The Faculty of Medicine was established as the first faculty of McGill University in 1829. Its origins date back to 1823 when four staff members of the recently opened Montreal General Hospital founded the Montreal Medical Institution in order to offer lectures to students of medicine. In 1833, four years after the Institution became the Faculty of Medicine, William Leslie Logie was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medicine and Surgery and became the first graduate of McGill and the first Canadian medical graduate. In 1862 the degree was changed to its present designation, Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery (M.D.,C.M.), and in 1872 it was conferred upon the Faculty's most illustrious graduate, William Osler. Osler served on the Faculty from 1874 to 1884 before going on to the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University and Oxford University. He was instrumental in developing the Life Sciences Library, which had its origin in the Montreal Medical Institution and which now contains more than 298,000 volumes and 5,000 periodicals. Osler left to the library his extensive collection of books devoted to the history of medicine.
The land occupied by the University, deeded to it by James McGill, lies in the heart of Montreal on the southern slope of Mount Royal. The Faculty of Medicine offices are located in the McIntyre Medical Sciences Building, which lies higher on the flank of the mountain on Promenade Sir-William-Osler at Avenue des Pins. The Life Sciences Library, the Osler Library of the History of Medicine, and a number of the departments of the Faculty are located in this building. The McGill Life Sciences Complex, which opened in the fall of 2008, is located next to the McIntyre Medical Sciences Building between Promenade Sir-William-Osler and Rue Peel. The Strathcona Anatomy and Dentistry Building and the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), founded in 1887, are situated a half mile east of the McIntyre Building, while the Montreal General Hospital of the MUHC, relocated in 1955 from its original site south of the University, lies a half mile to the west. The Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal Children's Hospital, and Montreal Chest Hospital, all of the MUHC, together with the Jewish General Hospital, St. Mary's Hospital, and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, are also McGill affiliated teaching institutions. In addition, there are numerous centres and units specializing in key areas such as AIDS, cancer, human genetics and aging, among others.
