In 1854, Maryland became the first American medical school to introduce microscopic histology in the regular curriculum. Entitled “Experimental Physiology and Microscopy,” the lecture was presented by Christopher Johnston, class of 1844, an accomplished physiologist and microscopist. Johnston served as professor of anatomy and physiology from 1863 to 1866 and professor of surgery from 1869 to 1881.

In 1949, Paul E. Carliner, class of 1934, in association with Dr. Leslie Gay (both on the staff of Johns Hopkins), developed the drug Dramamine to combat seasickness. The two had been testing the drug as an experimental antihistamine when a female patient suffering from hives reported that her motion sickness on a streetcar was suppressed by taking a dose of the drug in advance of her ride. The two decided to test the drug on soldiers traveling to Germany on the ship General C.C. Ballou. It worked.

In 1994, Eve J. Higginbotham, MD, became the first woman in America to chair a university-based department of ophthalmology when she came to Maryland. She was the first author of a paper demonstrating the benefits of topical medical therapy in either delaying the onset or preventing the development of glaucoma among African Americans with ocular hyper-
tension.