The Evolution of the Department of Biological Chemistry at
Michigan
One of the first members of the Medical School faculty, Silas
Douglas, was appointed to teach chemistry. In fact, the first
chemistry courses taught at Michigan were taught as part of
the Medical School curriculum. Dr. Douglas had a small laboratory
in the medical building, and he gave chemical demonstrations
before the Medical School classes. He persuaded the Regents
in 1855 to build the first building at any American university
solely devoted to chemistry. Douglas was in charge of the University's
building program and he placed the Chemical Laboratory immediately
behind the Medical Department. The two buildings were connected
by a wooden walkway spanning the mud.
Dr. Douglas and his staff taught chemistry to the rest of the
University, and the Chemical Laboratory was repeatedly enlarged.
At first, Preston Rose taught toxicology and the elements of
urine analysis to medical students, but the latter subject was
soon included in a course in physiological chemistry taught
by Victor Vaughan, who later became dean of the Medical School.
Albert Benjamin Prescott taught the practical aspects of materia
medica and the elements of pharmacy to medical students who
often had to be their own pharmacists when in practice in the
countryside. His program grew into a full-fledged College of
Pharmacy housed in the Chemical Laboratory. Engineering students
studied inorganic analysis and metallurgical chemistry and Literary
College students learned organic and inorganic chemistry from
Medical School faculty.
In 1883, Victor Vaughan was appointed professor of physiological
and pathological chemistry. He was the first man to hold a professorship
in physiological chemistry in a medical faculty in this country.
Under the able leadership of Dr. Vaughan and his pupil, Frederick
Novy, the subject was developed as part of the offerings of
the combined Department of Bacteriology, Physiological Chemistry,
and Hygiene.
After the retirement of Dr. Vaughan in 1921, it was felt that
physiological chemistry, in view of its rising importance, could
hardly be kept in the position of an adjunct to other subjects.
A separate Department of Physiological Chemistry was established
in 1922. In 1935, with the approval of the executive committee
of the Medical School, the department's name was changed to
Biological Chemistry. It was felt that the broader term "biological"
was more in keeping with the recent developments in this branch
of chemistry.
Horace W. Davenport, Not Just Any Medical
School: The Science,Practice, and Teaching of Medicine at the
University of Michigan,1850-1941 (Ann Arbor: University
of Michigan Press, in press).
Howard B. Lewis, "The Department of Biological Chemistry,"
in The University of Michigan, an Encyclopedic Survey, ed. Wilfred
B. Shaw (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1951).
Also:
Understanding
the language of cells:
If cells could be said to speak their own language, Michael
Marletta and Kun-Liang Guan are two of the best translators
around
The
John D. and Catherine MacArthur Foundation MacArthur Fellows
Program
National
Recognition for Faculty Members in the Department of Biological
Chemistry
LU
GIFT ENDOWS NEW PROFESSORSHIP IN DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY
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