History of the Physiology Department, 1957-61

In 1870 the University Trustees requested the Faculty to provide instruction in anatomy, physiology, and hygiene.¹ By 1907 the University had accepted physiology as a major subject for a master's degree and as a minor subject for a doctoral degree,² but it did not establish a Department of Physiology until 1931.³ In 1934 the Trustees adopted a recommendation that the Departments of Bacteriology, Botany, Entomology, Physiology, and Zoology be organized into a Division of Biological Sciences.⁴ The Departments of Physiology and Zoology merged in 1943 as an administrative convenience.⁵ In 1950 the two were again separately established,⁶ and the graduate curriculum leading to the degrees of Master of Science and Doctor of Science in Physiology was reorganized and formally instituted.⁷ In 1961, contracts were awarded for the construction of a Physiology Research Laboratory on the south farm.⁸  The Trustees authorized changing the name of the Department of Physiology to the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in 1962.⁹

1. Board of Trustees Transactions, 3rd Report, March 9, 1870, p. 83.

2. Ibid., 24th Report, June 4, 1907, p. 133.

3. Ibid., 36th Report, June 26, 1931, p. 374.

4. Ibid., 37th Report, January 25, 1934, p. 432.

5. Ibid., 42nd Report, March 20, 1943, p. 310.

6. Graduate College Bulletin 1950-52, pp. 219-20, 258-59.

7. Board of Trustees Transactions, 45th Report, April 19, 1950, pp. 1072, 1097-98.

8. Ibid., 51st Report, May 17, 1961, p. 475.

9. Ibid., 52nd Report, July 18, 1962, p. 12. Record Group 15