History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 174

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 > Part 174

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Auxiliary to the regular lectures of the physicians, Dr. Smith undertook a course on natural and experi- mental philosophy for the special benefit of the medi- cal students. In his announcement of this, on Dec. 17, 1767, he thus alludes to a gentleman distinguished for his connections with Dr. Franklin in the latter's studies in electricity, Dr. Ebenezer Kinnersley, then professor of Oratory and English Literature in the college :

1 This essay was entitled " Four Dissertations on the Reciprocal Ad- vantages of a Perpetual Union between Great Britain and her American Colonies, written for Mr. Sargent's prize medal, to which, by desire, is prefixed an eulogium spoken on the delivery of the medal at the public commencement of the College of Philadelphia, May 20, 1766."

* From the announcement made by the trustees of the College of Philadelphila, July 27, 1767.

3 Ibid.

1589

MEDICAL PROFESSION.

"To the standing nee of the large apparatus belonging to the college, Dr. Kinnersley has engaged to add the use of his electrical apparatus, which is fixed there, and to deliver the lectures on electricity himself, as well as to give his occasional assistance in other branches, so that with these advantages, and the meny years' experience of the subscriber In conducting lectures of this kind, it is hoped the present course will answer the design of its institution and do credit to the seminary."

It is not only interesting, but it is really most sur- prising to contemplate the rapid rise of this institu- tion, so happily originating in the minds of two young medical students in Great Britain. In the same year of this annonncement of the trustees, another young Pennsylvanian, Adam Kuhn, born Nov. 28, 1741, at Germantown, having studied medi- cine under his father, and at the University at Upsal in 1762, and botany under Linnæus, graduated at Edinburgh University June 12, 1767. The following year he returned to Philadelphia, bearing the highest testimonials from the great father of botany. Up to this time instructions in botany and materia medica had been given by Dr. Morgan in his general course of the Theory and Practice of Physic, but young Kuhn, immediately upon his return, was cordially received by his predecessors in studying in foreign lands, and in January, 1768, he was installed into the professorship of Botany and Materia Medica, which he held until November, 1789, when he was trans- ferred to that of Practice. In the following year the degree of Bachelor of Medicine, the first in the coun- try, was conferred upon eight candidates.

Dr. Kuhn was professor of the Practice of Physic from the junction of the college and university in January, 1792, to 1797, and physician of the hospital from May, 1775, to January, 1798. He was president of the College of Physicians from July, 1808, until his death, July 5, 1817.

A yet more distinguished person came in for the fourth regnlar professorship in the college. For Dr. Bond, though continuing his clinical lectures, was never formally made professor. The new accession was Dr. Benjamin Rush. He was born near this city, Dec. 24, 1745. He had conducted his preliminary studies at Nottingham,1 Md., and afterward, when only sixteen years of age, graduated at Princeton College. For six years thereafter he served his apprenticeship, as it was then called, under Dr. Redman, spending in the mean time a year in attendance upon the lec- tures of Dr. Shippen. He then went abroad, finish- ing his course, as his three predecessors, at Edin- burgh. While yet an apprentice under Dr. Redman, Benjamin Rush had formed in his mind the intention to rise to the highest reputation possible in his profes- sion. He began at the beginning in medical science, not only reading, but translating from the Greek, the works of Hippocrates. He thus began that habit so useful not only to himself but to science and to his- tory, of keeping a note-book, in which he entered contemporary occurrences that seemed to him spe-

cially worthy of being recorded, a practice that was never given up during his life. While at Edinburgh he rendered a service to his academie Alma Mater in the matter of obtaining Dr. Witherspoon as presi- dent. The trustees, on the doctor's declination of their first invitation, solicited young Rush to call upon him in person, and urge his acceptance. This he did with success. A very warm friendship at once was started between the two, which continued during their lives. After his graduation at Edinburgh, he studied for some time longer in London, especially in attending the hospitals. It was mainly at the sugges- tion of Dr. Franklin, then residing there, who ad- vanced him the money for the purpose, that he after- ward spent several months in Paris. From 1760 to 1769 he had been exclusively devoted to the study of his art, having had the very best advantages in school and college discipline.

While at Edinburgh, like his predecessors, he had been looking forward with hope to obtain a profes- sorship in the college newly started at Philadelphia, and his wishes were warmly seconded by them .? He had the good fortune to be the bearer of a chemical apparatus that had been presented to the college by Thomas Penn. The reports of his wonderful pro- gress, however, had been such that it became gener- ally understood, nearly a year before his return, that his hope would be realized speedily thereafter. Along with the chemical apparatus he also bore a letter of recommendation from Thomas Penn.3 At the meet- ing of the trustees, in July, 1769, Dr. Rush was unan- imously elected to the chair of Chemistry, a science which had been tanght by Dr. Morgan.

There is a similarity, amounting often to entire identity, in the career of these four young men, the founders of the oldest, and, we think we can justly say, the most renowned school of medicine in the United States. Their long period of preliminary studies, their proseention of them abroad, their grad-

" The following extracts from his letter to Dr. Morgan, in 1768, evince a beautiful union of lofty amUltion with most becoming modesty . "I thank you for the pains you have taken to secure mo the Professorship of Chemistry. I think I am now master of the science, and conld teach it with confidence and ease. . . . 1 would not, however, urge your inter- eat tou warmly in tius affair. Perhaps I may disappoint the expectationa of the trustees, and provent a person bettor qualified from taking the chair. I should like to teach chemistry as a professor, because I think I could show its application to medicine and j lllosophy." Then "I should likewise be able more fully, from having a sent in the college, to co-operate with you in advancing the medical aclencre generally."

* This lettor reads thus :

"GENTLEMEN,-Dr. Rush having been recommended to mo hy Dr. Fothergill, as a very expert Chymist, and the Doctor having forther recommended to me a Chymical apparatos to the College, as a thing that will bo of great ose, particularly in the tryal of ores, I send you such as Dr. Fothergill thoughit necessary, under the care of Dr. Hunh, which I desire your acceptance of. I recommend Dr Rush to your no- tice, and humbly wishing success to the College, remain, with grout regard,

" Your very affectionate friend,

" THOMAS PENN. "TO THE TRUSTEES OF THE COILLEOE OF PHILADELPHIA."

The " tryal of ores" was no doubt regardeI by the writer as his highest trump.

1 Under Dr. Finley, his uncle by marriage.

101

1590

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

uation at the same university, their ambition for the places they were to fill, are very striking. They were probably the youngest faculty that ever sat in pro- fessors' chairs, their average age being thirty years ; Morgan, the oldest, being but thirty-four, while Rush, the youngest, was only twenty-four.

It is not to be wondered that these young men, full of ardent admiration and gratitude, should have mod- eled their institution upon that of Edinburgh, even as the latter had been modeled upon that of Leyden,

Dr. Rush has already been noticed as an author. He had a fondness and a talent for public discussion. While in London he was a member of a debating club, in which sometimes questions were raised touching the rights of the American colonies. Even then he was an earnest and eloquent defender of those. He early took to writing, and published his thoughts upon various subjects connected more or less closely with his profession. These productions brought him much notoriety, but he became famous in the fifth year of his professorship by the oration pronounced before the Philosophical Society on the history of medicine among the Indians, with a comparison of their diseases and remedies with those of civilized nations. He especially dis- cussed the evils of the intemperate use of intoxicating spirits. This, Dr. Jackson says, was probably the first instance of such a discussion in Philadelphia. The address obtained for him great re- nown, and did much to make him one of the political leaders in the troublesome times that were to come. One of the most ardent of Whigs, he was elected to the Provincial Conference of Pennsyl- vania, and afterward elevated to Con- gress, not long before the passage of the Declaration of Independence, which he signed with his father-in-law, Richard Stockton, of Princeton, whose daughter, Julia, he had married.1 He shortly afterward received the appointment of surgeon-general of the United States army for the Middle Department. This office he held for about six months, when he was made physician-general. He continued the habit formed in boy- hood of regularly jotting notable occur- rences in his note-book. Those made during the time in which he held those offices were afterward elaborated into a portion of his "Medical Inquiries," a most valuable dissertation, which he styled "Results of Observations made in the Military Hospitals of the United States."

Benjamin Bush

at which so many of the Scotch medical students, before the establishment of their own, were wont to attend.

The one whom Dr. Rush most particularly admired was Dr. Cullen, under whose tuition he had long sat, and whose friendship and confidence he enjoyed. The young man soon obtained a large practice. His suc- cess was due not only to the reputation of his extra- ordinary accomplishments, but to an amenity of man- ners that was not surpassed by any in his time.

The misunderstanding between Dr. Rush and Gen. Washington, probably the controlling cause of his resigning his position, be- longs not to this chapter. He came out of the army a

1 The following interesting account of his transfer front the Confer- ence ix from the " Medical Biography" of Dr. Gross : " He wae a member of the Provincial Conference of Pennsylvania, and chairman of the committee to which was referred the great question whether it had be- come expedient for Congress to declare independence. The report they made was adopted and sent to Congress the same day. It is a most animating document, most probably written by Rush, as he was chair- man of the committee, and ever ready with bis pen. The whole com- mittee consisted of himself and Col. James Smith. The report includes

1591

MEDICAL PROFESSION.

poor man, and henceforth devoted himself with in- creased assiduity to his professional duties, though he always took an ardent interest in whatever concerned the welfare of the country. He was said to have been mainly instrumental in the founding of Dickinson College, so named in honor of the great political leader John Dickinson. It is wonderful what great and what varions resources were in the mind and the spirit of Dr. Rush. His "consideration of the test laws of Pennsylvania," made for the disfranchisement of all Tories of all grades, evinced both his generous courage and his familiarity with the discussion of such subjects on a line with the ablest statesmen of his day. About 1785 the Philadelphia Dispensary, and two years afterward the College of Physicians were established mainly through his influence. His restless public but not less patriotic spirit led him to take part in political action again, and he became a member of the Pennsylvania Convention for the adoption of the Constitution. His career in that field does not, how- ever, belong to this department. In 1789, Dr. Morgan having died, he was elected to the professorship of Theory and Practice of Medicine in his place, and two years afterward when the college became a part of the University he was called to the chair of Insti- tutes and Clinical Medicine, being succeeded in that of Practice by Dr. Kuhn.

Perhaps no portion in the professional life of this eminent physician is as interesting as that which contains the record of his practice during the visita- tion of the yellow fever in 1793. The heroic practice that his bold genius was led to adopt, the bolder as- sumption that it was of domestic not foreign origin, raised against him outcries both from the profession and from the property-holders in the city, who were incensed by the publication of opinions which, if accepted abroad, would subtract from the value of their real estate. The struggles made by him during this terrible year were wonderful. In the midst of deaths in his own family and those of his friends, he kept going night and day, sometimes fainting in the streets from exhaustion, yet the while attending more than a hundred patients during the twenty-four hours. The never-forgotten note-book was kept to its work during all this time. When it was over he wrote the history of the plague. Of this work Dr. Trotter said, " It is the best history that was ever written of any epidemic." Upright as he was ardent, having once expressed his opinion that the fever was contagious, and afterwards led to believe that he was mistaken, he made haste to recant, and this at the time when belief in contagion was almost universal.

all that has been so much praised in the Declaration of Independence, of which it might appear to be the protocol. Wheo Congress had de- cided on this great measure, five members from Pennsylvania, who were In favor of postponing it, withdrew from the House, when the State Convention appointed Rush and four others to fill their pinces. Thus our patriot went into Congress knowing what he had to do. He did not sign the tremendous parchment because he was a member, he became a member that he might sign It."

The untiring energy of Dr. Rush continued to his old age. He died in 1813, full of Christian faith. Dr. Jackson, writing of this event, says, "The sensation throughout the whole country was intense. Every one had heard of Dr. Rush, and all that were interested in medicine or philosophy, in common humanity or in the honor of their country, felt that they had lost a friend and benefactor." "From one end of the United States to the other," says Dr. Charles Cald- well, "the event was productive of emotions of sor- row, for since the death of Washington no man, per- haps, in America was better known, more sincerely loved, or held in higher admiration and esteem .... For nearly three thousand years but few physicians his equal in greatness have appeared in the world, nor is it probable that the number will be materially in- creased for ages to come." Jefferson, writing to John Adams, said, "Another of our friends of '76 has gone, another of the co-signers of our country's inde- pendence, and a better man than Rush could not have left us, more benevolent, more learned, of finer genius, or more honest."

Dr. John Redman, the first president of the Col- lege of Physicians and the medical preceptor of Benja- min Rush, was born in this city, Feb. 22, 1722. After finishing his preparatory education in Mr. Tennent's academy, he entered upon the study of physic with John Kearsley, then one of the most eminent physi- cians of Philadelphia. When he commenced the practice of his profession he went to Bermuda, where he continued for several years. From thence he pro- ceeded to Europe for the purpose of perfecting his acquaintance with medicine. He lived one year in Edinburgh, attended lectures and dissections, and vis- ited the hospitals in Paris, and graduated at Leyden in July, 1748. After passing some time at Guy's Hos- pital, he returned to America and settled in his native city, where he soon gained great and deserved celeb- rity. In 1784 he was elected an elder of the Second Presbyterian Church. The death of his youngest daughter, in 1806, was soon followed by the death of his wife, with whom he had lived near sixty years. He died of apoplexy, March 19, 1804, aged eighty-six years.

Ile was a man of small stature, of good sense and learning, and much respected in his day. He lived for more than half a century in the same house, in Second Street, about one-third of a square from Arch, on the west side, next to Dr. Ustick's Baptist Church, where he died.

He became independent in wealth, and retired from business many years before his death. He used to visit his old friends and acquaintances after he be- came infirm from age, on a fat pony mare. Dr. James Rush says, "I remember him well hitching her to the turnhuckle of the mansion shutter, so that she always stood on the foot-pavement, when he vis- ited my father, which he made it a point to do once or twice a year. In the rough cutting of his like-

1592

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

ness, which was given to me by a member of his family, the hat, wig, nose, mouth, chin, eye, dress, person, expression, and character are admirably true. The mare is not so well done. The doctor retired from practice about 1785, and was known to the Barnabas Binney, a surgeon in the Revolutionary war, was born in Boston in 1751, and graduated in 1774 at Rhode Island College, afterward known as Brown University. His medical education was ob- tained in London and Philadelphia, and he con- public as an antiquated-looking old gentleman. He | sidered himself as belonging to the latter city, hav- was usually habited in a broad-skirted dark coat, with long pocket-flaps, buttoned across his under dress, and wearing, in strict conformity to the cut of the coat, a pair of Baron Steuben's military-shaped ing married in 1777 a Philadelphia girl. While in the service of the government an instance of his suc- cess as a surgeon occurred in his treatment of one of the sailors of the Pennsylvania vessel "Hyder Ali," who, in the engagement with the British ship "Monk," was pierced by a musket-ball that, entering the left groin, passed through the intestines and lungs, and came out under the right shoulder-blade. Dr. Binney cured the patient, who was so grateful that he visited him annually during his life. Dr. Binney was the discoverer of the sex of the heroic and ro- mantic Deborah Sampson, who enlisted in the army as a man, and served as such until she was disabled by a wound which brought her under his care. In searching for the pulsations of her heart he found that she was a woman, and he concealed her in his DR. JOHN REDMAN. [From a picture in the Ridgway Library.] house until he could obtain from Gen. Washington her discharge. The tension of army life was too great for his health, and he died in Philadelphia, June 21, 1787, aged thirty-six years. He was the father of Hon. Horace Binney.

boots, coming above the knees." Mr. Watson says, for riding-habit, "his hat flapped before and cocked up smartly behind, covering a full-bottomed pow- dered wig, in the front of which might be seen an eagle-pointed nose, separating a pair of piercing black eyes, his lips exhibiting, but only now and then, a quick motion, as though at the moment he was en- deavoring to extract the essence of a small quid. As thus described in habit and in person, he was to be seen almost daily, in fair weather, mounted on a short, fat, black, switch-tailed mare, and riding for his amusement and exercise, in a brisk racking canter, about the streets and suburbs of the city."

Dr. Gerardus Clarkson was an eminent physician of Philadelphia, and was the son of Matthew Clark- son, a New York merchant, who died in 1770. Dr. Clarkson was a popular practitioner as early as 1774, and died Sept. 19, 1790. The Rev. Dr. Finley mar- ried his sister in 1761, and John Swanwick wrote a poem on his death.

Dr. William Potts Dewees was born at Pottsgrove, Pa., May 15, 1768. He commenced the practice of medicine in 1789, and in 1793 he removed to Phil- adelphia. He devoted himself especially to the practice of obstetrics, which was then a novel branch of medicine in the United States. By the year 1812 he had made a fortune by his lectures, which, five years later, had gone to the winds. He was chosen a professor of Midwifery in the University of Penn- sylvania, first as an assistant and subsequently as principal, but he resigned in 1835. He died at Phila- delphia, May 20, 1841, aged seventy-three years.

One of the most distinguished of the contempo- raries of Dr. Rush was Dr. Samuel Bard, who was born in Philadelphia, April 1, 1742, and died May 24, 1821. He was a skilled botanist, and was mainly educated in the medical profession in the school of Edinburgh, where he received his degree in May, 1765. Returning to America, he went into partner- ship with his father, and after marrying his cousin, Mary Bard, he formed the plan of the Medical School of New York, in which he was appointed professor After the Revolution George De Benneville was a young physician. He was born in this city, in No- vember, 1760, and commenced the study of medicine in his father's office, and also under Dr. Pfeiffer. He assisted his father's practice for some time, and was also engaged in connection with his brother-in-law, Dr. Jonathan Bertolette. He married Eleanor Rob- erts, and practiced medicine forty-five years, dying Dec. 17, 1850. of the Practice of Physic. In order to provide for his family, he was obliged to return to New York while the British were in possession of the city. Iu 1784 he came back to Philadelphia, and was selected by Washington as his family physician. Having formed the purpose of retiring from business, he removed to his country-seat at Hyde Park, but when the yellow fever appeared in Philadelphia he resolutely resumed the post of duty, and but for the faithful care of his Dr. John Jones was born in Jamaica, L. I., in wife would have perished from the disease. This ' 1729. After studying physic with Dr. Thomas Cad- was in 1798, and the remaining twenty years of his | walader in Philadelphia, he completed his educa- life were spent in calm and happy retirement. ! tion in London, Paris, Leyden, and Edinburgh. On

1593

MEDICAL PROFESSION.

his return he settled at New York, and was particu- larly eminent as a surgeon. He was a surgeon in the Revolutionary army, and attended Deiskau, the French general, when the latter was so terribly wounded by a British bullet. On the establishment of a medical school in New York, he was appointed professor of Surgery. Soon after he settled in this city, the physicians agreed, for their own dignity, to wear their hair in a particular bob, aud he refusing to concur in the project, they refused to consult with him. But he soon triumphed, and the powers of ridi- cule compelled the medical men to wear their hair like other gentlemen. In 1780 he settled in Phila- delphia, and was the physician of Washington and Franklin. He died June 23, 1791, aged sixty-two years. In his religious views he was a Quaker.

To return to the college, begun under auspices so full of vigor and promise. We have seen the part enacted by Dr. Rush, both in politics and as a physi- cian in the army. Dr. Shippen and Dr. Morgan acted successively as medical director-general. During this time several of the graduates of the college acquired distinction. In June, 1771, four young men, who had received the degree of Bachelor of Physic three years before, were presented with the degree of Doctor. These were Jonathan Potts, James Tilton, Nicholas Way, and Jonathan Elmer. The first two became eminently distinguished for their services rendered during the war. Dr. Potts was medical director of the Northern Department. In the Historical Society of Pennsylvania are the papers of Dr. Potts. Among these is a letter to the director-general of the United States army, written at Fort George. It is painful now to contemplate the deprivations and other suffer- ings of the Revolution, but it must excite our grati- tude to remember the heroic devotion that was paid to them by the few educated physicians then in the country.

The following is an extract dated Aug. 10, 1776:

"The distressing sitnation 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 he affected when I tell you we have at present upward of one thousand sick, crowded Into sheda, and lahoring under the various and cruel disorders of dysen- tery, bilious, putrid fevere, and the effects of a confinent smallpox. To attend this large number we have four surgeons and four mates, excin- sive of myself, and our little shop doth not afford a grain of jalap, ipo- cacuanha, bark, salts, opium, and sundry other capital articles, and nothing of the kind to he had in this quarter."

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 174

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992