OpenLB
Open Library of Bioscience

The first legislated orthodox medical school within Alabama was founded in Mobile in 1859, a legacy of Dr. Josiah Clark Nott. That it developed later than other Southern medical schools has been attributed to multiple factors, among them rural isolation, restricted communication, limited transportation, sparse population, cultural deprivation, and climatologic enervation. The rationale for a medical school within Alabama was also multifactorial: to supply physicians to rural Alabama, to reverse the economic and cultural drain among Alabamians that out-of-state education implied, and to educate medical students regarding the unique health care requirements of a predominantly rural Alabama populace. A medical school building was constructed east of the Mobile City Hospital, and was equipped with an elegant collection of anatomic models acquired by Nott during his travels in western Europe in 1859. After only two sessions, however, the War Between the States (1861 to 1865) forced the medical school to close, as faculty and students joined the Confederate forces. In 1868, with the continued involvement of Dr. W. H. Anderson as Dean, the institution was reopened. During the succeeding 52 years of its existence, the financially strapped medical school attempted to cope with evolving medical technologies and educational philosophies. Despite the commitment of the administrators and faculty, sociopolitical factors and insufficient economic support militated against the school's continued existence. Nott has been characterized as a physician, anatomist, anthropologist, and ethnologist. His opinions as revealed in his writings were controversial because they addressed sociopolitical and racial issues. Nevertheless, his commitment to the Medical College of Alabama in Mobile was unstinting, and he provided the major leadership role in its establishment.