RUSH MEDICAL COLLEGE
Located in Chicago and incorporated by act of March 2, 1837, the charter having been prepared the previous year by Dr. Daniel Brainard and Dr. Josiah C. Goodhue.
The extreme financial depression of the following year prevented the organization of a faculty until 1843. The institution was named in honor of Dr. Benjamin Rush, the eminent practitioner, medical author and teacher of Philadelphia in the latter half of the eighteenth century.
The first faculty consisted of four professors, and the first term opened on Dec. 4, 1843, with a class of twenty-two students. Three years' study was required for graduation, but only two annual terms of sixteen weeks each need be attended at the college itself.
Instruction was given in a few rooms temporarily opened for that purpose. The next year a small building, costing between $3,000 and $4,000, was erected. This was rearranged and enlarged in 1855 at a cost of $15,000.
The constant and rapid growth of the college necessitated the erection of a new building in 1867, the cost of which was $70,000. This was destroyed in the fire of 1871, and another costing $54,000, was erected in 1876 and a free dispensary added. In 1844 the Presbyterian Hospital was located on a portion of the college lot, and two institutions connected, thus insuring abundant and stable facilities for clinical instruction.
Shortly afterwards, Rush College became the medical department of Lake Forest University. The present faculty (1898) consists of 95 professors, adjunct professors, lecturers and instructors of all grades, and over 600 students in attendance.
The length of the annual terms is six months, and four years of study are required for graduation, attendance upon at least three college terms being compulsory.