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A similar unfortunate occurrence disturbed the quiet of Dr. Shippen's demonstrations in Philadelphia. On one occa- sion his house was mobbed, and only by exercising great tact, and by the judicious interference of his friends and of the authorities was he saved from the entire destruction of his accumulated materials for teaching. The event was known for years after to the inhabitants as the Sailors' Mob. In one of his early advertisements, Dr. Shippen exculpates himself from the imputation of procuring subjects in an illegal manner, by violating the sanctuary of the dead.'
In the changes that had taken place in the Faculty of the University of Edinburgh, at the period when the founders of the American School were educated within its walls, Cullen had come upon the theatre of action, and filled the highest place in their affections. As with the students of the Uni- versity of Leyden, Boerhaave had been the ruling spirit, and had stamped his genius upon their thoughts and opinions,
1 See Appendix E.
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so, by the pupils who listened to his instructions, Cullen was regarded as the paragon of scientific medical intellectuality. He had succeeded Dr. Plummer in the Chair of Chemistry in 1756, and Dr. Whytt in that of Institutes in 1766, which position he was holding at the time the American students, who were the founders of our School, were in attendance upon his lectures.
The warmth of commendation on the part of Dr. Rush may be taken as an explicit illustration of the popularity of Dr. Cullen with his pupils. "Dr. Cullen (says he, in writing to Dr. Morgan) continues still to be the idol of his pupils ; he has lately proposed a Theory concerning the offices of the Brain and Nerves that will do him more honour, however, than anything he has ever yet found out. I have not room to do it justice in this place; hereafter you shall be welcome to it. His Clinical lectures and his practice in the Infirmary cannot be too highly praised; in each of them he shows the most extensive reading and the most consummate skill. He intends to publish a 'Nosologica Methodica' next summer, which will contain a complete arrangement of all diseases under proper classes, orders, genera, and species, somewhat in the manner of Sauvages, tho' considerably different from his in the matter of arrangement."
When Cullen first began to lecture in the Infirmary of . Edinburgh upon practical medicine, he deviated from the routine of following Boerhaave implicitly. To this, exception was strongly taken. He tells the story of the difficulties he experienced in thus deviating from so renowned a master, in his Introductory to the Session of 1783-4: " About twenty years after I had left this University as a student, I was again called to it to take a Professor's Chair, when I still found the system of Boerhaave prevailing as much as ever, and even without any notice taken of what Boerhaave himself and his commentator, Van Swieten, had in the meantime added. Soon after I came here I was engaged to give Clinical, that is to say, practical lectures, and in these I ventured to give my own opinion of the nature and cure of diseases different in several respects from that of the Boerhaavians. This soon produced an outcry against me. In a public College, as I happened to
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be Professor of Chemistry, I was called a Paracelsus, a Van Helmont, a whimsical innovator, and great pains were taken in private to disparage myself and my doctrines."1 Cullen lived to know that his teachings had as wide a circulation . and as much authority as those of Boerhaave, which ulti- mately gave place to them.
It was determined, as we are informed by Dr. Thomson in his Life of Cullen, that he should deliver a course of Lec- tures on the Practice of Medicine during the summer of 1768. He accordingly delivered his first course on that branch at the time specified, and continued to alternate with Dr. Gre- gory until the death of that professor in 1773, when he suc- ceeded to the Chair. With respect to the above-mentioned arrangement, it appears that an application was made by Dr. Cullen, with the concurrence of Dr. Gregory, for a joint appointment to the Chair of Practice.2 The movement ap- pears to have been instigated by the students of the Univer- sity, who were impressed by Dr. Cullen's teaching at the Infirmary, although Mr. Bower states that "the origin of the whole transaction is involved in obscurity." "The students were divided in their opinions respecting the abilities of these eminent men as public lecturers, and as usual entered very keenly into the medical theories they severally taught.773 This is clear from the correspondence of Dr. Rush, then in Edinburgh, which, although commendatory of Gregory, is enthusiastic with respect to Cullen. In a letter, July 27th, 1768, to Dr. Morgan, he says: "Dr. Cullen, the great unri- valed Dr. Cullen, is going on unfolding each day some new secret to us in the Animal economy; his lectures on the Prac- tice of Physic this summer are richly worth my staying for."
When we take into consideration the enthusiasm mani- fested by Dr. Rush with respect to the prelections of Cullen,
1 An Account of the Life, Lectures, and Writings of William Cullen, M. D., Professor of the Practice of Physic in the University of Edinburgh, by John Thomson, M. D., F. R. S., L. and E., Professor of Medicine and General Pathology in the University of Edinburgh, vol. i. p. 161.
2 Bower's History of the University of Edinburgh, vol. ii. p. 385 ; vol. iii. p. 108.
3 Bower, loc. cit.
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liow worthy of attention is the similarity of their public career. They both occupied successively the same chairs in the respective institutions of which they were conspicuous · ornaments and supporters. Cullen commenced his course of teaching in the Professorship of Chemistry, was transferred to that of Institutes, and, finally, to the one of Practice; while Rush, in the term of his long life, occupied successively the chairs pertaining to each of these branches of medical science.
When Cullen became a teacher of medicine, he made an innovation which at the time was considered rash. It was the abandonment of the Latin language and the use of ver- nacular English. The Latin was considered the language of science, and as such was used upon the Continent, as well as in England and Scotland. He was accused of not being sufficiently familiar with it to use it readily, but from this charge he is vindicated by the fact of having received his education in that tongue, and moreover of having delivered a course of botany in it. When, about the year 1746, he adopted the new plan of delivering his lectures, he conferred a service which was afterwards acknowledged by its imitation. From this period the use of the Latin language was gradually dropped.1
The Lectures on the Materia Medica by Dr. Cullen, were first republished in Philadelphia, by Robert Bell, in 1775. To exhibit the estimation in which that distinguished teacher was held everywhere, the following advertisement is singu- larly pertinent. "The American Physicians who wish to arrive at the top of their profession are informed that the great Professor Cullen's Lectures on the Materia Medica, containing the very cream of Physic, are now selling by the said Bell, on Third Street. Price Five dollars." The expec- tation of a ready sale may be surmised from this extract.2
Cullen's "First Lines of the Practice of Physic" was subse- quently published in this country, in 1781. With reference
1 See Thomson's Life of Cullen, vol. i. p. 28.
2 The work first published was a surreptitious edition of the Lectures on Materia Medica by Dr. Cullen, delivered in 1761. It was issued from the Edinburgh Press in 1771, when an injunction to prohibit its sale was ob- tained from the Court of Chancery. It was republished in London in 1773. Dr. Cullen published his " Treatise of Materia Medica" in 1789.
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to this work, an interesting extract of a letter from Dr. Rush to Dr. Cullen may be given. "One of the severest taxes paid by our profession during the war was occasioned by the want of a regular supply of books from Europe, by which means we are eight years behind you in everything. Your First Lines was almost the only new work that was smuggled into the country. Fortunately it fell into my hands. I took the liberty of writing a Preface to it, and published it during the war. The American Edition had a rapid sale and a general circulation through the United States. It was read with pecu- liar attention by the physicians and surgeons of our army, and in a few years regulated in many things the practice in our hospitals. Thus, Sir, you see you have had a hand in the Revolution, by contributing indirectly to save the lives of the officers and soldiers of the American Army." 16th Sept., 1783. At the time mentioned, the first volume only of the work was republished; it had been issued in Edinburgh in 1777. Cullen had able coadjutors in the University of Edinburgh. Monro (secundus) had great distinction as an anatomist and surgeon ; the name of Gregory was regarded with respect ; Home, Hope, and Young were filling their parts with credit to themselves and usefulness to the institution; while Black had inscribed his name upon the roll of fame, by his doctrine of latent heat and his discovery of carbonic acid. Of such lumi- naries was formed that cynosure in the northern firmament of medical science, which attracted the attention of the intellec- tual world, and directed the steps of those who sought for lights to guide them in preparation for professional duties.2
1 An Eulogium upon Dr. Cullen was read before the College of Physi- cians of Philadelphia, by Dr. Rush, July 9, 1790.
2 In 1768 the Faculty of the Medical Department of the University of Edinburgh was thus constituted :-
ALEXANDER MONRO, M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Surgery.
WILLIAM CULLEN, M. D., Institutes of Medicine.
JOHN GREGORY, M. D., 66 Practice of Medicine.
JOSEPH BLACK, M. D., 66
Chemistry.
THOMAS YOUNG, M. D., 66
Midwifery.
FRANCIS HOME, M. D.,
Materia Medica.
JOHN HOPE, M. D., 66 Botany.
JOHN RAE, M. D., Lecturer on Surgery in the Infirmary.
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CHAPTER VII.
Effect of the American Revolution upon the College of Philadelphia-Abro- gation of its charter and the establishment of the University of the State of Pennsylvania-Restoration of the charter and privileges to the college -Union of the two institutions under the name of University of Penn- sylvania.
THE fortunes of our medical school, for twenty years after the organization of the faculty in 1769, were checkered and unequal. An intermission of Dr. Morgan's lectures took place in the winter of 1772-73, in consequence of his absence in the West Indies, whither he had been sent by the Board of Trustees to collect funds for the College. At this time the medical class had increased to between thirty and forty students. But soon the disordered condition of society, attendant upon the Revolution, disturbed the quiet flow of scientific pursuits, and led to the suspension or to the serious embarrassment of academic establishments on the American Continent. In illustration it may be stated that the Professors of the College of Philadelphia applied to the " Council of Safety" for relief from their annoyances, inform- ing it "that the Schools were interfered with and inconveni- enced by the occupation of the grounds and buildings by soldiers, who did much injury to the property."1
In the years 1776 and 1777, the lectures upon anatomy were wholly suspended in the College, and afterwards neces- sarily shorter than usual, and, as far as can be ascertained, the lectures on the other branches were either interrupted or but partially given.2 The occupation of the city by the British in the autumn of 1777 was the occasion of the removal of the effects of the College, which, as far as possible, were secured privately by the professors.3
' June 23, 1777, Pa. Archives, vol. v. p. 198.
2 Eulogium on Dr. Shippen by Dr. Caspar Wistar, p. 29.
3 It is a tradition in the family of the Provost, the Rev. Dr. Smith, that
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Several of the medical professors took their place as medical officers of the army. Morgan and Shippen successively acted in the capacity of Medical Director-General during the Revo- lution, and Rush as Medical Director of the Middle Department. The latter was also a member of the Congress which signed the Declaration of Independence.1 The account of the services rendered by the Medical Professors as well as by the members of the Profession generally, may be gathered from the biogra- phies which have been given us of the most eminent physicians and surgeons of the period. Two of the graduates, of the Class of 1768 and 1771, of the College were useful and distinguished physicians of the Hospital Department of the American Army, viz., Jonathan Potts and James Tilton. An estimate may be formed of the difficulties encountered by the army physicians and surgeons from the transcript of part of a letter written by the former of these gentlemen, Dr. Potts, who was Director · for the Northern Department.
" FORT GEORGE, August 10th, 1776.
" The distressing situation of the sick here is not to be described; without clothing, without bedding; or a shelter sufficient to screen them from the weather, I am sure your known humanity will be affected when I tell you we have at present upwards of one thousand sick, crowded into sheds, and laboring under the various and cruel disorders of Dysen- tery, Bilious, Putrid Fevers, and the effects of a Confluent Small Pox. To attend this large number we have four sur- geons and four mates, exclusive of myself, and our little shop doth not afford a grain of Jalap, Ipecacuanha, Bark, Salts, Opium, and sundry other capital articles, and nothing of the kind to be had in this quarter. In this dilemma our inven- tions are exhausted for succedaneums; but we shall go on doing the best we can in hopes of speedy supply."
This letter was addressed to the Director-General.2
The spirit which actuated these gentlemen in the cause of
he thus saved the archives from which we have been enabled to compile much of our information.
1 Dr. Rush was elected to Congress after the Declaration of Independ- ence, for the express purpose of signing it.
2 It is among the papers of Dr. Potts, in the collection of the Historica Society of Pennsylvania.
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their country may be learned from the following passage of a letter of Dr. Thomas Bond. Sen., to the Council of Safety, December 4th, 1776, giving his views in relation to the or- ganization of military hospitals :-
" When I see so many of my friends and valuable fellow- citizens exposing themselves to the horrors of war, I think it my indispensable duty to make them a tender of the best services in my power, upon the condition that I can have the joint assistance of my son in the great undertaking, who I am certain you will find on enquiry has already distinguished himself in this Department. As I am told many of the sick are near the City, the sooner this matter is concluded the better."1
Dr. Bond at that time was over sixty years of age.
The privations and hardships which were suffered, the difficulties and vexations which were encountered, and the sacrifices submitted to by the medical officers during the War of Independence have been graphically depicted in his Mili- tary Journal by that venerable sharer of them, the late Dr. Thatcher. When, on the conclusion of the contest, the services of these medical patriots were no further needed, they returned to their civil posts, imbued with knowledge and experience, from which in after life they derived the benefit.
So far as the concerns of the College were affected, it re- quired time before they assumed their former tranquillity and regularity. The account of the next ten years is an eventful one in the history of the Medical School, until the University was placed on its present secure foundation.
The Institution, being of colonial origin and patronage, needed, as was thought, thorough reorganization to place it upon a basis harmonizing with the regime of Independence. The removal of constraint by a hostile force permitted it to be re-established under different auspices. It was alleged further that disaffection existed on the part of some of the members of the Board of Trustees to the new Government. By an Act of the Legislature, November 27th, 1779, the charter
1 Pa. Archives, vol. v. p. 89. Dr. Thomas Bond, Jr., here referred to, was Purveyor of the General Hospital.
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THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
of the College was abrogated, its officers removed, and its pro. perty transferred to a new institution. This decree of the Legis- lature had been anticipated by authoritative interposition.1
From the Minutes of June 1st, 1779, we learn that Mr. John Foulke was examined for the Bachelor's Degree, but after the mandamus was issued, the Commencement was inter- dicted by the President of the Executive Council of the State. This was the beginning of the difficulty which eventuated in the action of the Legislature above referred to. Still, the move- ment must have been more sudden than was expected, inas- much as we find the following notice in the " Pennsylvania Gazette" :-
" College of Philadelphia, October 24, 1779. The Lectures on the different branches of Medicine will begin on the first Monday of December."
The institution which superseded the College of Philadel- phia was entitled the "UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF PENN- SYLVANIA," to which were given more extended educational. privileges and larger endowment.2 The Trustees at once directed attention to the Medical Department in common with others, and it appears from the Minutes of the Board that on December 8th, 1779, it was-
"Resolved, that Dr. Shippen, sen., Dr. Bond, and Dr. Hutch- inson be a Committee to inquire into the state of the late Medical School, as it stood in the late College, and what is the establishment thereof in Foreign Universities ; and to digest a plan, for the consideration of the Board, for establishing the school on the most respectable footing. That the said Com-
1 For an exposition of the circumstances which led to this act on the part of the Legislature, and for the full discussion of the merits of the transac- tion, we must refer to the History of the University of Pennsylvania by George B. Wood, M. D., in the 3d vol. of Memoirs of the Historical So- ciety of Pa. Also to the Pa. Gazette, March and April, 1788, for a Remon- strance against the Act of Assembly of 1779 and an exposition of the origin of the College. In the same paper are "Reasons for abrogating the Charter of the College from Minutes of the Council of Censors," August and Sep- tember, 1784 .. Also an Exposition of the Controversy between the College and the University, March, 1789.
We have seen a diploma of Bachelor of Medicine of 1785, in which the title University of Philadelphia is used. The title stated in the text is given in the Book of Charters and Statutes.
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mittee do request the several Medical Professors in the mean time to proceed in their lectures as heretofore."
When the University was organized upon the basis men- tioned, the Rev. John Ewing, D. D., was appointed Provost. In this office he remained until his death in 1802. Dr. Ewing continued the practice of delivering Lectures upon Natural Philosophy. These were published, in 1809, in a volume edited by Prof. Robert Patterson, who appended to them a Life of the author.
On May 11th, 1780, it was resolved, by the Board of Trus- tees of the University, "that the former Medical Professors be requested to examine such candidates as shall apply to them ;" and on June 27th it was "agreed that on the present occasion the late Medical Professors take their seats." This occasion was in connection with the preliminaries for the graduation of the classes. The Commencement was held, and the Degree of Bachelor of Medicine conferred on William W. Smith and Ebenezer Crossby, and that of Doctor of Medicine on David Ramsay.1
Dr. Shippen was the only one of the Professors who at once accepted the position he had held in the Faculty of the College ; and an agreement not being effected with the others, the Chair of Practice was offered to Dr. Hutchinson, June 25th, 1781, and then, April 22d, 1782, to Dr. James McClurg, of Virginia. The Chair of Chemistry was, Nov. 7th, 1781, offered to Dr. Hutchinson, and on April 2d, 1782, the Chair of Materia Medica was offered to Dr. James Tilton, of Dela- ware. In each case the honor was respectfully declined. On April 22d, 1782, Mr. William Bartram was appointed Professor of Botany.
The Trustees evidently labored under embarrassment and difficulties which had to be met by temporary expedients, as is shown by the following public advertisement :-
"At a Meeting of the Trustees of the University of Penn- sylvania, on Wednesday, 31st of October, 1781, Resolved
1 The Historian of the United States. He wrote a Life of Dr. Rush, which has been quoted. The words in which the mandamus is expressed are the following : "And the Degree of Doctor of Medicine on David Ramsay, now prisoner with the enemy."
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unanimously that Dr. Bond be requested to unite Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Physic with his course of Clinical Lectures, the ensuing season, until such time as a Professor in that Branch of Medicine be appointed and un. dertake the business." Dr. Bond, who was present at the meeting, expressed his readiness to do so.
It was further "Resolved, that Wednesday next be ap- pointed for the election of Professors of Materia Medica, the Theory and Practice of Physic, Chemistry, and Botany." This attempt to fill the Chairs did not succeed, and in this state of irregularity medical instruction continued for three years. In the "Pennsylvania Gazette" of Nov. 14th, 1781, Dr. Rush announced a course of Lectures upon Chemistry and the Practice of Physic, "to begin on Monday next, at three o'clock in the afternoon." There was no interruption, however, to the graduation of candidates each year. At the Commencement of 1782, eight students were graduated M. B., and the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon Joannes Franciscus De Coste, Physician-General of the French Army in America, and also upon Maria Bernardus Borgetta, an eminent physician of the same army ; and Fiacer Robillard, a Senior Surgeon in the French Army, received the Degree of Master of Arts.
In November, 1783, an election anew took place, and the former status of the Professors was accepted by them. The lectures then appear to have been conducted with some uniformity.
Although the University continued to perform its part successfully for ten years from the time of its foundation, the dissatisfaction on the part of the friends of the former College had only slumbered. The Act of the Legislature was regarded by them as unjust and unconstitutional, and their efforts in procuring its repeal, and in the restoration to the College of the powers and property possessed by it originally, were finally crowned with success. The new in- stitution retained its position as a University, with its endow- ment from confiscated estates. The Act of repeal is dated March 6th, 1789.1
1 Charters and Statutes of the University of Pennsylvania.
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It is a circumstance worthy of record that, in consequence of his absence abroad for so many years in the service of the Colonies, Dr. Franklin, after the foundation of the College, " had but few opportunities of taking any further active part in the affairs of the Seminary, until his final return in the year 1785, when he found its charters violated, and his ancient colleagues, the original founders, deprived of their trust by an act of the Legislature; and although his own name had been inserted amongst the new Trustees, yet he declined to take his seat among them, or any concern in the management of their affairs, till the institution was restored by law to its original owners. He then assembled his old colleagues at his own house, and, being chosen their President, all their future meetings were at his request held there till within a few months of his death, April 17th, 1790, when, with reluctance, and at their desire, lest he might be too much injured by his attention to their business, he suffered them to meet at the College."1
When the restitution of its rights was made to the College, the Trustees proceeded to the organization of the Schools. The Rev. Dr. Smith was restored to the office of Provost; and with respect to the Medical Professors, the Minutes of the Board inform us, dated March 13th, 1789, that
" The Committee who were appointed to wait upon the Pro fessors and Masters formerly deprived, but now restored, made report that they had waited upon the following Professors in the Medical Schools, formerly instituted under the College, viz :-
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