(Taken from Pinta,
E.R. (1994). A History of Psychiatry at The Ohio State University,
1847-1993, pp. 3-12)
The Department of
Psychiatry of The Ohio State University traces its inception to
the 1847 appointment of Samuel M. Smith, M.D. (1816-1874), as
"Professor of Medical Jurisprudence and Insanity" at the Willoughby
Medical College of Columbus. Psychiatry at OSU can therefore be
considered to have had its birth on Feb. 19, 1847. On this date, the
trustees of the Willoughby Medical College met in the Columbus law
offices of Joseph R. Swan and John W Andrews and unanimously appointed
Dr. Smith, a prominent Columbus physician, to this chair (33; 37). With
this appointment, the first academic department of psychiatry (or its
equivalent) in this country was established (I; 4, p. 56).
In recognition of Dr.
Smith's appointment, the American Journal of Insanity in October 1847
declared: "We are gratified to learn that a professorship of insanity
has been established at one Medical School. The Willoughby University,
Columbus, Ohio, has appointed Samuel M. Smith, M.D., Professor of
Medical Jurisprudence and Insanity. We think there should be a distinct
course of Lectures on Mental Maladies at every Medical School. Dr.
Smith has some practical knowledge of Insanity, having been an Assistant
Physician at the Ohio Lunatic Asylum for several years" (1).
The Willoughby
Medical College of Columbus was a precursor of the College of Medicine
of The Ohio State University (35, pp. 324, 51 1). On this basis, the
OSU Department of Psychiatry lays claim to being the first department of
its kind in the nation.
History of the Willoughby Medical College of Columbus ...
The Willoughby
University of Lake Erie, the forerunner of the Willoughby Medical
College of Columbus, was chartered on March 3, 1834. It was located
nineteen miles east of Cleveland near the Chagrin River in what is now
Willoughby. The college trustees decided to move the University to
Columbus in 1847. This decision followed several years of competition
for students with another medical school in northeastern Ohio--the
Medical Department of Western Reserve College, founded in 1843. Another
factor in the decision to move was a poor relationship that developed
with the townspeople of Willoughby following the school's alleged
involvement in an 1843 grave-robbing incident (43).
On Jan. 14, 1847, the
state legislature passed an amendment to the 1834 charter of the
Willoughby University of Lake Erie, authorizing its transfer to Columbus
as the "Willoughby Medical College of Columbus." Noah H. Swayne, one of
Ohio's most famous jurists and a future U.S. Supreme Court justice under
President Lincoln, was named President of the College. John H.
Butterfield, M.D., who had been with the school in Willoughby, was made
Dean. Besides Mr. Swayne, the members of the Board of Trustees of the
relocated college included many prominent citizens of Columbus--John W.
Andrews, William Armstrong, William Dennison, Jr., John Field, Samuel
Medary, Robert Neil, Aaron F. Perry, S. D. Preston, Dr. C. F. Schenck,
Alfred P. Stone, Joseph Sullivant, William S. Sullivant, Joseph R. Swan
and Charles H. Wing (35, p. 45). To these farsighted individuals goes
the credit for establishing the country's first department of
psychiatry.
The Willoughby
Medical College begins its classes ...
The Ohio State
Journal of Aug. 13, 1847, announced the opening series of lectures for
the Willoughby Medical College of Columbus. Classes were to begin on
November 3rd and to continue for sixteen weeks (17). To accommodate
students, the Willoughby trustees purchased the Clay Club Room, a large
wooden building used by the supporters of Henry Clay during his
unsuccessful 1844 Whig presidential campaign. They arranged for the
building to be moved from East State Street, opposite the State Capitol
Building, to the northwest corner of Gay and High streets (35, p. 143).
Lyne Starling, one of
the founding-fathers of Columbus, contemplated the bestowal of a large
gift to a charitable institution. He was persuaded by his friends,
including Dr. Smith, to donate $30,000 (later adding an additional
$5,000) to the Willoughby Medical College of Columbus. The gift was
used for the construction of a new hospital and teaching facility (35,
pp. 142-43).
The following year on
Jan. 28, 1848, Willoughby Medical College became known as Starling
Medical College in honor of its benefactor. Classes continued in the
same building and laboratories--with the same equipment, students,
faculty and dean. However, the school that began classes as the
Willoughby Medical College of Columbus graduated its first students
under its charter as Starling Medical College. William S. Sullivant was
made President of Starling Medical College. A new Board of Trustees was
chosen that included three former trustees of the Willoughby Medical
College of Columbus--Mr. Sullivant, Joseph R. Swan and John W Andrews.
Four new members of the Board--Dean Butterfield, Robert W. McCoy, Dr.
Francis Carter and Dr. Smith were appointed (35, p. 94).
Dr. Smith was given
the title of Professor of Materia Medica Therapeutics and Medical
Jurisprudence at the reorganized college. Upon the death of Dean
Butterfield in 1849, the Starling trustees chose Dr. Smith to become the
second dean of Starling Medical College. He held this title from 1849
to 1858 and from 1860 to 1863. He also held the title of "Professor of
Theory and Practice of Medicine" from 1850 until his death in 1874 (35,
p. 106). He remained a trustee of Starling Medical College throughout
his life (36).
Following a merger in
1907 with the Ohio Medical University, a rival college, the school
became known as Starling-Ohio Medical College. In 1914 Starling-Ohio
Medical College transferred its assets to The Ohio State University and
it became The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
Lectures on insanity
...
Although Dr. Smith's
appointment as professor of "psychiatry" was for slightly less than one
year, records demonstrate that he delivered his "lectures on insanity"
for at least a six-year period, and most likely longer. Annual catalog
announcements for Starling Medical College continued to list Dr. Smith's
lectures from 1847 through 1853. After this date there is a gap in
available bulletins until 1868 when William L. Peck, M.D., was appointed
Professor of Insanity and Nervous Diseases (7).
Dr. Smith's lectures
must have represented a comprehensive approach to the description,
treatment and causes of mental illness. The 1847 Announcement of
Courses for the Willoughby Medical College of Columbus stated the
following: "Professor Smith will give a series of lectures on the nature
and treatment of insanity, and those diseases leading to it, for which
his connection for several years with one of the best hospitals
peculiarly qualifies him" (35, pp. 78-79). It is significant that Dr.
Smith's 1847 lectures were part of the required curriculum, while
several other subjects were offered in a preliminary, non-required
format (17).
Dr. Smith's
continuing interest in PsYchiatry was demonstrated by his involvement
with the Columbus Asylum for the Insane as a trustee from 1856 until his
death in 1874, and by an appointment in 1870 to a special committee of
the Ohio State Medical Association to examine the plea of insanity in
cases of homicide (38).
Background of Dr. Smith ...
Samuel Mitchel
Smith was born in Greenfield, Highland County, Ohio, on Nov. 28,1816.
He was the only child of Samuel and Nancy (Mitchel) Smith. His family
was a pioneer family of Highland County and his mother was one of the
first white (not Native American) children born there (3). His paternal
grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War, and his father operated a
tannery in Greenfield, also finding time to be minister of the
Presbyterian Church. Dr. Smith's mother died of postpartum
complications resulting from his birth. She had not yet reached her
twentieth birthday. A family story told that her final words were a
prayer that her son would be spared "to serve acceptably the God she
trusted." This was repeated often to young Samuel and guided his
decisions in life and helped shape the choice of his career (19).
Samuel M. Smith
entered Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, in the fall of 1832,
graduating in 1836. Following graduation, he was placed in charge of an
academy in Rising Sun, Indiana, where he studied medicine under a local
physician, Dr. John Morrison. He attended the 1837-1838 session of
lectures at the Medical Department of the Cincinnati College (6). The
Medical Department of the Cincinnati College was one of several Ohio
medical colleges founded by Daniel Drake, M.D., the dominant figure of
early medicine in the Cincinnati area. It had a four-year existence
from 1835 to 1839 (14).
Contrary to what is
recorded in some biographies of Dr. Smith (37; 38), he never received a
medical degree in course from the Medical College of Ohio (now the
University of Cincinnati) (5), nor is there a record of his attending
lectures at this institution. He matriculated to Philadelphia in 1838,
receiving a medical degree in 1839 from the nation's first medical
school--the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania (19;
35, p. 428; 36). After a brief return to Highland County, Dr. Smith
moved to Columbus. In 1840 he accepted a position as an assistant
physician at the Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum, a large facility on East
Broad Street near what is now Parsons Avenue (36). The Central Ohio
Lunatic Asylum was built in 1835 and destroyed by fire in 1868. The
superintendent during the years of Dr. Smith's association was William
Maclay Awl, M.D. (1799-1876). Dr. Awl was one of the thirteen founders
of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions
for the Insane (original name of the American Psychiatric Association)
and its second president from 1848 to 1851. It was under Dr. Awl's
supervision that Dr. Smith received his first experience and training in
psychiatry.
In 1843 Dr. Smith resigned his position at the Central Asylum and opened
an office for the practice of medicine on the corner of High and Town
streets, opposite the City House (I 6). In the same year, he married
Susan Evans Anthony, daughter of General Charles Anthony of Springfield,
Ohio. Shortly afterwards he moved his office to East Rich Street near
High Street. He later relocated to 154 East State St., where his office
remained until his death (28; 37).
An appointment at an
early school of medical instruction ...
Dr. Smith's
appointment to the Chair of Medical Jurisprudence and Insanity at the
Willoughby Medical College of Columbus was not his first medical
teaching experience. Eight months earlier, the Columbus Ohio Press
announced a four month series of lectures on Materia Medica and
Therapeutics delivered by Dr. Smith for the Columbus Medical and
Surgical Institute. These lectures began on March 10, 1847 (34). Three
of the five faculty named to this Institute--Drs. Smith, Butterfield
and Richard L. Howard were members of the first faculty of the
Willoughby Medical College of Columbus. There is no record that the
Columbus Medical and Surgical Institute had a charter to confer medical
degrees, and like a number of antebellum schools of medical instruction
in Ohio it most likely had a brief existence.
___________________
The Department of Psychiatry of The
Ohio State University traces its inception to the 1847 appointment of
Samuel M. Smith, M.D. (1816-1874), as "Professor of Medical
Jurisprudence and Insanity" at the Willoughby Medical College of
Columbus. Psychiatry at OSU can therefore be considered to have had its
birth on Feb. 19, 1847. On this date, the trustees of the Willoughby
Medical College met in the Columbus law offices of Joseph R. Swan and
John W Andrews and unanimously appointed Dr. Smith, a prominent Columbus
physician, to this chair (33; 37). With this appointment, the first
academic department of psychiatry (or its equivalent) in this country
was established (I; 4, p. 56).
In recognition of Dr.
Smith's appointment, the American Journal of Insanity in October 1847
declared: "We are gratified to learn that a professorship of insanity
has been established at one Medical School. The Willoughby University,
Columbus, Ohio, has appointed Samuel M. Smith, M.D., Professor of
Medical Jurisprudence and Insanity. We think there should be a distinct
course of Lectures on Mental Maladies at every Medical School. Dr. Smith
has some practical knowledge of Insanity, having been an Assistant
Physician at the Ohio Lunatic Asylum for several years" (1).
The Willoughby
Medical College of Columbus was a precursor of the College of Medicine
of The Ohio State University (35, pp. 324, 51 1). On this basis, the OSU
Department of Psychiatry lays claim to being the first department of its
kind in the nation.
History of the Willoughby Medical College of Columbus ...
The Willoughby
University of Lake Erie, the forerunner of the Willoughby Medical
College of Columbus, was chartered on March 3, 1834. It was located
nineteen miles east of Cleveland near the Chagrin River in what is now
Willoughby. The college trustees decided to move the University to
Columbus in 1847. This decision followed several years of competition
for students with another medical school in northeastern Ohio--the
Medical Department of Western Reserve College, founded in 1843. Another
factor in the decision to move was a poor relationship that developed
with the townspeople of Willoughby following the school's alleged
involvement in an 1843 grave-robbing incident (43).
On Jan. 14, 1847, the
state legislature passed an amendment to the 1834 charter of the
Willoughby University of Lake Erie, authorizing its transfer to Columbus
as the "Willoughby Medical College of Columbus." Noah H. Swayne, one of
Ohio's most famous jurists and a future U.S. Supreme Court justice under
President Lincoln, was named President of the College. John H.
Butterfield, M.D., who had been with the school in Willoughby, was made
Dean. Besides Mr. Swayne, the members of the Board of Trustees of the
relocated college included many prominent citizens of Columbus--John W.
Andrews, William Armstrong, William Dennison, Jr., John Field, Samuel
Medary, Robert Neil, Aaron F. Perry, S. D. Preston, Dr. C. F. Schenck,
Alfred P. Stone, Joseph Sullivant, William S. Sullivant, Joseph R. Swan
and Charles H. Wing (35, p. 45). To these farsighted individuals goes
the credit for establishing the country's first department of
psychiatry.
