University of Michigan. Department of Surgery

The first Professor of Surgery at the University of Michigan was Moses Gunn. Gunn had apprenticed himself to Dr. Edson Carr, a renowned surgeon, and was taking classes at the Medical Institution of Geneva College in Geneva, New York in 1845, when he heard that the University of Michigan was planning to start a medical school. He packed a cadaver into a trunk and traveled with it by stage coach to Ann Arbor where he immediately began to give a course of lectures on anatomy using his cadaver for demonstration. His intention was to become the Professor of Surgery, and he succeeded.

In 1848 the University began to organize the Department of Medicine and Surgery, and Gunn ensured that his opinions were heard. The school would be an integral part of the University, unlike most of the medical schools in the country. The professors would be salaried by the University so the students would not need to buy tickets from the instructor in order to attend the lectures.

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