Manchester Royal School Of Medicine
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The Manchester Royal School of Medicine (also known as the Manchester Royal School of Medicine and Surgery and as Pine Street School) has its origins in a medical teaching establishment opened on Pine Street,
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, by Thomas Turner. Established in 1824, the school added the word ''Royal'' in 1836 and in 1872 it was taken over by
Owens College Owens may refer to: Places in the United States * Owens Station, Delaware * Owens Township, St. Louis County, Minnesota * Owens, Missouri * Owens, Ohio * Owens, Texas * Owens, Virginia People * Owens (surname), including a list of people with ...
, which later became a part of the
Victoria University of Manchester The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a university in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal Victoria University. A ...
.


Early years

Medical training in 18th-century England, and especially outside London, usually involved an
apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in ...
ship to unlicensed
apothecaries ''Apothecary'' () is an archaic English term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons and patients. The modern terms ''pharmacist'' and, in British English, ''chemist'' have ...
. Study materials were few and learning was ''ad hoc'', based on the cases being treated. As the century came to a close, there were attempts to introduce public lectures by members of what was then known as the Public Infirmary of Manchester — notably Charles White and Thomas Henry — but a formalised and structured course of study offered by a medical school did not exist until 1814. In that year, Joseph Jordan resigned from a doctor's practice to concentrate on providing lectures and demonstrations in
anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
from a house in Bridge Street. Jordan had been combining practice work with lectures since around 1812; his new venture had moved to larger premises on Bridge Street in 1816 and in the following year his school became the first provincial institution to be recognised by the London Society of Apothecaries as a teaching establishment for those seeking its licentiate. The standards at this time had been regulated by the
Apothecaries Act 1815 The Apothecaries Act 1815 ( 55 Geo. 3. c. 194) or the Medical Act 1815 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom with the long title "An Act for better regulating the Practice of Apothecaries throughout England and Wales". The Act intr ...
but a tightening of the requirements in 1817 caused the school to be de-listed. Recognition returned in 1821, when the
Royal College of Surgeons of England The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) is an independent professional body and registered charity that promotes and advances standards of surgery, surgical care for patients, and regulates surgery and dentistry in England and Wa ...
also accepted the school as a suitable provider of education for its MRCS diploma. Jordan occasionally got into trouble both with the law and the general public due to his use of body-snatchers and even the direct involvement of himself and students in the surreptitious acquirement of suitable corpses for study. The new school had challenged the medical establishment. Jordan's aim was to reduce the burden of costs that were placed on students who otherwise would have to go to London if they wanted to obtain a diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons or a licence from the Society of Apothecaries. As a side-effect of this, he thought that student morals would not be subjected to the licentiousness that he perceived to be present in London and that a provincial education would increase the number of doctors practising outside the capital. He arranged that his curriculum would comply with the requirements of the London institutions and thus it comprised a seven-month course of 140 lectures as well as lessons and demonstrations in
dissection Dissection (from Latin ' "to cut to pieces"; also called anatomization) is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause of ...
. He offered a formal, structured programme of study of a type unavailable outside the capital and the few universities that then existed, and he offered an alternative to the more commonly adopted process of medical learning that involved a long apprenticeship.


Competition

Although Jordan's School of Anatomy may have broadened the scope of its courses since foundation, it was not as comprehensive in coverage as that opened by Thomas Turner on Pine Street in 1824. Turner's Pine Street medical school was based in a former warehouse close to the Manchester Infirmary. It offered all of the courses demanded for the LSA and MRCS qualifications, rather than a subset of them, and it was based on his experiences in delivering occasional lectures at the
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, popularly known as the Lit. & Phil., is one of the oldest learned societies in the United Kingdom and second oldest provincial learned society (after the Spalding Gentlemen's Society). Promi ...
(ML&PS) since 1822 as he sought to promote his theories of medical education. Turner was able to call upon the support of previously cultivated contacts, including
John Dalton John Dalton (; 5 or 6 September 1766 – 27 July 1844) was an English chemist, physicist and meteorologist. He introduced the atomic theory into chemistry. He also researched Color blindness, colour blindness; as a result, the umbrella term ...
and other members of the ML&PS, and these people in turn attracted other supporters. He is credited with "creating the first more or less complete provincial medical school in England" and his success was noted by others. Schools that emulated his were soon opened in others towns and cities, such as
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
(1827),
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
and
Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
(1828),
Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
(1830) and
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
(1834). In 1826 Jordan responded to Turner's challenge, which was creating intense competition both for students and staff, by moving his medical school to purpose-built premises in Mount Street. He now had facilities that were superior in size and equipment to those of Turner, and that included private dissecting rooms for use by qualified doctors. However, the attempt to recover lost ground was unsuccessful, in part because Jordan was not an easy person to work with and perhaps also because of objections to the introduction of his young nephew, Edward Stephens, as an instructor. In 1828, his staff deserted him to establish their own school on Marsden Street. Thereafter, the combined efforts of Jordan and Stephens could not match the range of courses offered by the Pine Street school, which had both more and better-quality staff. Jordan was now torn between his school business and his desire to be elected to an honorary surgeon's position at the Manchester Infirmary. He failed in an election of 1828 and again in 1833, although Turner had been successful in 1830. Among those opposing him were his former staff. Competition for the posts was tough and required influence with, and influencing of, both existing staff and people who subscribed the funds that financed the infirmary's work. Jordan determined to spend a lot of money in the next elections and to have the public support of Turner and his contacts. Jordan was successful in this effort, which arose upon the death of another surgeon in 1835, but it cost him, among other things, his Mount Street school. The school was closed and its students and library were transferred to Pine Street in 1834 as the price for Turner's future support.


Rationalisation

The Marsden Street school — which involved some notable names such as George Freckleton, Thomas Fawdington, J. Boutflower and John Roberton — had been innovative in providing the first
medical jurisprudence Medical jurisprudence or legal medicine is the branch of science and medicine involving the study and application of scientific and medical knowledge to legal problems, such as inquests, and in the field of law. As modern medicine is a legal ...
courses in Manchester. An 1836 proposal for a
joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...
with Pine Street came to nothing because of clashes of egos regarding who would hold what roles. The school closed in 1839 and passed its library on to Turner's establishment. That school had been renamed as the Manchester Royal School of Medicine and Surgery in 1836 but was commonly referred to as Pine Street School. It remained the only medical school in the city until George Southam opened one on Chatham Street in 1850. Southam's school proved to be stiffer competition than its predecessors. In 1856, both schools heeded a suggestion made by James Kay, the doctor and
educationist Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education also fol ...
, to approach Owens College with a view to a merger. E. M. Brockbank, a medical historian, says that "
heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...
propositions apparently rather amazed the College people as being too one-sided - the schools giving too little and asking too much ... There were in the proposals,
he College He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...
said, a request for space, for power of administration, and for a large portion of the income of the College." Thus the idea was abandoned and, later in the same year, the two medical schools amalgamated. The teaching then took place at Chatham Street until 1861 while improvements were made to the Pine Street premises. Those improvements included construction of a more imposing frontage on the Faulkner Street elevation; when the Chatham Street premises were sold and teaching transferred back to Pine Street, the school address was advertised as "Faulkner Street behind the Infirmary" and it became colloquially known as the Faulkner Street school from then onwards. The courses offered during the 1860s and 1870s included
physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...
, descriptive and practical anatomy, chemistry, principles and practices of medicine and of surgery,
pathology Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...
,
forensic medicine Forensic medicine is a broad term used to describe a group of medical specialties which deal with the examination and diagnosis of individuals who have been injured by or who have died because of external or unnatural causes such as poisoning, assa ...
and
midwifery Midwifery is the health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (including care of the newborn), in addition to the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. In many cou ...
. Leo Grindon provided a course in
botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
and the Manchester Royal Infirmary was responsible for the teaching of
clinical medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...
and surgery. Discussions with Owens College re-opened some years later. The Faulkner Street premises were unable to cater for the demands of what had become the largest provincial medical school in the country. The College had continued to grow as the
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s of the estate of John Owens used the near-£100,000 legacy that had been obtained mostly by fortuitously selling his shares in railway companies around the time that "
Railway Mania Railway Mania was a stock market bubble in the rail transportation industry of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in the 1840s. It followed a common pattern: as the price of railway shares increased, speculators invested more mon ...
" was at its peak. The College had been based in
Quay Street Quay Street is a street in Manchester city centre in Greater Manchester, England. The street, designated the A34, continues Peter Street westwards towards the River Irwell and Salford. It is the northern boundary of Spinningfields, the cit ...
, Manchester, since 1851 but by the 1870s it was constructing larger premises at Oxford Road and as yet had no medical teaching facilities. Although there were concerns whether the new facilities could accommodate the medical schools also, these were alleviated by a timely donation from Hannah Brackenbury, a
philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...
who was also supporting causes such as the
Ancoats Hospital The Ancoats Hospital and Ardwick and Ancoats Dispensary (commonly known as Ancoats Hospital) was a large inner-city hospital located in Ancoats, to the north of the city centre of Manchester, England. It was built in 1875, replacing the Ardwick ...
. Turner was no longer active as a teacher but his long-cherished idea that his school should be a part of a larger institution of general learning came to fruition when it was taken over in 1872 to become the College's
faculty of medicine A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...
. The Faulkner Street premises continued to be used until the new buildings became available in October 1873, shortly before Turner's death. Owens College, and its bought-in medical school, eventually became the
Victoria University of Manchester The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a university in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal Victoria University. A ...
.


References

Notes Citations Bibliography * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * *


External links

* * * {{coord missing, Greater Manchester Medical schools in England 1824 establishments in England University of Manchester