History of white coat at Penn's medical school

New medical students at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine participated Friday in the school's 20th "white-coat ceremony." One by one, they received the white jackets that signify medical professions. Together, they recited the Hippocratic oath.

Penn was the nation's first medical school and is celebrating its 250th anniversary. Here's a quick look at how things have changed over the years:

Before Penn had a medical school: doctors through apprenticeships.

November 1765: First medical school classes start at Penn.

1768: Ten men, all white, are awarded bachelor's degrees in medicine.

1888: Penn for the first time awards a medical degree to a black student, Nathan Francis Mossell.

1918: Gladys Girardeau and Alberta Peltz are the first two women to graduate.

2015: Incoming class has 156 students - 74 are women, 23 are from underrepresented racial groups.

Five: Number of Penn medical graduates who have won Nobel Prizes or Lasker Awards: One, Stanley Prusiner, won both.

3,360: Number of coats Penn has given out in white coat ceremonies.

$21: Cost of a white coat.

$56,784: 2015 tuition for a year of medical school.

$5: Cost to matriculate in 1765, plus about $8 per course.

1: American medical schools in 1765.

141: Medical schools in 2015.

100: Approximate number of medicines in 1765.

13,000: Approximate number of medicines in 2015.

Compiled by Stacey Burling, Inquirer staff writer

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Penn's version is much revised from the original Greek. "First do no harm" is not in it. (It wasn't in the original either.) This is: ". . . unto whatsoever house I shall enter, it shall be for the good of the sick to the utmost of my power, I holding myself aloof from wrong, from corruption, from the temptation of others to vice."

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