Yale University School of Medicine Miscellaneous Papers.

The Medical Institution of Yale College was chartered by the Connecticut Legislature in 1810 as a joint project of Yale College and the Connecticut Medical Society. The Society, which had the state's power to set standards and to license candidates for medical practice, agreed to require a year of attendance at Yale or similar medical college in addition to an apprenticeship in order for a candidate to be licensed. Two years attendance were required for an M.D. In return, the representatives of the Society participated jointly with representatives of Yale in nominating professors for vacancies and in examining candidates for the license and the M.D. Leading members of the Medcial Society were invited to address the graduates at the commencement ceremony each year. Also, each county medical society could nominate a student for a free course of lectures for a year. The Medical Institution opened in 1813. with four teaching faculty: Nathan Smith, Benjamin Sillliman, Eli Ives, and Jonathan Knight. Students paid each professor directly for each course. In the period of the deanship of Charles Augustus Lindsley, this system underwent major changes. In 1875, the Medical Institution offered a three year graded course, but because of the agreement with the Connecticut Medical Society, the three years could not yet be required for an M.D. In two stages, 1879 and 1884, the agreement between the Society and Yale was dissolved, ending participation of the Society members on committees and allowing Yale to require the three-year course to obtain an M.D. In 1879, the medical school made an agreement to use the New Haven Dispensary, relocated near the medical school, for clinical teaching. The apprenticeship requirement was replaced by clinical teaching courses at the Dispensary. That same year, the Medical Institution of Yale College became the Medical Department of Yale College and obtained a new charter from the State Legislature. In 1880, students began to pay tuition to Yale College which then paid the professors. In this period, physician/professors made the bulk of their income through private practice. By the 1870s, the Medical School was running at a deficit, and was dependent upon the Corporation to make an annual appropriation from general funds.