The Louisiana State University (LSU) School of Medicine (New Orleans, La) enrolled its first students in 1931: 50 first-year students and 28 third-year transfers. The university, chartered by the state in 1860, was authorized to establish a school of medicine by an 1877 legislative act that is interesting because of its scope and the language of the day:
Section 12. That there shall be maintained in the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College as hereinbefore constituted and established: first – Schools of literature; second – Schools of Science; third – Schools of the useful and fine arts and of military science and art; fourth - Schools of Medicine and Law; and fifth – Such other schools as the Board of Supervisors may establish.1