History of the Medical College of Georgia

13. The Era of World War II

Chapter 13 The Era of World War II hange in the personnel and structure of the Medical College of Georgia was everywhere apparent, even before the decade of the 1940s was reached. In 1937 new departments were added, including neuropsychiatry under Hervey Cleckley, tuberculosis under Lucius Todd, and anesthesiology with Perry Volpitto. With Torpin in obstetrics, Henry M. Michel in orthopedics, Burpee in pediatrics, Frank Slaughter in neurosurgery, and Robert B. Greenblatt in endocrinology and gynecology, the school seemed ready to enter a period distinguished by a faculty of good teachers, who were also researchers of some significance .1 At the same time, just as it seemed the College might be readyto return to the position of regional eminence it held prior to the CivilWar, internal pressures in the state of Georgia, particularly in the form of restricted finances, meant that the school must continue to confine itself to Georgia students. In 1940, for example, the graduatingclass was composed entirely of Georgia natives.2 The regents and the state officials had simply decreed that Georgians, who paid the taxes to keep the school going, should have first priority. Even so, no few applicants had to be rejected, causing pressure in both Augusta and Atlanta to increase the size of the student body. But it was pointed out that to do so would require additional staff and faculty positions, more clinical exposure, and so on. To admit additional students without taking the other factors into account might bring the delicate approval status once more into question, and nobody wanted that to happen. The state also felt that the imbalance between physicians in the urban and rural areas of Georgia was alarming and unfair. In order to do something substantial about it, the legislators voted to offer financial aid up to 775 c 179 The Era of World War II one thousand dollars for outstanding students in Georgia's fifty-four state senatorial districts—provided those receiving the aid would contract to practice for four years in a county where there were no physicians . Governor Talmadge, steeped in the agrarian traditions of the state and South and acutely awareof the problems besetting the rural districts, made additional appropriations to MCG in the summer of 1941. The unexpected income permitted the College to expand the size of the September incoming class and bring new professors, lab equipment, and clinical opportunities to the campus. The timing was perfect, coming as it did just before the outbreak of World War II with its sudden demand for additional physicians.3 The school's library,long neglected, came in for some attention at this time too. Janie Turner, who had headed this facility since 1932, had her task eased somewhat by a Rockefellergrant in 1941. The ten-thousanddollar gift permitted the hiring of additional help. In 1942 Sadie Rainsford came to the school as assistant librarian and was immediately faced with the task of working with the 15,900 uncataloged volumes of the 16,000-book library. Rainsford succeeded to Turner's position in 1950 upon the former's death. She inherited a library of roughly 20,000 volumes , an antiquated system of circulating books, and a sagging floor at the Newton building. Even though new equipment, including walnut chairs and tables, were ordered and used, and although the reading room was transformed into something approaching efficiency of service and comfort, the problem of housing this crucial facility was not solved by a move in the 1950s into quarters at the new administration building. It was not until 1963, with its own building and an enlarged staff, that the MCG library was able to offer the full service that the faculty and students needed.4 Meanwhile, debate continued over qualification for entry to the school. The College's admissions committee worked diligently to have MCG conformto some sort of national norm in this regard, and declared in 1937 that findings from officials of the AAMC showed that students with "a broad liberal preparation are better qualified to study medicine than those with a narrow foundation." Hence student advisers should be recommended to discourage premedical students from enrolling in courses that would be repeated at MCG—such as biochemistry, histology , bacteriology, and physiology.Instead, emphasis should be upon the broad picture from areas such as biology, chemistry, physics, math, liter- 180 The Medical College of Georgia ature, languages, and "the Humanities in general."5 If such...