University Daily Kansan
Friday, April 16, 1976
5
History
From page one
cepted his position as head of pathology before making a preliminary visit. When the dean showed Major his "new" lab he found out whv.
---
"It was really depressing," Major wrote. The lab floor was covered with test tubes, dried up specimens and just plain dirt, he wrote. The lab museum of pathology had been neglected and "many of the jars were either empty or half filled with fluid, out of which pheromone dying and disintegrating into the gel," professor, associate professor, assistant professor, technician, assistant and junior of the pathology department.
HOWEVER, ALL wasn't gloom in those early days. The center was blessed with a highly competent and enthusiastic staff that was anxious to put the center on the map. Some of the staff members made important contributions that enhanced the reputation of the center.
Dr. Marshall A. BARber, professor of bacteriology, devised an apparatus that made it possible to isolate single new strains of micro-organisms. With the strain became known, he proved that a similar was back and caused a fatal infection in an animal.
The number of students attending the center was much smaller than today. In 1986, there were 20 junior "Gosh Hill" and about the 40 freshman and sophomores at the Lawrence campus taking the pre-med courses. There were also 24 women in the nursing school at
TUTIITION FOR KANSA residents was $30 a year for the pre-med course and $105 a year for the final two years. It was a few dollars higher for non-residents.
to began in 1920 when Kansas Gov. Henry Allen did some fancy politicizing to get the center moved from "Goat Hill" to a site better suited for expansion. He had already told Associate Dean Mervin Sudder that he thought he could persuade the legislature to build a modern facility one building at a time. But now he realized there was an active grassroots campaign by Rosedale citizens to keep the center there on land adiacent to "Goat Hill."
MAJOR WROTE, "Governor Allen played his cards with great skill" when he found opposition to his plans. He announced that he would have to be inadequate for a modern medical center and that it would perhaps be best to abolish the medical school. The legislature apparently concurred and was of course forced to throw doctors, educators, students and citizens."
A whirlwind campaign was begun to save the center and within a few months a suitable location (the present one at 398th Street, between Rosedale and the Governor "relented"). The legislature appropriated funds for a new center and Bell Memorial Hospital opened its doors to patients and students in the hospital, which is as the main entrance to the Med Center.
Since then, the center's growth has been continuous, even during the Depression. New wings and additions have been added periodically and the newer facilities and equipment contrasted sharply with the comparatively primitive conditions at "Goat Hill." The "Goat Hill" campus was established for the center until 1972, first as part of the hospital complex and in recent years as research laboratories.
of students at the center increased about 75 juniors and seniors every year and a number of faculty members distinguished themselves.
Dr. Logan Clendening was one of the most colorful figures at the center. Known for his stimulating and entertaining lectures, he wrote a book called "Modern Methods of Treatment" filled with medical history, amusing anecdotes and common sense. H. L. Mencken saw it and congratulated Dr. Clendening to write a popular treatise on physiology. He did and his book, "The Human Body," was an instant best-seller in 1927.
Later, Clendening wrote a nationally syndicated column on health advice that was featured in daily newspapers having a total circulation of 25 million until his death.
THE CENTER was one of the first clinics to use insulin in the treatment of diabetics. Major obtained a limited supply of the new drug in 1923. In the first two months of that year, two patients were admitted in afternoon hopeless condition in diabetic comas.
The patients were treated with insulin and they became the first two patients in the intensive care unit.
"The news of the success spread like wildfire," Major wote, "and soon we had more patients than we could possibly admit to the hospital."
DESPITE ITS successes, the center was also subject to the social attitudes and prejudices of the time. When the move was made from "Goat Hill" to the new building, there were no provisions made for added capacity; as a result the problem, a temporary structure was built from wood and celotex board north of the main building. The building, which housed
the black patients in one wing and the outpatient department in another, was described as a "flimsy-make-shift, firetrap" by Major. It stood for 25 years.
After its move to the present site, the center underwent several name changes, including the Kearns Hospitals in 1936; University of Kansas Center, in 1947; and College of Health Sciences and Hospital, in 1974, when the center moved to the schools-medicine, nursing and allied health.
FINALLY THE MODERN Era of the center arrived. The center had became more established and respected as the Depression drew to a close. It was turning out larger families, nurses and staff members continued to make important contributions to medicine.
During this time, Dr. Earl C. Padgett revolutionized the techniques of skin grafting and made rubber rubber cement on his arm one day, leaned against a wall and found his skin stuck tightly to the wall. This accident suggested to him the way of solving the problem, that in 1937 he invented a device, along with a KU engineering professor, called the Padgett-Hood dermatome that is used in practically every surgical clinic in the world.
When World War II erupted, the 77th Evacuation Hospital Unit was formed at the center comprised of 35 alumni, local
See HISTORY page 8
Advertise in the Kansan. Call 864-4358.