Vital Signs

Then & Now

A reminder of the pace of change, and of timeless truths, from the Summer 1964 issue of the Dartmouth Medical School Quarterly:

"Medicine is unique among the learned professions that deal with . . . individuals . . . in the degree to which content, method and application are all dependent on science," wrote Dr. Gilbert Mudge, then the dean of DMS. "To be sure, science unadorned is not a sufficient basis but, excluding witchcraft or its various modern counterparts, medicine without science is certainly not much of a profession."

56
Faculty in the basic science departments in 1964

290
Faculty in the basic science departments in 2010

$115.6 million
Research income in FY09

A reminder of the pace of change, and of timeless truths, from the 1980 DMS admissions brochure:

"Although Dartmouth did not admit its first woman medical student until 1960, the percentage of women in DMS classes since 1968 has consistently exceeded the national average. . . . Since 1976, graduating classes have averaged 26% women."

1852
Year DMS denied admission to Emily Blackwell, sister of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first American woman to earn an M.D.

58%
Percentage of women in DMS's 1987 entering class

49%
Percentage of women in all graduating classes nationwide in 2007

A reminder of the pace of change, and of timeless truths, from a 1991 history of Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, which opened in 1893:

"Until well into the 20th century, hospitals weren't considered a proper place to have a baby; respectable women had their children at home. No exception to the rule, Mary Hitchcock was open for two years before the first baby was born within its walls, and until 1920 the hospital's exquisitely detailed annual reports . . . did not even bother to detail the specific number of births. Not even the hospital's own medical staff . . . saw the institution as a fit place to give birth."

1,135
Births at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in fiscal year 2009

A reminder of the pace of change, and of timeless truths, from the 1970 MHMH-DHMC annual review:

"The cleanliness of every area of the Hospital is the responsibility of Housekeeping. . . . Until 1933 there was no such thing as a housekeeping department. This work was delegated to nurses. Volunteers helped out during wartime. Not until 1948 were nurses freed from cleaning patient beds, using disinfectant solutions on the metal and a whisk broom on the mattress. Even keeping 'hoppers' and other bathroom fixtures shining . . . was left to nurses and, particularly, student nurses."

200
Number of housekeeping employees in 2009

2 million
Square feet they keep clean