headquarters in Senate House in Colombo. In 1978, university status was again restored to the respective campuses, and the Colombo Campus became the University of Colombo. Faculty of Medicine In 1942, when the Faculty of Medicine was established, there were only five chairs, in physiology, anatomy, pathology, medicine and surgery. By 1940, even before the setting up of the University, there was agitation for the establishment of a chair in obstetrics and gynecology. In 1942, Dr G A W Wickramasuriya was appointed the first Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He had gained an international reputation for demonstrating the passage of malaria parasite across the placenta to infect the foetus. Wickramasuriya unfortunately died before he could take up the post, and Dr Nicholas Attygalle became Professor in 1944. Professor W A E Karunaratne was the first Dean of the new Faculty, and took over the administration from the Registrar, Dr Startup. Professor Attygalle was elected Dean in succession to Professor Karunaratne in 1945. Attygalle, who became a legend in his own time, had a profound impact on medical education in the country, first as Dean and then as Vice Chancellor when he succeeded Sir Ivor Jennings in 1955. During Sir Nicholas Attygalle's domination of the medical scene, as Dean from 1945 to 1953, and Vice Chancellor from 1955 to 1966, the number of chairs in the Faculty rapidly increased. In 1949, O E R Abhayaratne was appointed the first Professor of Public Health, a subject that until then came under the purview of the Professor of Medicine. In the same year C C de Silva became Professor of Paediatrics, but paediatrics remained as a sub - department under the Professor of Medicine till the late 1950s (21). The next chair to be established was in forensic medicine when G S W de Saram was appointed in 1951. Dr V Sivalingam was appointed Professor of Parasitology in 1956. The Professor of Physiology was in charge of the sub-departments of pharmacology and biochemistry till S W Bibile and Dr A A Hoover were appointed as professors and heads of these departments in 1958. Dr TED Chapman became the first Professor of Bacteriology also in 1958. An unusual development that took place about 1952 was the appointment of co-professors in the three clinical subjects of medicine, surgery and obstetrics and gynecology. The first holders of these posts were J R Blaze, M V P Peiris and D A Ranasinghe respectively. This class of co-professors did not last long, for the system was abandoned shortly after some members of the academic staff were transferred to the new Faculty at Peradeniya. A chair in psychological medicine had been provided for since 1949 (20), but it took over two decades for it to materialise. Dr C P Wijesinghe was appointed Professor of Psychiatry in the Seventies. O E R Abhayaratne (1953-57) succeeded N Attygalle. The subsequent Deans were A S Dissanaike (1967-70), S R Kottegoda (1970-82), Daphne Attygalle (1982-86), T E J de Fonseka (1986-89), N Kodagoda (1989-94) and M M Ismail. Dr. C.G. Uragoda, Retired Consultant Chest Physician & Medical Historian Past President, Sri Lanka Medical Association Anatomy Block Centenary Commemoration: 1913 - 2013
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