Saint Louis University School of Meicine is one of the eleven schools which comprise Saint Louis University. It was established in 1836 as the Medical Department of the university and had the distinction, in 1839, of awarding the first M.D. degree granted west of the Mississippi River. Affiliated doctors of national importance were, among others, William Beaumont whose pioneering studies of the human digestive system opened a new world of research, and Daniel Brainerd, who later founded Rush Medical College (then part of the University of Chicago).