Knoxville Should Have a Hospital

The Tennessee Medical college, now nearing the close of its first session, has been successful beyond the most sanguine expectations of its incorporators and faculty.  There are few medical colleges in the country that started out with so large an attendance of students as this.  It has an able and zealous faculty and there is no reason why it should not take its place at once in the front rank of American medical colleges.

It is an institution worthy of the encouragement of Knoxville people.  We will not dwell on the value to the city, in dollars and cents, of having a hundred or so of young men as students in the medical college, that is apparent to every one.  But that is not all by any means.  The presence of such an institution, of high order, is an advertisement that does us good everywhere and the young men who graduate here and go out into the world to practice their profession will always have a good word for Knoxville if Knoxville treats them right.

The faculty of the college is trying to secure an elligible [sic] site upon which to erect a building that will be an ornament and a credit to the city.  They should have the co-operation of the people in this.  They do not proposed, as we understand, to ask for any pecuniary aid in this.  But a site should be secured upon which, in connection with the college, a hospital building may be erected, and this should be done by Knoxville.   Such a hospital in connection with the college, could be maintained at a small cost, as the services of the faculty and students could be secured in the treatment of patients.

Such an institution would be in the interest of medical science; but what is greater and nobler it would be in the interest of afflicted humanity.  The founders of Tennessee Medical college have already done a good thing for this section, and we sincerely trust that it may prove a good investment for them.  If at an expense of a few thousand dollars we can secure a hospital in connection with the college, that can be maintained at a comparatively small expense, Knoxville ought to have it by all means.  No city as large as Knoxville should be without a hospital.

Source:  Knoxville Daily Journal and Tribune, February 26, 1890, page 2