical students to study natural history.

The society was founded in 1823 so Agnew was one of its first members.
Agnew went on to practice medicine for several decades in Paris.

This small folding lap desk was owned by Dr. Agnew in the mid 19th century. It has a brass plaque with his name on it and was thought to be empty when sold at auction. Amazingly, a secret compartment held an entire archive of Agnew's life, including medical school admission tickets, his membership card for the Plinian society, and multiple admission passes for hospitals in Paris. These cards were obviously meaningful enough to Agnew for him to keep them hidden in the desk, and it is fortunate that we can now display the desk with the archive of admission cards.

Agnew's son emigrated to the US in the late 19th century and this desk was passed down in the family. Dr. Agnew has no ties to the Civil War in America, but his educational history is comparative to what was available at the time during the early 1800's.