History of the University of Michigan
College of Pharmacy
![The Regents of the University of Michigan at their December 29, 1876, meeting founded the School of Pharmacy through the following resolution:
“Resolved, That the School of Pharmacy which has hitherto been connected with the Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts, be and is hereby constituted a separate school of the University, to be known and designated hereafter as ‘The School of Pharmacy’.”
There was, however, a history of pharmacy at the University long before this. As early as October, 1839, Douglass Houghton (A.M. and M.D. Rensselaer ‘29) was appointed Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, and he was also “charged with the subjects of Chemistry and Pharmacy, till the Regents take further order in relation thereto.” Houghton probably did not conduct regular classes, although he did make contributions to the scientific collections of the University. In 1844 Silas Hamilton Douglass* (A.M. hon. Vermont ‘47), Houghton’s cousin, was designated Assistant in chemistry. The appointment was made during Houghton’s survey of the Upper Peninsula and just one year before he was drowned in Lake Superior.
Douglass was placed in charge of the Chemistry Department after his cousin’s death and continued in this capacity for the next thirty-two years. In addition to his other duties, his efforts were directed toward the establishment of the Medical School and the teaching of chemistry in it. Owing to the success of his course in the Medical School and the support and interest of President Tappan, Douglass was able to direct the construction of the first chemical laboratory in a state university.
There seems to be no indication that he actually taught courses in pharmacy, but his titles illustrate the University’s continued interest in the subject. From 1851 to 1855 he held the title of Professor of Chemistry, Pharmacy, Medical Jurisprudence, Geology, and Mineralogy and from 1855 to 1870 his title was Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, Pharmacy, and Toxicology. Douglass played a definite role in the development of the School of Pharmacy, since it was in the Chemical Laboratory under his direction that the first courses in pharmacy were offered. Alfred DuBois (‘48, M.A. ‘54), the first nonstudent assistant selected to aid Douglass and the first teacher to give instruction in pharmacy at Michigan, was appointed Assistant to the Professor of Chemistry in 1855, having previously acted as a voluntary student assistant. In 1857 he was made Assistant Professor of Chemistry and in 1858 his salary was raised from $800 to $1,000 per year. When he submitted a request at the September, 1862, meeting of the Board of Regents, however, to be made Assistant Professor of Pharmacy and Organic Chemistry, his request was refused, and his somewhat rapid rise in the young University was brought to an abrupt end. At the September meeting, DuBois’ request was referred to the committee on the Chemistry Department under the chairmanship of Regent Bishop. The report of this committee (now in the Michigan Historical Collections) describes the status of pharmacy in the University at that time.
The report begins by outlining the duties performed in the department. There were four lectures a week in chemistry and pharmacy during the first semester and three lectures a week in chemistry during the second semester. The instruction included fifteen lectures in organic chemistry “which is all the time that can profitably be devoted in this branch at the present state of the science. The lectures on Pharmacy are in direct connection with those on Chemistry; a natural if not a necessary association.” There were also courses given in Analytical Chemistry and Practical Pharmacy (Chemical Technology). The class in Practical Pharmacy had an average of about six students and was conducted by DuBois. It was his proposal that there be a division of the professorships then held by Professor Douglass and that DuBois should confine his instruction to the courses Practical Pharmacy and Organic Chemistry.
It was, however, the opinion of the committee that the size of the University was not such as to warrant this. They further believed that DuBois’ rise had been too rapid, especially in view of the size of the department, type of work to be performed, and his lack of willingness to carry out all assigned tasks: “It cannot therefore in the judgement of your committee be wise or politic to permit this state of things longer to exist. Neither can it be for the interest of Prof. DuBois that it should, for while it may not be for the interests of the University to establish a chair of Phar. and Or. Chem. for the purpose of his accommodation, he can have no difficulty in procuring a position elsewhere better suited to his tastes than the one he now holds and where he may have an opportunity to employ his scientific attainments more creditably to himself and more profitable to the interests of Chemical Science.” The report concluded by suggesting that the staff of the Department of Chemistry should consist of the Professor of Chemistry, Douglass, and three assistants.
The report of the committee was accepted at the March, 1863, meeting of the Regents. The position of Assistant Professor of Chemistry was abolished, and provision was made for three assistants to Professor Douglass. It thus was on June 23, 1863, that Albert Benjamin Prescott (‘64m, Ph.D. hon. ‘86, LL.D. hon. ‘96) was appointed to the first assistantship at a salary of $300 a year. From this position Prescott rose in 1870 to Professor of Organic and Applied Chemistry and Pharmacy. The assistantship with a salary of $225 was given to Henry Sylvester Cheever (‘63, ‘66m), who also was to influence the development of the College of Pharmacy. Both of these men received their initial appointments while students at the University.
There is doubt concerning the exact nature of the pharmacy course conducted by Professor DuBois, the years during which it was taught, and its fate after he left the University to enter a career as chemist and assayer in Colorado and California. The course that he began appears to be a part of the “special investigations in Chemical Technology” described in the section on courses of instruction in “Chemistry and Determinative Mineralogy” of the early University catalogues. However, the first actual mention of its being so is in the Catalogue of 1866-67. Prescott also told something of this course in an article entitled “Silas H. Douglass as Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy.” He dated the establishment of the first laboratory course in pharmacy at the University as 1860 and described it as work in pharmaceutical preparations intended for students of medicine but also “as general practical training in applied science” and went on to say:
“In the making of emulsions there was almost a course in itself. As to the making of ‘blue mass’ it was a common remark that it took its name from the feeling of the student before he could complete the task to the satisfaction of the professor. ‘Iron by hydrogen’ was worked by the class jointly, but each man severally must test one portion of it and preserve another portion. The preparation of morphine from opium was certainly not an economical procedure in respect to the yield of alkaloid, but it turned out quite well in the yield of experience.”
Development of the college. — Interest in this course and in pharmacy in general at the University reached such a point that at the December 14, 1868, meeting of the faculty of the Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts two important decisions were made. First, it was “decided to make a separate list of the Pharmaceutical Chemical Students,” and second, it was “carried that a committee of three be appointed to take into consideration the propriety of forming a course for a degree as Phar. Chemists. Committee consisted of Dr. Haven, Professors Douglass and Cheever.” Eight days later, at the Board of Regents’ meeting, on the motion of Regent Sill, authority was granted to establish a full course of study in pharmacy and to grant a certificate of graduation to students who completed the work. Thus, in the Catalogue for 1868-69 the first list of twenty students in pharmacy was given; the Catalogue for the following year presented a list of twenty-three men who had received degrees as pharmaceutical chemists.
Pharmacy then remained a special course in the Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts until December 29, 1876, when the Regents adopted a resolution to establish a separate School of Pharmacy. This resolution was passed in response to a communication presented one week earlier by the professors and instructors in pharmacy:
“To the Honorable Board of Regents: The undersigned, the officers of instruction in the course in Pharmacy, respectfully recommend that this course, viz: the provisions for the instruction given under the requirements for the degree of Pharmaceutical Chemist, be constituted a separate branch or department of the University, under the name of The School of Pharmacy.
“Our recommendation seems to be supported by the following considerations. The course in Pharmacy is a technical one, throughout. As such it is not parallel with any course in the literary department and its inclusion in this department has been only nominal. It is separated from other departments by the professional purpose of its work in the University and by its relations to those who supply its students and employ its graduates. Nearly all the required work of the Pharmacy classes is conducted with them separately, as shown by accompanying statement A, this separation being demanded by the size of the classes as well as by a due application of the sciences taught. The permanence of the school seems to be assured by the steadily increasing support given it, as noted in statement B. The officers who now give instruction to undergraduates in pharmacy are named in statement C.
Silas H. Douglas
Albert B. Prescott
G. E. Frothingham
William H. Pettee
John W. Langley
Volney M. Spaulding”
Statement A was a list of courses required for the degree of pharmaceutical chemist. Statement B was a summary of the students in pharmacy from 1868 to 1876 and a note pointing out the published contributions of original work by alumni of the pharmacy course. Statement C listed the twelve people giving instruction to pharmacy students at that time.
It was in this manner that pharmacy became established as an independent unit on campus. There followed only one organizational modification in the seventy-five years of development after its establishment. In 1915 the name of the “School of Pharmacy” was changed to “College of Pharmacy,” to conform to the University policy adopted at that time.
Although instruction in pharmacy became firmly established at the University, this type of teaching was not at the time accepted by educators and practitioners in pharmacy. University of Michigan pharmaceutical education was a decided change in many respects from the pattern which then prevailed. The situation is best described as follows:
“Until after the Civil War pharmaceutical education and the general institutions of higher learning in the United States went entirely separate ways. But emergence of the state university on the American scene during the first half of the century was to prove of primary importance in pharmacy. Such institutions tended to have a more democratic outlook than the old-line universities, which emphasized liberal education for the upper class. In the state university the pendulum swung far the other way: emphasis was on practical subjects to serve the people’s needs, on applied science and the training of replacements for the professions.
“One of the state institutions most alert to these needs was the University of Michigan, which in 1868 became the first to establish a course in pharmacy. Unhampered by dependence on ticket sales for support, or by the encrusted tradition of the apprenticeship system, or by those with a vested interest in the status quo, there emerged a radical departure in pharmaceutical education. The two most significant features were complete disregard of the apprenticeship as a requirement for graduation — elsewhere considered the very core of a pharmacist’s education — and heavy emphasis on basic science without regard for what seemed functional in the average ‘store.’
“Such heresy becomes understandable only in the light of the Michigan tradition. The University had made great strides under its aggressive president, Henry P. Tappan, whose guiding star was European academic thought and the German university in particular. His successor, E. O. Haven, took special pride in his science courses, and during his regime set up new courses in chemistry and physics, as well as pharmacy.
“The University of Michigan medical school had been ‘unique’ in that it bravely set high standards. In the medical curriculum pharmaceutical instruction was naturally included. Medical students and others who might be aiming at either part-time or full-time practice of pharmacy were taking a laboratory course in pharmacy eight years before the separate pharmaceutical curriculum was organized.
“Thus it was a rather easy transition to a special ‘Course of Study in Pharmacy’ within the Department of Science, Literature and Arts, requiring for completion ‘one and a half to two years’ of study, with a sound scientific education as its supreme goal and with facilities to reach its objective. This move was interpreted as a challenge by pharmacy schools then in existence. The battle lines were drawn at the St. Louis meeting of the American Pharmaceutical Association in 1871. Here the University of Michigan School of Pharmacy was denied recognition, since it was not ‘within the proper meaning of our Constitution and By-laws, a College of Pharmacy: it being neither an organization controlled by pharmacists, nor an institution of learning which, by its rules and requirements insures to its graduates the proper practical training, to place them on a par with the graduates of the several colleges of pharmacy represented in this Association.’
“Dr. Albert B. Prescott, professor of organic chemistry and pharmacy at Michigan, had not planned to present a paper. But a later session found the modest, benign-looking professor of thirty-nine stumping to the platform with his cane, a constant companion since a boyhood accident. ‘… Circumstances occurring since the opening of the meeting,’ he said, ‘have caused me to present, very briefly, the views upon a few points which I have held for some time.’ Then in his slow-spoken deliberate way he fought back. He championed the supreme value of a new school of thought: scientific education in pharmacy, when he said: ‘In a large number of instances, the apprentice is led to perform mechanical labor in blind ignorance of the nature of the material with which he deals; he becomes habituated to a feeble and automatic mode of action, and hence, too often, he never afterward breaks through to the light. Elementary textbooks on chemistry and botany are not placed in his hands; he learns to refer to official and non-official authorities, and to follow after statements and methods which he does not understand; and, too often, he finally ceases to ‘wonder why’ he does this or that. The history of processes of preparations and the discussion of physical and chemical ways and means are in a tongue unknown to him.
“’In many instances, this condition of things may be remedied by the pharmacists having apprentices in charge, but in this country and at present, in a far larger number of instances, such remedy is impossible, because the pharmacist has little more science than his apprentice. He also was a blind apprentice, if he was an apprentice at all, and he is too often unconscious or regardless of his own deficiencies … From this (apprenticeship) beginning, year after year still leaves him at the mercy of wholesale deceptions, innocent of the wrong done under his hand, if we may term him innocent whose ignorance places human life in daily jeopardy.
“’In Germany, the state requires and regulates apprenticeship, enforces instructions during the same, and secures the scientific character and the efficiency of such instruction by official examination; and the same fact is true, to a certain extent, in Great Britain. It is evident that before we can hope for such apprenticeship, we must obtain a new generation of competent masters by some other means.
“’There is now a general demand for scholastic training in technical science for all young men who are to enter upon vocations requiring applications of science: engineers, miners, manufacturers, mechanics, agriculturists, and (shall they be named at the last?) pharmacists. Every year this demand is notably more imperative. This education, of inestimable advantage to the pharmacist whenever obtained, is certainly never more useful than when secured before apprenticeship. This is the logical order; first principles, and then their applications. It is true that from didactic college instruction only, the principles of science are feebly apprehended, and especially in physical and chemical science, but vague and evanescent ideas are likely to be obtained by lectures alone.
“’But, as we have just seen, it is not in the shop that the conditions of practical study are to be found at present; indeed, such conditions never can be so perfectly furnished in the shop as in the school laboratory. And it is the growing conviction of thoughtful educators, that physical science must be, and is to be taught in college laboratories. The student must handle the materials and wield the forces of physical and chemical action before he obtains a clear acquaintance with the same. And it is more than knowledge of natural forces, it is the skill to guide those forces that constitutes power, and such skill is best acquired in school laboratories. Moreover, the mental and manual discipline of laboratory science-work under the teacher, the training in care and accuracy imperative thereto, is excelled by no other discipline for the perceptive, inductive and executive faculties and it is discipline especially useful in the vocation of pharmacy. Such laboratory work ought not be briefly completed; the broad field of pharmacy, reaching far into the sciences of inorganic and organic nature, requires years of pupilage. A preparation that is to give ability, interest and good success to the lifetime should not have its opportunities too grudgingly counted in months.
“’But it may be urged, will young men who have taken and graduated from college courses in technical science, be willing to enter into the drudgery of apprenticeship in the shop of the apothecary, there to learn those practical details of daily duty and sales, which every one admits can be better learned in the shop; indeed, cannot be learned elsewhere? The question has its parallels. Farmers and mechanics cry out with fear, that too much school education of any sort may lift their sons above their vocations. It is a question asked at thousands of firesides, but the world is full of answers — there is no danger of too much schooling…
“’That young man whose knowledge of science breeds contempt of handicraft, has but poorly learned science, and has missed its true enthusiasm…
“’It is precisely to the ignorant apprentice in pharmacy that its work is drudgery. Too many of our apprentices have not taken that step which the world has taken in little more than a generation — the step from the dreary charm-dealing to scientific pharmacy. Give them first the fundamental sciences, and the daily duties of apprenticeship become invested with constant interest.’
“It was not just talk. But for a long time the University of Michigan stood alone. The old-line schools went their own way, with Philadelphia and the other better schools striving to improve instruction within the restricting frame set in the early part of the century. Then in 1883 the University of Wisconsin established its department of pharmacy, followed in quick succession by the state universities of Indiana, Ohio and Illinois, joined by others farther west by the end of the century.” (Sonnedecker, pp. 205-18.)
In several respects Silas H. Douglass could be considered to have held the first directorship of the work in pharmacy at the University. It was while the Chemical Laboratory was under his guidance that the first courses in pharmacy were developed and the groundwork for the establishment of the independent department was laid. However, the actual honor of the first deanship of the new unit went to Albert B. Prescott, who held this position until his death on February 25, 1905. Julius Otto Schlotterbeck (‘87p, Ph.D. Bern ‘96) was appointed to succeed him. After his death in 1917, Alviso Burdett Stevens (‘75p, Ph.D. Bern ‘05, Sc.D. hon. Michigan ‘26) served as Dean until 1919, when he reached retirement age. During the next fall Henry Kraemer (Philadelphia College of Pharmacy ‘89, Pharm. M. hon. ibid. ‘12, Ph.D. Marburg ‘96), who came to the University from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, was appointed Dean. He resigned in 1920 after serving for one year. Kraemer in turn was succeeded by Edward Henry Kraus (Syracuse ‘96, Ph.D. Munich ‘01, Sc.D. hon. Syracuse ‘20, LL.D. ibid. ‘34), who was Acting Dean until 1923. He was then appointed Dean and served until August, 1933, when he became Dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. The next administrative officer of the College of Pharmacy was Howard Bishop Lewis (Yale ‘08, Ph.D. ibid. ‘13), chairman of the Department of Biological Chemistry, who was Director of the College from 1933 to 1947. Because of his work in biochemistry, Lewis asked to be relieved of his duties as Director of the College. Charles Howard Stocking (‘09p), who had been Secretary of the College while Lewis was the Director, was made Acting Director on July 1, 1947, and was Dean from April, 1949, to August, 1951, when he retired. He was succeeded by Thomas Dudley Rowe (Montana ‘32, Ph.D. Wisconsin ‘41), who at the time of his appointment was Dean of the Rutgers University College of Pharmacy.
Throughout the history of the College, the secretaries have performed important administrative functions. Perhaps the best known of the many secretaries was Clifford Conklin Glover (‘12p, M.S. ‘14), who held this post from 1918 until his death in 1942.
As has been pointed out the early development of the College of Pharmacy was within the Chemical Laboratory, construction of which began in 1855. Upon completion in the following year, this one-story building containing but three rooms and furnished with twenty-six laboratory tables served for all chemical laboratory work in the University. There were additions in 1861, 1866, 1868, 1874, 1880, 1888, and 1901, which served to expand the facilities available to all the chemical sciences including pharmacy. In 1903, when the laboratory work in physiological chemistry was removed to the Medical Building, more space was provided for chemistry, chemical engineering, and pharmacy.
The facilities available for pharmacy entered a second period of advancement when in 1909 the new Chemistry Laboratory was completed. Pharmacy occupied space on the second and third floors of the building. A third advance was made in 1948, with the completion of the addition to the Chemistry and Pharmacy Building and a modification of the facilities in the old section of the building.
Thus, the College of Pharmacy has been unique in its development not only in the fact of its establishment directly from the Chemistry Department but also in its close association with this department during the period of its growth. The advantages to pharmacy through this association have been many, especially in the field of research in pharmaceutical chemistry. Dr. Lewis, in his reports before the 1948 addition to the Chemistry and Pharmacy Building, expressed the nature and advantages of this association. For example, in the 1935-36 President’s Report he stated:
“The College of Pharmacy has always been closely associated with the Department of Chemistry since its establishment. We feel that these close relationships should be continued and extended. It is hoped that if an addition to the Chemistry Building is contemplated, adequate facilities for the expanding activities of the College of Pharmacy may be included in the plans.”
A discussion of the history of the physical facilities of the College should also include mention of its interest in a museum and in botanical gardens. A museum of chemical and pharmaceutical interest was installed in the Chemical Laboratory and provision was made for it in connection with the additions to the Laboratory in 1888. With the transfer of the College to the new building in 1909-10 the museum was moved to the third floor at the southwest corner of the building. This museum which had a valuable function as a teaching aid, exists in part today in the Pharmacognosy Laboratory.
The College of Pharmacy was interested in a botanical garden before the turn of the century and was largely responsible for the first actual establishment of the garden on the campus. An interesting report, believed to have been written by Professor V. M. Spaulding, contains a description of this garden and pharmacy’s part in its development. The garden in 1897 was on ground between the Library, the Physics Laboratory, and the Chemical Laboratory. Each member of the pharmacy class of 1899 selected and paid for a tree of medicinal or economic importance to be planted in it. In the 1900-1901 Announcement of the College, the garden was described as including medicinal species and experimental plantings for use by classes in pharmacognosy, pharmacy, and materia medica. The Announcement for 1907-8 records the transfer of the Botanical Gardens to the University’s newly acquired Nichols Arboretum and the plan to reserve a part of the Arboretum for a medicinal garden and for experimental plantings (see Part III: The Botanical Gardens).
During World War I, under the direction of Kraemer, this practical work in pharmacognosy was expanded. In his report to President Hutchins, he noted that during the summer of 1918, 25,000 plants, representing more than fifty different species, were grown. During the summer of 1919 through the contributions and interest of Frederick Stearns and Company this work was continued. The material grown in this manner was sold and used in supplying material for teaching and research. The work thus described by Kraemer was carried on in co-operation with the Botanical Gardens at their present location near Packard Road.
Curriculum. — As has already been mentioned, Michigan pharmaceutical education was a change in the usual plan in respect to apprenticeship and in respect to the stress on basic sciences. It differed also in regard to its residence requirements for a degree. Michigan was the first institution to establish the degree of pharmaceutical chemist, which required one and one-half to two years of resident day study. This plan was an advancement over the existing part-time and night courses in pharmacy given elsewhere. In May, 1895, a four-year curriculum leading to the degree of bachelor of science was authorized by the Regents. This program, however, was not the first offered; Wisconsin, three years earlier, had introduced a four-year program. In both institutions it was intended to supplement, not to replace, the existing two-year course. The two-year curriculum for the degree of pharmaceutical chemist was lengthened in 1913 to three years. The two-year course leading to the degree of graduate in pharmacy was maintained; however, owing to lack of interest it was abandoned after 1919. In order to conform with the regulations of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the three-year course leading to the degree of pharmaceutical chemist was discontinued after 1932.
Michigan’s position in relationship to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy regulation abolishing the three-year course deserves some discussion. Several of the reports to the President by Dean Kraus dealt with this subject. In the report for 1925-26 he pointed out that even though Michigan was among the first in 1895 to recognize the need for a four-year course and fully supported and expected the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy to require its adoption within four or five years, the University could not require its mandatory acceptance at that time. This view was based on the fact that the legislative standards concerning the educational requirements for registration as a pharmacist in Michigan had been permitted to lag too far behind those of other states. In Michigan a prerequisite law requiring two years of practical experience and two years of instruction in an accredited college of pharmacy would not become effective until January 1, 1929. It was the opinion of the faculty in 1926 that it would be unwise to advance educational standards before the provisions of the state law had become effective.
The lag in the state of Michigan’s educational requirements for pharmacy registration forced the College to make another concession in 1935-36. The College Announcement for that year contained a note which described a “special two-year program for students not candidates for a degree.” The note explained the possibility of practicing pharmacy in Michigan with only two years of work in an accredited college of pharmacy and two years of practical experience or three years of college work and one year of practical experience. If for any reason a student did not wish to complete the regular four-year curriculum a shorter program could be arranged. Such a program would not lead to a degree nor qualify the student for reciprocity with other states. The notice, however, appeared only for the one college year, because during that year the legislature provided that after January 1, 1938, every applicant for a pharmacist’s certificate should provide evidence of graduation from an “accredited school or college of pharmacy.” This regulation meant completion of a four-year course, since national accreditation was granted only to those schools which awarded the bachelor of science in pharmacy.
Not only was there a trend toward lengthening the pharmacy curriculum, but there was also a trend to raise admission requirements and improve curriculum content. When work for the degree of pharmaceutical chemist was first offered in 1868 no requirements for admission were listed in the Catalogue for that year. The course of study was given as follows:
“Lectures upon Chemical Physics, Inorganic and Organic Chemistry, and Toxicology; Lectures upon Materia Medica; Recitation and Lectures upon Practical Pharmacy; thorough and systematic practice in Quantitative Chemical Analysis, optional; Practice in Medico-legal Analysis of Poisons, and in Analysis of Urine; Systematic exercises in Metrology, Acidimetry, Alkalimetry, Distillation and Alcoholometry, and in the preparation of Pharmacopoeial and Chemical Compounds and Medicinal Prescriptions.”
In addition, a thesis in pharmaceutical chemistry was required, which was to be based on library work and on directed research. Students could pursue classes in any branch of study “if prepared to proceed advantageously.”
The Calendar for 1873-74 made the first mention of admission requirements: “A good knowledge of the English language as determined by written examination in the same.” It is interesting that the Medical School and Law School at the time had only the additional provision that the prospective student be eighteen years old.
There was no change in the admission requirements when the School of Pharmacy became established as an independent unit, but there were changes in the curriculum. The Calendar for 1876-77
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listed the following courses as requirements for the first year of the newly established school:
“Chemical Physics and Inorganic Chemistry, illustrated lectures and recitations; Analytical Chemistry, lectures and class drills upon the laboratory work and upon chemical problems; Pharmacy, the study of pharmaceutical and manufacturing operations by lectures and solution of problems; Botany, recitations with Gray’s Lessons and practical studies with fresh plants; Qualitative Analysis, laboratory work in the analysis of unknown materials.”
The requirements for the second year were listed as follows:
“Pharmaceutical Botany, examination of fresh plants, lectures and exercises on macroscopic and microscopic drug examination; Crystallography, lectures and exercises in identifying crystals; Materia Medica, lectures and examinations of collections; Organic Chemistry, lectures; Toxicology, lectures; Inorganic Pharmacy and Organic Chemistry, lectures; and recitations; Organic Analysis, laboratory work in ultimate, qualitative, and quantitative estimation of organic drugs; Commercial Examination, the detection and estimation of impurities in articles important in commerce; Toxicology, lectures with the laboratory work in analyses of poisoned food material and animals; Analysis of Urine; Pharmacopoeial Preparations, exercises in class based upon the U. S. Pharmacopoeia, the more elaborate chemical productions, extemporaneous pharmacy and in reading and preparing prescriptions; the Thesis, personal research in any subject of the course.”
In September, 1880, the requirements for admission were advanced to a point unequaled by those of any other pharmacy school of that period. Either graduation from “graded high schools or equivalent institutions” was mandatory or the applicant was required to have completed one year’s study in Latin or German and to pass examinations in English, arithmetic, and algebra.
The entrance requirements were further advanced in 1883 by increasing the scope of the examinations required of those who were not high-school graduates. The President’s Report for that year describes the aim of the school as being to elevate the educational program rather than to enlarge the classes.
In 1895 a program for the degree of bachelor of science in pharmacy was introduced. The requirements for admission to this new program were raised to be the equivalent of those for admission to the curriculum leading to the bachelor of science degree in the Literary Department. In addition, the new degree had the same requirements for graduation in respect to mathematics, physics, English, German, and French as did the equivalent degree in the Literary Department at that time.
Throughout the development of the College, changes were made in both the admission requirements and curriculum in order to meet the educational and scientific advancements of the day. In 1901-2 for the first time the units of high-school work required were listed. They differed for students planning to obtain the degree of pharmaceutical chemist from those for students working for the bachelor of science in pharmacy degree. By this time there had also developed a difference in admission requirements for those who had practical experience in pharmacy and for those who had not. Further changes were made in 1913, 1920, 1921, 1928, 1935, 1943, 1946, and 1952.
It was realized from the time that the College of Pharmacy was established that although a large percentage of its graduates were to enter retail pharmacy, because of the thoroughness of the basic training in sciences offered by the College, many graduates were in demand in such fields as teaching, industry, and government. For example, Dean Kraus in his report to the President for 1925-26 listed the distribution of the graduates for the previous thirty-five years: 50 per cent pharmacists, 25 per cent chemists, 8 per cent teachers, and 17 per cent miscellaneous.
A step toward specialized training for those entering the retail field was made in 1901 with a series of lectures on “Commercial Relations.” The following year a course in commercial training for pharmacists, given by the Department of Political Economy, was also required. Later, commercial training was provided in the general courses given by the Department of Economics. In order to supplement this general instruction, the course Commercial Pharmacy was taught in the College itself by members of the staff from 1913 to 1951. Commercial training, under the heading Pharmacy Administration, was again offered to pharmacy students in 1951 by instructors trained in economics and business administration.
The report of Dean Kraus to the President for 1922-23 and the Announcement of the College for the following year described the “revision of the curricula so as to provide greater flexibility in the matter of specialization.” The outline of this plan is found in the President’s Report:
“According to the new plan, the three-year curriculum, leading to the degree of Pharmaceutical Chemist, is designed especially for students wishing to prepare for retail or commercial pharmacy…
“The instruction leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, which extends over a period of four years, has been greatly modified. During the first two years all students will pursue the same course of study, which includes basic instruction in pharmacy, chemistry, the languages, physics, hygiene, botany and the crystallographic and optical properties of chemicals. For the third and fourth years three distinct plans are arranged, designed to prepare students for either (a) General, analytical or manufacturing pharmacy, (b) Laboratory or clinical service, or (c) Pharmaceutical Administration.
“The courses included in group (a) are very similar to those previously required of all students pursuing the four-year course. In group (b) special emphasis is placed upon courses in bacteriology, physiological chemistry, pathology and so on. A very considerable amount of instruction in economics and business administration is included in group (c)…”
A further division of the curriculums was made in February, 1924, when a combined curriculum for pharmacy and medicine was established. This shortened from eight to seven years the time required to obtain degrees in both pharmacy and medicine for those intending to enter both general practice and pharmaceutical-medical research.
These curriculums were offered until the time when the degree of pharmaceutical chemist was discontinued; that is, after the academic session of 1929-30, no more beginning students were accepted for graduation on the three-year program. In 1930 the requirements for graduation with a degree of bachelor of science in pharmacy were made separate for the two curriculums. After completing basic courses required during the first two years, a student could choose a curriculum designed for specialization in retail pharmacy or one “for the student preparing for general, analytical, or manufacturing pharmacy, or for duties of laboratory or clinical technician.” At the same time, because the faculty of the Medical School had required that candidates for admission must have ninety hours of work in prescribed subjects, the combined course in pharmacy and medicine was discontinued. In its place was established a third curriculum which led to a degree of bachelor of science in pharmacy and also allowed the student to meet the academic requirements for admission to the Medical School. This pharmacy-premedical program was listed in the College Announcement until 1949.
In 1944 in place of the formal division of retail and nonretail curriculums a single basic curriculum was developed with the principle of a division of specialization provided for by a series of alternative electives. In this manner and with the aid of academic advisers, it was hoped that the students’ curriculums could be adjusted to their varying needs.
In the fall of 1952, formal divisions were again offered to the student desiring specialized training. These divisions follow a basic two-year program and are intended for the following fields of specialization: retail pharmacy, industrial or hospital pharmacy, and graduate work and research. Each option requires completion of 130 credit hours. The selection of course work for each curriculum has been modernized and improved. The retail pharmacy and industrial-hospital pharmacy options represent the greatest changes. For example, in both plans six hours of laboratory work a week are required in the Dispensing Pharmacy course. Three hours are given in the Hospital Pharmacy under the direct supervision of faculty members.
The retail pharmacy curriculum, besides its basic scientific training, offers courses in general economics, accounting, and specialized pharmacy administration in the fields of merchandising, management, and pharmacy law. The industrial-hospital curriculum includes work in the recently developed manufacturing pharmacy laboratory. For the first time, all of the new curriculums require biochemistry.
The first mention of the existence of a summer session for pharmacy was made in 1905. The Announcement for that year stated that the Regents had established a short course in pharmacy to be made available during the summer months: “During this season of the year the drug business in many cities and towns being rather dull, proprietors, clerks and apprentices in pharmacy may find it to their advantage to combine their summer vacation with study.” It was adapted for both those who wished “to acquaint themselves with the underlying principles of the science in a short time” and for those seeking credit toward graduation in pharmacy. In addition, it was considered helpful for those preparing for pharmacy state board examinations.
As the educational requirements for licensure became more rigid the functions of the summer instruction were modified to include the needs of only those students seeking pharmacy degree credit. The regular pattern of two terms and a summer session was interrupted during the war years from June, 1942, to June, 1946, when the College operated on a three-term basis. Regular summer sessions were resumed in 1947.
Student activities. — Little information on student activities prior to 1900 is available. The first student organization of which there is record was the Prescott Club, which was described, with a listing of the principal addresses given at the previous year’s meetings, in the Announcement for 1909-10. It was the purpose of the monthly meetings to have guest and student speakers and to provide social activities for the student body. The club was active until the spring of 1946, when it became the local student branch of the American Pharmaceutical Association. This change was made in order to enjoy the advantages of affiliation with this important national professional pharmacy organization. The charter was asked for and granted under the name Albert B. Prescott University of Michigan College of Pharmacy Student Branch. Thus, it became the first branch to honor an outstanding pharmacy educator and to carry on the tradition of a worth-while student club.
Almost at the same time as the founding of the Prescott Club, a more restricted student organization was formed. In May, 1908, the students and faculty of the College formed the Aristolochite Society for the purpose of promoting the advancement of pharmaceutical science by the encouragement and recognition of scholarship. It was soon to be approved as one of the campus honor societies and to develop beyond the Michigan campus when a second chapter was organized at the College of Pharmacy of the Oregon Agricultural College in 1919. In 1921, the Committee on Activities of Students and Alumni of the American Conference of Pharmaceutical Faculties, with Zada M. Cooper as chairman, began to develop plans for a national pharmaceutical honor society. After the existence of the Aristolochite Society was pointed out to the committee, Professor Cooper in co-operation with the officers of the society made the organization national in scope. On June 3, 1922, the Aristolochite Society was granted a charter by the state of Michigan, but under the name of Rho Chi Society; the local group became the Alpha Chapter and the Aristolochite Society at Corvallis, Oregon, became Beta Chapter of Rho Chi. At the present time there are forty-two chapters of this national honorary pharmaceutical society open to individuals on the basis of scholarship and service to pharmacy, irrespective of sex, race, or creed. Membership in this organization is considered to be the highest professional honor that a student can attain.
Pharmacy students enjoy and appreciate the opportunity to visit neighboring manufacturing plants. The Announcement as far back as 1901-2 has described such annual excursions, and the President’s Report for 1924-25 outlines a westward trip including the Kellogg Company, the Battle Creek Sanitarium, the Upjohn Company at Kalamazoo, and the plants of Bauer and Black Company and the Abbott Laboratories in Chicago. In addition to these companies, the Parke, Davis and Company of Detroit and the Eli Lilly Company of Indianapolis have been very generous for many years in entertaining pharmacy students while showing and explaining their manufacturing procedures to them.
The student body of the College has been fortunate in having available since 1906 a student loan fund. In August of the previous year, the Michigan State Pharmaceutical Association met in Kalamazoo and established the Prescott Memorial Scholarship Loan Fund in honor of the first Dean of the College of Pharmacy. The fund has since grown to approximately $3,500. Over the years, it has made a very definite contribution to the education of worthy students.
In 1943 securities from the estate of Harry Helfman were granted to the College to establish the Harry Helfman Pharmacy Student Aid Fund. Money from this fund is still available for grants and loans to pharmacy students. In recent years there has also been available undergraduate scholarship aid from funds provided by the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education.
Special scholarship prizes and awards have also been granted to pharmacy students. Since 1924, when Cyril F. Hanft was the recipient, the Lehn and Fink medal has been awarded annually to the graduate with the highest over-all average. Since the fall of 1947, the Borden Scholarship Award of $300 has been given to the highest ranking student entering the senior class. For many years the Charles Ralph Eckler Prize was presented to an outstanding student in pharmacognosy. More recently there have been awarded the Rho Chi prizes to leading students in the freshman and sophomore classes and the Merck Awards to outstanding seniors.
Since its inception the College has had a small but constant percentage of women graduates in pharmacy. The College is proud that Amelia and Mary Upjohn graduated in pharmacy in June, 1871, just three months after the first two women had received degrees in other units of the University in March, 1871.
Graduate study and research. — Dr. Prescott sincerely believed in the importance of research, and from the very beginning it was required for the degree of pharmaceutical chemist. He was proud of the work of his students and of the degree to which their results entered into the publications of the time. In the President’s Report for 1880 he stated that according to a recent survey about 45 per cent of the graduates had done work which had been reported in the scientific journals of this and other countries. He listed the subjects of some of the more important contributions, such as an analysis of Lobelia inflata, the discovery of a third Hydrastis alkaloid, a chemical analysis scheme for plants, a study of household filtration of waters, and a method for soap analysis. Prescott affirmed that these publications were “evidence of the capability of our system of instruction.” The student research illustrates how far advanced Michigan’s system of scientific pharmaceutical education was as compared to the training given in other pharmacy schools.
Throughout the early years, the members of the staff made many contributions to pharmaceutical research. A list of publications can be found in the “Bibliography” included in E. D. Campbell’s History of the Chemical Laboratory of the University of Michigan. Of special importance was the textbook Qualitative Chemical Analysis written by Douglas and Prescott and first published in 1874. Later, Prescott and Johnson were the authors of this work, which through the years was widely used as a standard textbook.
In 1926 Frederick Franklin Blicke (‘16, Ph.D. ‘21) was appointed Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. He had been Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Chemistry Department of the University. In the President’s Report for 1926-27 Dean Kraus expressed the hope that by this appointment Michigan would continue the leadership in pharmaceutical chemistry initiated by Prescott and Schlotterbeck. This hope has been fully realized, for in the years that Blicke has been a member of the staff of the College he has, besides conducting undergraduate instruction in pharmaceutical chemistry, become a nationally recognized leader in synthetic organic pharmaceutical chemistry. In addition to directing the training of many candidates for the master of science and doctor of philosophy degrees and to conducting graduate courses in pharmaceutical chemistry, Dr. Blicke, with his students, has made more than one hundred contributions in pharmaceutical and organic chemistry. These include synthesis of organic arsenic compounds, mercurial antiseptics, phenolphthalein derivatives, local anesthetics, antispasmodics, oxytocics, antimalarial drugs, and hypnotic, analgesic, and antihistaminic agents. Other contributions have been made in the development of the Mannich and Grignard reactions and in the field of heterocyclic chemistry.
A great aid to the research conducted by Blicke and his students has been an increasing number of industrial fellowships made available by the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The Parke, Davis and Company fellowships were begun in 1926, and those provided by Upjohn were first awarded in 1927. They are not the first such fellowships granted, however, as there is record of the Frederick Stearns and Company Fellowship being available in 1895 and Nelson, Baker and Company establishing a fellowship for pharmaceutical research in 1899. These are thought to be the earliest industrial fellowships granted in pharmacy. The Frederick Stearns Fellowship has continued to be granted since 1895. It is now known as the Sterling-Winthrop Research Institute Fellowship, the Stearns Company having been incorporated with Sterling-Winthrop in the early 1940’s. The following concerns had established fellowships in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1951-52; Sterling-Winthrop Research Institute, Parke, Davis and Company, Monsanto Chemical Company, Upjohn Company, William S. Merrell Company, and the Michigan Chemical Corporation. The American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education has also awarded fellowships for research in pharmaceutical sciences in recent years.
Prescott was also interested in having his students in pharmacy remain in Ann Arbor to continue research and study after graduation. The Calendar as early as 1881 listed a “Resident Graduate” program, and the Announcement for that year contained a section describing “Post-Graduate Studies.” The Announcement for 1882-83 made the first mention of the degree of master of pharmacy. The requirements for this second degree being “the accomplishment of original research, of an extent representing the average work of a full college year… A full record of the work, with citations of authorities in form for publication, is required.” The degree of master of pharmacy was earned upon this basis by five individuals during the period from 1887 to 1895. Education beyond the degree of pharmaceutical chemist was then provided by a program for the newly established degree of bachelor of science in pharmacy, which required research.
The master of science degree was described for the first time in 1899 as being granted to graduates of the bachelor of science curriculum following one year’s additional work in a major and two minor subjects. Walter H. Blome and Silas F. Scott, in 1905, were the first two recipients of this degree. During this period opportunity was given students from other colleges of pharmacy to take advantage of Michigan’s more advanced laboratory instruction in pharmacy and chemistry. The work thus undertaken by resident graduates could be applied toward any of the degrees granted.
The Announcement for 1913-14 outlined for the first time the graduate program as it basically continues today, that is, under the administration of the Graduate Department, now the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies. The degrees conferred in 1913 after “completion of approved courses of study in the Graduate Department and from the courses offered by the Pharmacy Department [were] Master of Arts, Master of Science, Doctor of Philosophy, and Doctor of Science.” Of these, the degrees actually conferred have been master of science and doctor of philosophy.
In 1947 still another graduate program in pharmacy was developed. The College of Pharmacy in co-operation with the Graduate School and the University Hospital Pharmacy, under the direction of Don Eugene Francke (‘36p, M.S. ‘48, Sc.D. hon. Purdue ‘51), established a two-year graduate study and internship program in hospital pharmacy, leading to the degree of master of science in pharmacy and to a certificate in hospital pharmacy granted by the University Hospital.
Professional and community relationship. — An important part of the record of the College is service to the profession and to the community. It recognizes its responsibility for postgraduate education of both its alumni and of other members of the profession in the state. Since 1932 the College with the Michigan Branch, formerly the Detroit Branch, of the American Pharmaceutical Association has held an annual spring conference in Ann Arbor. The general plan of these conferences has been a morning and afternoon session sponsored by the College; the evening session has been the regular monthly meeting of the Michigan Branch. At all of these meetings papers on pharmaceutical problems have been presented and discussed. The meetings were temporarily discontinued from 1943 to 1945 because of the war. In the fall of 1952 they were extended in length and in scope.
In 1941 the College of Pharmacy and the Extension Service of the University co-operated in offering extension work in pharmacy. The Michigan State Pharmaceutical Association and the State Board of Control for Vocational Education also took part in this project. The course was conducted by Arthur E. Crippen, a retail pharmacist of Ann Arbor, and had a total enrollment of 110 retail pharmacists. The war interrupted the work, but plans have been made for its redevelopment.
The College has also co-operated with the pharmacists of the state through their organization. In a copy of a letter dated August 18, 1866, Silas H. Douglass extended an invitation to the National Convention of Druggists meeting in Detroit to visit the University’s “Laboratory of Analytical and Applied Chemistry and Pharmacy.” Both Douglass and Prescott took an active part during May, 1874, as members of important committees meeting in Detroit to organize the Michigan Pharmaceutical Association, and when on November 14 and 15, 1883, this association was succeeded by the Michigan State Pharmaceutical Association Prescott was a member of the Committee on Permanent Organization. Faculty members and alumni of the College have taken an active interest in the affairs of this association, while the association in turn has been of aid to the College, as, for example, in the establishment of the Albert B. Prescott Memorial Scholarship Loan Fund and by grants from the association to promote pharmaceutical research.
Graduates of the College have held important positions in industrial and educational institutions. They have made important contributions to the advancement of the profession. Faculty and graduates have also taken an active part in the development of national pharmacy organizations.
Prescott was second vice-president in 1885 and president in 1899 of the American Pharmaceutical Association. This recognition is especially interesting in light of the refusal of the association in 1871 to admit him as a delegate representing the University of Michigan’s curriculum in pharmacy. A. B. Stevens was first vice-president in 1890-91 and honorary president in 1919-20. Leonard A. Seltzer (‘92p, M.S. hon. ‘26), of Detroit, was first vice-president in 1916-17 and second vice-president in 1917-18. D. E. Francke was elected president for 1951-52, and Dean Rowe was first vice-president for 1952-53.
The American Conference on Pharmaceutical Faculties (now the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy), organized in Baltimore in 1900, elected Dr. Prescott as its first president. Other faculty members serving as president of the organization have been: Dean Schlotterbeck, 1910-12; Dean Kraemer, 1917-18; Dean Kraus, 1925-26; and Dean Stocking, 1932-33. Graduates of the College holding the same position have been Albert H. Clark, 1912-13; Charles B. Jordan (former dean of Purdue University School of Pharmacy), 1918-19; Wilber J. Teeters (former dean of the School of Pharmacy, University of Iowa), 1920-21; Charles W. Johnson (former dean of the School of Pharmacy, University of Washington), 1923-24; L. D. Havenhill (former dean of the School of Pharmacy, University of Kansas), 1933-34; Charles H. Rogers (dean of the School of Pharmacy, University of Minnesota), 1939-40; and Troy C. Daniels (dean of the College of Pharmacy, University of California), 1952-53.
The Revision Committees of the United States Pharmacopoeia and the National Formulary, the nation’s official reference books for pharmacy and medicine have also been aided in their work by members of the faculty and alumni of the College. Justin L. Powers (‘19p, M.S. ‘27), in 1952, became chairman of the National Formulary Committee.
In addition to these contributions to pharmaceutical societies, the faculty of the College has made definite contributions to other scientific societies. For example, Prescott was president of the American Chemical Society in 1886 and president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1891; more recently Professor Blicke has served as chairman of the Medicinal Section of the American Chemical Society.
The College has always desired to maintain contact with its alumni. An Association of the Pharmaceutical Alumni of the University of Michigan was early established, and the officers of this association were listed for the first time as part of the Announcement for 1885-86. In 1897 the alumni of the College, with the alumni of all other departments of the University, were organized in the Alumni Association of the University. Through the aid of this organization connections with alumni have been maintained. Two of the high points in this relationship have been the fiftieth and the seventy-fifth anniversary celebrations of the College of Pharmacy. It is interesting to note that the fiftieth anniversary was celebrated on June 26, 1918, while the seventy-fifth was not held twenty-five years later, but on October 24 and 25, 1951. Thus, the fiftieth anniversary marked the establishment of pharmacy as a division within the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, and the more recent celebration marked the seventy-fifth year since establishment of the College as an independent unit in 1876. The proceedings of the fiftieth anniversary were recorded as part of the Announcement for 1919-20; those of the seventy-fifth were made available in a separate publication. In reviewing these publications, one finds that Miss Julia Esther Emanuel (‘89p, M.S. hon. ‘51) played an important part in both celebrations. In 1918 she spoke on the topic, “Woman’s Work in Pharmacy,” and in 1951 she was awarded an honorary degree of master of science in recognition of her outstanding work in pharmacy. Others who received degrees at the seventy-fifth anniversary convocation were Charles H. Rogers (‘13, Sc.D. hon. ‘51) and Charles Rudolph Walgreen (‘28p, M.S. hon. ‘51). The fiftieth anniversary celebration concerned itself mainly with a review of the conditions of the present. The 1951 celebration placed accent on “The Next Twenty-five Years in Pharmacy.”
The College of Pharmacy has played a dominant role in the establishment and growth of pharmaceutical education. The ideas of the earliest leaders of pharmacy at the University of Michigan were responsible for the development of pharmaceutical education as it is known today. No individual in America deserves a larger share of credit for this development than Michigan’s first Dean of Pharmacy, Albert B. Prescott.
Joseph E. Sinsheimer
Frederick F. Blicke
Tom D. Rowe
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Announcement, College of Pharmacy (title varies), Univ. Mich., 1880-1952.
Calendar, Univ. Mich., 1871-1914.
Campbell, Edward D.History of the Chemical Laboratory of the University of Michigan. Ann Arbor: Univ. Mich., 1916.
Catalogue, Univ. Mich., 1860-71, 1914-23.
Cheever, H. S. MS, “Report to the Board of Regents, March, 1876.”In University of Michigan Papers.
Douglass, Silas H. [Letter, August, 18, 1866]. In Silas H. Douglass Papers.
Hinsdale, Burke A.History of the University of Michigan. Ann Arbor: Univ. Mich., 1906.
Jenkins, Glen L.”The Rho Chi Society.”Journal Amer. Pharm. Assoc., 21 (1932): 1033-37.
Kraemer, Henry. [Letters, February 27, 1920; March 12, 1920]. In Harry B. Hutchins Papers.
Kraus, Edward H. MS, “The Department of Pharmacy and the State University.” An address at the University of Wisconsin, 1933.
Kremers, Edward, , and George, Urdang.History of Pharmacy. 2d ed.; Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1951.
MS, “Minutes of the Meetings of the Faculty of the Department of Literature, Science and the Arts,” 1864-78.
MS, “Report of the Regents’ Committee on the Chemical Department, March, 1863.”In University of Michigan Papers.
Prescott, Albert B.”Silas H. Douglass as Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy.”Pharm. Rev., 21 (1903): 359-63.
Prescott, Albert B.”Pharmaceutical Education.”Proc. Amer. Pharm. Assoc., 19 (1871): 425-29.
President’s Report, Univ. Mich., 1853-1909, 1920-52.
Proceedings of the American Pharmaceutical Association, 19 (1871): 29-34, 47-48, 97.
Proceedings of the Board of Regents …, Univ. Mich., 1864-1952.
“75th Anniversary Celebration, College of Pharmacy, University of Michigan.”Univ. Mich. Official Publ., 53, No. 86 (1952).
Shaw, Wilfred B.The University of Michigan. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920.
Sonnedecker, Glenn. “Science in American Pharmaceutical Education of the 19th Century.”Amer. Journ. Pharm. Ed., 15 (1951): 205-18.
[?] Spaulding, Volney M. MS [Sketches of Arboretum and Early Botanical Garden on Campus]. In University of Michigan Papers.
Stocking, Charles H.”History of Pharmacy in the University of Michigan,”Amer. Journ. Pharm. Ed., 12 (1948): 388-90.
Stocking, Charles H. MS, “History of Pharmacy in the University of Michigan,” 1950.
The University of Michigan, an encyclopedic survey ... Wilfred B. Shaw, editor, Volume III, Part VII, pp. 1337-1354.
COLLEGE OF PHARMACY
In the period from the fall of 1953 to June of 1971, the basic pharmaceutical sciences have come of age, to be recognized as sophisticated scientific disciplines. The role of the professional pharmacist has also come under study. No longer are the majority of pharmacists primarily involved with the preparation and compounding of drugs. A high percentage of their professional responsibilities now involve the distribution and control of medicinal agents. The College, under the direction of Dean Tom D. Rowe, has shown leadership in both the area of basic pharmaceutical sciences and the professional training of the pharmacist.
Curriculum and Professional Programs. — In the 1950s and early 1960s, Dr. Richard A. Deno was chairman of the Curriculum Committee. Much of the subsequent development of the new five-year and optional six-year curriculum reflect his insight and leadership in the problems of pharmaceutical education. Subsequent chairmen of the committee have been Dr. George Zografi and Dr. Ara G. Paul. Their leadership has been directed to the design of a curriculum which will permit the pharmacist to become more patient oriented.
For many years this committee has invited student input on both an informal basis and through joint sponsorship with the student branch of the American Pharmaceutical Association of student-faculty meetings on curriculum. Starting with the academic year 1968-69, the curriculum committee was restructured to have two students elected by the student body to sit with four faculty members appointed by the Dean of the College.
Curriculum modification during the 1950s was mainly in the professional pharmacy areas. An introductory course in pharmacy was established, and the intermediate pharmacy courses placed a greater emphasis on physical-chemical principles rather than on preparative operations. The advanced courses in pharmacy were also modified to allow for greater professional practice in specialized areas. Hospital pharmacy practice under faculty supervision was made available to undergraduate students as was a new course in manufacturing pharmacy. In the 1950s, biochemistry became a required course. Michigan was among those colleges of pharmacy which showed leadership in changing its course work in pharmacognosy from the classical taxonomically-based course to one involving a chemical and biochemical basis.
In 1960 all American colleges of pharmacy were required to change to a five-year program leading to the B.S. in Pharmacy degree. Thus, only students already enrolled in a College of Pharmacy by September 1960 or transferring into the College with at least one year of advanced standing were permitted to complete the B.S. requirements in four years. The expansion into a five-year program allowed for further modification in the Michigan pharmacy curriculum. A primary objective at this time was to increase the number of elective hours of general University course work available to pharmacy undergraduate students. Also it was deemed important to establish a 15-credit hour per term requirement for a total of 150 hours for the degree as opposed to the former 130 hours in four years. Two five-year undergraduate curriculums were established: the general practice curriculum and a pre-graduate study program. The students in the latter program were not required to take courses in pharmacy management, public health and hospital pharmacy, but were required to take additional work in organic and biochemistry and were expected to elect the necessary courses in mathematics and languages for preparation for graduate work.
Other curriculum changes were effected with the advent of the five-year program and because of changes in the teaching staff at this time. This included the above noted three-course sequence in intermediate pharmacy. Undergraduate work in medicinal chemistry was concentrated from three courses into a two-course sequence. Course work in pharmacology for pharmacy students was expanded.
In 1960, at the time of the establishment of the mandatory five-year program, a new six-year program, leading to the Doctor of Pharmacy degree (Pharm. D.), was offered on an elective basis. The two programs were the professional practice program, which also included hospital pharmacy, and an industrial technology program. These programs not only replaced the former master’s degree programs in hospital pharmacy and industrial pharmacy but also gave the student an opportunity to obtain additional work in the basic medical sciences.
In addition to the B.S. in Pharmacy and Doctor of Pharmacy degrees, the College has a four-year program leading to a B.S. in Medicinal Chemistry. This degree was developed by Dr. Joseph H. Burckhalter and established in 1963. The program does not qualify a graduate for examination for licensure as a pharmacist.
In 1966 a pilot program for the training of a clinical pharmacist was explored, with Richard Hutchinson receiving basic medical science courses and joining the clinical rounds in internal medicine. The first formal course in clinical pharmacy was given in the winter of 1969, under the direction of Dr. Rosemary R. Berardi. The program was expanded that fall when Dr. John B. Young was appointed to direct the program in clinical pharmacy.
As part of its celebration of the Sesqui centennial anniversary of the University, the College, with U.S. Public Health Service support, sponsored a national Pharmacy-Medicine-Nursing Conference on Health Education in Ann Arbor in February 1967. This conference served as a basis for the training of a more “patient oriented” pharmacist at other institutions.
Concurrent with its patient-care responsibilities, the University Hospital Pharmacy has firmly established itself as a teaching unit. Teaching functions are carried out in cooperation with the College, with senior members of the University’s Hospital Pharmacy staff having academic appointments in the College. Dr. Don E. Francke served as director of Pharmacy Services from 1943 to 1963. During this time he initiated a pharmacy residency program and academic training leading to a master’s degree. These academic objectives were further developed by George L. Phillips, who succeeded Dr. Francke as Director, and by Vern F. Thudium, Associate Director, who joined the staff in 1964.
A major renovation in the University Hospital Pharmacy area was completed in January 1966 at a cost of half a million dollars. This not only allowed for an improved patient-care facility, but permitted an expansion of the educational program of the Hospital Pharmacy. On November 10, 1967, a Unit Dose Drug Distribution System was established in one area of the Hospital. This system improved patient care in that it provided a pharmacist on the floor to verify medication orders, which reduced nursing manpower and minimized medication errors. It also offered a unique opportunity to train students in small groups under close supervision. A Drug Information Center was established in the pharmacy in December 1967 and was expanded in subsequent years to include subunits in hospitals across the state.
Since 1964 the staff of the College, first under the direction of Dr. Richard A. Deno and later Dr. Ara G. Paul, has conducted a summer Drug Science Seminar for high school students. This program has been in cooperation with the Bureau of School Services and included lectures and laboratory work in the development, use, and abuse of drugs. Starting in 1970, the program was expanded from one two-week session to two two-week sessions to permit enrollment of more minority group students.
Members of the staff of the College have taken an active interest in their professional organizations. Dean Rowe and Dean Richards have made extensive contributions to the State Pharmaceutical Association and have made significant contributions also to the revision of the State’s Pharmacy Act of 1961. On the national level, Dr. Francke was a former president of the American Pharmaceutical Association. Vern F. Thudium, Dr. Francke, and George Phillips have been active in the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists, with the latter two attaining the office of president of that organization. Dean Rowe was president of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy from 1957 to 1958, president of Rho Chi Society in 1947-48 and Vice-President of the American Pharmaceutical Association in 1952-53. He was President-Elect in 1971 of the Michigan State Pharmaceutical Association, the first educator to hold this position.
Graduate Study and Research. — Research has been an important component of the College since its establishment. It was not until the appointment in 1926 of Dr. Frederick F. Blicke that an active program in graduate education was firmly established. Seventy-eight students completed the requirement for the Ph.D. in pharmaceutical chemistry under Dr. Blicke’s direction. Research in organometallic diarylphthalides, anthrone, local anesthetic, analgetic, antihistamenic, spasmolytic and hypnotic medicinal compounds, as well as studies in the chemistry of thiophene and thionaphthene and the Mannich and Ivanof reactions were among the areas investigated by Dr. Blicke and his graduate students. These studies resulted in 177 publications, 30 patents, and the marketing of three spasmolytic compounds. Dr. Blicke was among the first to voluntarily enter into a patent agreement with the University’s Board of Regents so that the income from his marketed research could be used in support of future research in the areas of his interest. Until the 1950s, graduate education in the pharmaceutical sciences in the College was essentially confined to organic pharmaceutical chemistry, or as it is presently called medicinal chemistry.
The program of research in the physical pharmacy-pharmaceutics area was advanced with the addition in 1957 of Drs. John Autian and Jere E. Goyan. Dr. Autian’s research interest was in the effects of plastics in drug systems. Dr. Goyan developed work in the application of chemical kinetics to pharmaceutical problems. Dr. George Milosovich took Dr. Autian’s position in 1960 and, until his departure in 1964, conducted research in physical pharmacy with special interest in polymorphism. Since 1962 Drs. William I. Higuchi, Anthony P. Simonelli, George Zografi, Norman F. H. Ho, and John G. Wagner have given acknowledged leadership in pharmaceutics research. The program is characterized by the application of physical, chemical, and mathematical analysis to pharmaceutical and biological problems.
A graduate program in pharmacognosy was established in the College when the Graduate School approved a Ph.D. in this area in 1958. The program was developed, with the support of Dr. Richard A. Deno, by Dr. Ara G. Paul. His research interests include the mechanisms of biosynthesis and isolation of the alkaloids of ergot, peyote, and mushrooms. Currently, Dr. Paul’s research is being supported by grants from the National Institute for Mental Health. Dr. Paul also holds an appointment as Curator of Medicinal Plants at the University’s Botanical Gardens.
In 1964 Dr. Raymond E. Counsell joined the medicinal chemistry program with a joint appointment in the College and in the Department of Internal Medicine in the Medical School. Dr. Counsell has been sponsored by the Faculty Research Associate Awards from the American Cancer Society. His research interests include the synthesis of useful agents, including catecholamines and steroid hormones possessing hypo cholesterolemic, anabolic, and anti-ovulatory activity. He also directs a program of synthesis of radio pharmaceuticals for diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Two significant patents assigned to the University are pending for agents for the diagnosis of malignant melanoma and adrenal disorders.
The interdisciplinary nature of the field of medicinal chemistry was recognized in 1967 by the approval of the Graduate School for an interdepartmental program in medicinal chemistry. While modest support for it has come from individual and industrial contributions, as well as government fellowships, its major support has been from the College and from the N.I.H. training grant awarded in 1969.
In the academic year 1969-70, over 50 research papers, with ten different faculty members as senior authors, were published, with most of the research described being supported by over $500,000 received in research grants and contracts. This amount is among the largest received by any college of pharmacy. From the fall of 1952 to the spring of 1971, over 100 Ph.D. degrees in the pharmaceutical sciences were granted.
Facilities. — With the expansion of staff and programs in the 1950s, lack of space became a critical problem. Remodeling of the College’s space in the Chemistry-Pharmacy Building and acquisition of some additional space did permit more efficient use of facilities for the graduate programs, the housing of new staff, and the remodeling of the pharmacognosy laboratory. During this period, however, the limitation in space forced a restricted graduate enrollment.
In 1960 the Pharmacy Research Building was completed. It is a four-story structure, with an area of nearly 38,000 square feet, containing graduate student laboratories and such specialized facilities as product development and manufacturing laboratories, sterile solution, radio-isotope, animal, instrument, and drug milling rooms. Funds for the construction and equipping of this building included $339,500 from a Public Health Service Health Research Facilities grant, more than matching funds from pharmaceutical industry, alumni, and friends of the College, and University funds. The total cost of the building and its equipment was more than $1 million.
In the spring of 1971 the College completed another major modernization of its physical plant with the remodeling of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors of the Washtenaw Avenue wing of the C.C. Little Building (formerly the East Medical Building). Pharmacy was allotted about 23,000 net square feet in this building in an area contiguous to the Pharmacy Research Building. A highlight of the new quarters is the Walgreen Pharmaceutical Center, made possible by a generous gift from Mr. Charles R. Walgreen, Jr., Chairman of the Board of Walgreen Drug Stores and an alumnus of the College. This area includes a modern professional practice laboratory, a library-conference room, and service facilities. The total space now available to the College is more than four times what it was in 1953. Thus, while in 1953 the College of Pharmacy was completely housed in the Chemistry-Pharmacy Building, it now only retains its holdings in the Chemistry-Pharmacy Library in this building.
Joseph E. Sinsheimer
Tom D. Rowe
The University of Michigan, an encyclopedic survey ... Wilfred B. Shaw, editor, Volume V, pp. 242-246.](History_School_of_Pharmacy_files/shapeimage_4.png)
