Sturgis was Director a number of the younger men were appointed to professorial positions elsewhere. Dr. Wilson, Dr. Newburgh, Dr. Paul Shirmer Barker (Westminster '15, M.D. Washington University '20), Dr. Henry Field, Jr. (Syracuse University '16, M.D. Harvard '20), Dr. Herman H. Riecker (Marietta College '17, M.D. Johns Hopkins '23), and Dr. Arthur Covell Curtis ('23, '25m), all members of the earlier medical staff, were still active in the department as of 1940.
In addition to providing the routine teaching of medical subjects the department has doubled the length of the courses in clinical microscopy and physical diagnosis, and numerous elective courses are offered to students interested in the various special phases of general medicine. The Department of Internal Medicine teaches more hours a year than does any other department in the Medical School. That such teaching has not been burdensome to students can be seen in a statement in "A Criticism of the Teaching at the University of Michigan Medical School by the Class of 1935": "In general, we feel from the standpoint of teaching, that the Department of Internal Medicine is outstanding in the Medical School…"
Several services of the department benefited during the thirties, either by new accommodations, marked growth, or special grants. Two additional floors costing $250,000 were erected on top of the Hospital to serve as a new unit for the care of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. The floors were first occupied by patients in July, 1931. Accommodations were provided for ninety-eight patients in six single-bed rooms, ten two-bed rooms, and seventy-two four-bed rooms. Ample teaching rooms and workrooms for examinations, treatments, laboratory work, and fluoroscopy are also available.
The allergy service has slowly grown from a part-time interest of one man in 1927 until it occupies three rooms on the second floor of the Hospital and has a permanent staff of three men and, in addition, one man part time.
The diabetic service has likewise slowly grown until now it has entire care of all diabetic patients assigned to the department and also supervises the care of all diabetic patients on services other than the medical service.
It was found possible in 1936 to rotate the senior instructors who were members of the medical service, in periods of a month each, through the electrocardiographic service, the allergy service, and the Simpson Memorial Institute. This allowed these men to spend all of their time for the period in pursuing the special work given in the three divisions and greatly added to the training that they received.
In 1937 one million dollars was appropriated from the Horace H. Rackham Fund, the interest on which was to be used for a period of not less than five years and not more than ten years, for the study of arthritis. This work was organized in the University Hospital under the directorship of Dr. Richard Harold Freyberg ('26, '30m).
