New York Times, “Burning of the Medical Department of the University of Louisville,” January 8, 1857

BURNING OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE. – The Medical Department of the University of Louisville, including the library, laboratory and museum, was destroyed by fire on the 31st ult. The loss is estimated at $100,000, with insurance for $50,000. The building in which the “Old Medical School” was held, was donated by the city for this purpose in 1839, and since that time the Trustees and Professors of the Institution have been constantly adding to its usefulness and interest, by appropriations from their personal profits, for books, apparatus and medical curiosities. Professors SILLIMAN, GROSS, and FLINT, having each, at different times, visited Europe for the purpose of procuring for the institution instruments and books. Its library of French works, relating to the various branches of the profession, was, probably, the most complete in the Union. Some books, a few retorts, and jugs of acid, and a desk or two was all that was saved of the contents of this interesting and useful institution. In one hour all was destroyed. There were between two and three hundred students attending the lectures, some of whom will probably leave or attach themselves to the “new school, but a majority of them will remain to the conclusion of the session, as the lectures will be resumed in a day or two.