Documental histories of the Library relate the fact that campus departmental libraries other than medicine, most especially Dentistry and Pharmacy, underwent a series of merged and separated configurations throughout our institutional history. Through all those changes, the volumes that we now call the Cordell Collection, along with the founding Crawford Collection, remained the core of what continued as the Medical Library. Under our present multi-disciplinary arrangement, with all our various schools represented, the Cordell Collection is the one principally associated with the various branches of medicine.

In the earliest years from 1813 until 1903, the care of the slowly-evolving Medical Library was haphazard, and its housing accommodations were inconsistent. For a time, the volumes were kept in a branch of the hospital, and the hospital druggist functioned as the librarian.

Then in 1903, Eugene Cordell was appointed to the official position of Librarian, and he described the state of the Library as having been "relegated to dust and neglect." ¹ Even though he did not hold formal training in the field of librarianship, he assumed the role of librarian. Under his curatorship and especially in light of his own propensity toward scholarship and learning, the Library grew in size and institutional significance. That growth meant that eventually it exceeded the limited bounds of its quarters in the medical college building -- the building we now know as Davidge Hall.

To address the need for more appropriate Library accommodations, the University purchased in 1905 a church building located on the southeast corner of Lombard and Greene Streets. This church originally belonged to the West Baltimore Methodist Protestant Church, who built it in 1843. They later sold it to the Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church, South, sometime around 1880 or 81. From 1905 up until 1957, the church building was the first University edifice to bear the name of Davidge Hall. Initially the home of the University's various united libraries, the Davidge Hall church building witnessed the subsequent departure of the Dental Library in 1926, and Pharmacy in 1927, as those schools continued to grow and nurture a preference for their own libraries, a move indicative of a trend toward increased specialization and decentralization. But even with that change in its scope, Davidge Hall continued to house the Medical Library in uninterrupted fashion.

However, the move toward an eventual re-integration began in 1938, with the appointment of a Director of Libraries for the entire University of Maryland, with responsibility for all libraries within the system. Nursing entered the Library fold in the 1940's, and the University's Psychiatric Institute emerged in 1953. These additions pointed out the need for re-combined administrative control over separate libraries that were outgrowing their individual spaces scattered across campus. The University recognized its need to raze the church building in 1957, in order to propel the Medical Library, along with its soon-to-be reunited other family members, into the new era of a modern facility. After two years under construction, the new Health Sciences Library opened on July 28, 1960. The Cordell Collection, with its sibling collections alongside, assumed its fitting place in the Historical Collections Room on the second floor.

The collection celebrates much of the University of Maryland's institutional history. The works of many past faculty members are held here, and of particular interest is this source, the University's institutional "birth certificate":

And from those earliest years, the works of John B. Davidge and James Cocke enjoy their rightful place among the Cordell holdings. Both of these men were original faculty members of the College of Medicine of Maryland, the parent instituion of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. In addition, Davidge served as its first dean.

Davidge, a native of Annapolis, Maryland, came to Baltimore in 1796, a few years after earning his M.D. from the University of Glasgow. He began offering private lectures for medical students in 1802, and it is those sessions that paved the way for the founding of the College of Medicine. Throughout his career, he earned respect as an upright man of high character, a capable and practiced surgeon, and a most knowledgeable lecturer. Our holdings include his doctoral thesis on the subject of menstruation, printed for publication in Birmingham, England in 1794. In later years, he published his NOSOLOGIA, of which this is the second edition. His classification of diseases contained in this volume received high praise from his peers, who found it superior in several ways to the similar work by the renowned William Cullen, then being taught in many medical school curricula.

James Cocke, a native of Virginia and co-founder of the College of Medicine with Davidge, held the joint Professorship of Anatomy, Surgery, and Physiology along with him. Cocke and Davidge had been practicing and lecturing in partnership during the time leading up to the founding. Cocke's educational background includes study under the renowned Sir Astley Cooper in London, from 1801-02. This is his 1804 doctoral dissertation from the University of Pennsylvania. According to Eugene Cordell's biography of Cocke in AMERICAN MEDICAL BIOGRAPHIES, this work "attracted considerable attention from its bold and original views," 2 and it enjoyed a reprinting in 1806.

Nathaniel Potter, also a co-founder of the College of Medicine, held the position of Chair, Theory and Practice of Medicine. Highly respected as a teacher and writer, Potter was the first historian of the University, through the publication of his SOME ACCOUNT OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND. In this work, he opens with a description of the endeavors of Davidge and the private lecture series that led to the founding of the institution. Potter cites the incident of a local mob that stormed and destroyed Davidge's house when the rumors circulated among the populace about the local physicians who were engaging in the detestable practice of anatomical dissection. That disaster significantly inspired the quest to establish a formal institution guided by a charter and approved by the state. Potter delineates the challenges of the handful of dedicated men who confronted both the need for costly personal financial investment, and the limitations of poor facilities during a time of humble beginnings. Much of Potter's book then proceeds to chronicle the darkest period in the University's history, when the State Legislature in 1825 issued a "Supplement" to the original charter, which nearly destroyed the institution by effectively invalidating all the authority that the original founders had established. This legislation empowered a Board of Trustees, none of whom were physicians or educators, to wrest control and governance of the school away from the original Regents who had financed its birth with their own meager resources, and nurtured its adolescence through the merits of their own scientific credentials. Certainly, their professional and educational reputations suffered great discredit in the process. Finally, after several years of administrative and legal entanglements, during which there were two separate rival medical schools, the courts decreed in 1839 the unconstitutionality of the 1825 legislation, and the Regents successfully reclaimed their authority.

	Nathan Ryno Smith, born in 1797 of distinguished New England parentage, was the son of Nathan Smith the Elder, founder of medical schools at both Dartmouth and Yale. The younger Smith earned his M.D. at Yale in 1823, and later ventured southward to Philadelphia, where he accepted an invitation to assume the Chair of Anatomy at the new Jefferson Medical College. But in 1827, a vacancy in the Chair of Surgery at the University of Maryland beckoned him still farther away from his native New England, and he happily remained here for the rest of his life and career. Nathan Ryno Smith, whose commanding presence and gentlemanly manner earned him the nickname "The Emperor," guided the medical school's Department of Surgery for the next fifty years. During that time, he devoted thirty years to the development and perfection of what he considered to be his greatest surgical accomplishment, the invention of his anterior splint.
	He completed the creation of this instrument in 1860 and published this work in 1867, describing its uses and applications.

Robley Dunglison was born in England in 1798. As was true for many of his peers, his educational background included study at the University of Edinburgh. In a more unique circumstance, however, he received his M.D. from the University of Erlangen in Germany. His American career originated at the University of Virginia, where he was one of seven men invited to comprise the founding faculty of its medical school. At its opening session in 1825, Dunglison held the position of Professor of Anatomy and Medicine. From then until 1833, his curricula expanded to encompass such subjects as Physiology, Materia Medica, Pharmacy & Histology, Medical Jurisprudence, and the History of Medicine. In 1833, Dunglison departed Virginia to become Professor of Materia Medica, Hygiene, and Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Maryland. In addition, he served as the Dean of the medical school from 1834-35. He later moved on to the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, where he remained for the rest of his career. An extremely prolific writer, Dunglison wrote extensively on countless topics ranging from the practice of medicine, to more esoteric themes such as road building, Greek and Roman geography, and German poetry. But his medical dictionary is perhaps his most enduring piece, enjoying a long and celebrated history of more than 20 editions.

Horatio Gates Jameson, originally from York, Pennsylvania, was an 1813 graduate of our medical school, who went on to a career as an esteemed surgeon, physician, and author. Among his many surgical accomplishments, two of his best-known achievements are the complete extirpation of the upper jaw (1820), and the removal of a cervix uteri (1824). As editor of the MARYLAND MEDICAL RECORDER, he had a ready forum in which to report his results on various occasions. In addition, he published significant contributions in the AMERICAN MEDICAL RECORDER. The MARYLAND MEDICAL RECORDER began with this issue for September 1829, and ended in November 1832. Several of his peers cited his highly commendable efforts editing the journal, which came to its end chiefly as a result of financial circumstances. In another venture, because he was unable to obtain a faculty position in the medical school during the period of the University's split by the Legislature, he joined with several other physicians in establishing a separate school in Baltimore known as the Washington Medical College. The weakening of the University of Maryland as a result of the division suggested to Jameson and the others an advantageous time in which to pursue the establishment of a rival institution. After being denied a charter by the state of Maryland, the group appealed to Washington College, a small liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania, who authorized them to establish their medical school in Baltimore under its charter. The College opened for the 1827-28 session, with Jameson as Professor of Surgery and Surgical Anatomy. Jameson's other works among the Cordell holdings include his TREATISE ON EPIDEMIC CHOLERA and THE AMERICAN DOMESTICK MEDICINE, OR, MEDICAL ADMONISHER.

As another example of a publication with state and institutional significance, the Cordell Collection also holds the MARYLAND MEDICAL AND SURGICAL JOURNAL. This periodical, an official publication of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, enjoyed only a short life, beginning in October 1839, and ending in June 1843. Several of the editorial board members were both alumni and faculty of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. A few were graduates of the University of Pennsylvania, but their ties with the Washington University School of Medicine place them in conjunction with the University of Maryland -- Washington University became part of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, which in turn merged with the University of Maryland.

Ephraim McDowell, the great surgeon universally called "The father of ovariotomy," attended medical school lectures at the University of Edinburgh during the sessions 1793-94. However, standard secondary sources give no evidence of any formal degree awarded to McDowell following his tenure at Edinburgh. Eventually, in recognition of his great 1809 achievement in the first full removal of an ovarian tumor, the University of Maryland awarded to him an honorary M.D. in 1825.

John Ruhräh earned his M.D. at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore in 1894. He later held the position of Clinical Professor of Diseases of Children at that institution, and following its merger with the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1916, he became Professor of Pediatrics. A great man, tall in stature, Ruhräh inspired and enjoyed the utmost love and respect of all whom he encountered. A lasting friendship with the revered Sir William Osler fostered his interest in medical history, giving rise to this book and extending also into many of his other endeavors. President of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, as well as such other national organizations as the American Pediatric Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics, his professional reputation truly was widespread. Fittingly, he also was President of the Medical Library Association, and first editor of the BULLETIN OF THE MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.

The following are a few examples of Continental European works:

Historians generally agree that this masterpiece of Caelius Aurelianus represents the pinnacle of medical literature from the Roman era. The author was born in Numidia, on the northern coast of Africa, the area now occupied by modern-day Tunisia and Algeria. He based his work on the earlier writings of Soranus, a leader in the Methodist movement of medicine. While some critics denounced his linguistic style, his systematic description of the diseases of each organ throughout the body, combined with his comprehensive discussion of their etiology, pathology, diagnosis, and treatment are of the highest caliber. He represents a level of clarity and detail not seen in any other medical writer of antiquity.

Originally published in 1609, the OBSERVATIONS DIVERSES SUR LA STERILITE, PERTE DE FRUICT, FOECONDITE, ACCOUCHEMENTS, ET MALADIES DES FEMMES, & ENFANTS NOUVEAUX NAIZ, by Louise Bourgeois, is the first book on obstetrics written by a midwife. Bourgeois was in service to the French court and attended Marie de Medici during all six of her labors. She was one of the pioneers in the development of the scientific techniques of midwifery, and this work was the core practice handbook for the period. It later appeared in a 1659 English version as THE COMPLEAT MIDWIFE'S PRACTICE.

Extremely prolific, Lorenz Heister was equally renowned as a practitioner, a founding figure in the science of surgery in eighteenth century Germany. His huge catalog of published works appeared in various foreign languages, a true statement of the continental significance he enjoyed. Heister's Anatomy first appeared in 1717, and editions continued well up into the 1760's.

	Thomas Willis was one of the most highly respected clinicians of his age. He ranks with other English giants such as Thomas Sydenham and William Heberden as the finest proponents of close and careful clinical observation. In his CEREBRI ANATOME, included in this volume of his collected works, he classified the cerebral nerves, which continued as the definitive description for over a century, and the accessory nerve (nervus accessorius) also carries his name. In DE FEBRIBUS, he first described epidemic typhoid fever, as it was occurring throughout the troops in the English Parliamentary Wars. Still another of his accomplishments is his discovery of the phenomenon known as "paracusis," in which a patient is able to hear only in the presence of loud noise.
	Along with our example from Caelius, this book joins many others from the period, with their neoclassical frontispiece illustrations, as outstanding examples of the flavor of the age. Medicine here offers itself as a fitting corollary to the English literary world dominated by Augustan poets such as John Dryden and Alexander Pope.

	As one might expect with any reputable historical medical collection, ours includes the writings of the great John Hunter, the most dominant figure in 18th Century surgery, who elevated the field from merely a treatment technique to a full branch of medical science. This is one of his four great signature works. In subsequent years, Philippe Ricord became the foremost authority on venereal diseases after Hunter. Ricord's additional investigations led him to overturn portions of Hunter's work, correcting the former by concluding that syphilis and gonorrhea are separate diseases.
	Ricord's "chancre" is the term commonly associated with the initial lesion of syphilis, and Ricord differentiated the disease into its three stages.

	Like his older brother John, Charles Bell was an extremely skilled artist, in addition to being an accomplished physician. As an example, this book includes engravings made from his original drawings.
	Charles also collaborated on John’s volume devoted to the heart and arteries, by contributing all the drawings for that work as well. Knighted under William IV, Charles gained international renown for his study of the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the nervous system. It is his name that we associate with the facial paralysis known as Bell’s palsy.

REFERENCES
1 Eugene F. Cordell, University of Maryland 1807-1907 (New York: Lewis Pub. Co., 1907), 302.
2 Howard A. Kelly and Walter A. Burrage, American Medical Biographies (Baltimore: Norman, Remington Co., 1920), 233.