History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 175

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

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We have seen in the chapter on the bench and bar that some of the fathers of leading families in Penn- sylvania did not co-operate with the new government formed in 1776. It was partly from this being the case with some of the trustees that the charter of the college was abrogated by the Legislature in 1779, and the College of Philadelphia became merged in the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Ewing, who had been lecturing on natural philosophy, was made pro- vost. The professors of the medical faculty were invited to the University, but the invitations were declined by

all except Dr. Shippen. The same was the case with Drs. Tilton, Hutchinson, and McClurg. In the em- barrassment of the trustees, Dr. Bond consented to accept the chair of Theory and Practice along with his clinical lectures, until it could be filled by another. The contest between the former professors and the new trustees seems to have been occasioned by the demand of the former to be vested with the full rank and privileges of their positions in the college, whereas they, as the other gentlemen who were invited upon their declination, were expected to take only tempo- rary position that was subject to be changed there- after. It is somewhat singular that this state of things should have continued so long, for it was not until near the beginning of 1784 that, when a new election took place, the former professors were elected upon their old basis, and the appointments were ac- cepted. But the friends of the college, who had not become reconciled to .its abolishment, finally pre- vailed in their efforts to restore the charter in 1789. The college was reinstated with all its former belong- ings, while the University was to maintain itself from the sales of property that had been confiscated. This result was attributable in great part to the influence of Franklin.

On the reorganization he was made president of the board of trustees, Dr. Smith was restored to the provost- ship, and for a year all the meetings were held at his house. The new organization of the faculty consisted of Rush, chemistry ; Shippen, anatomy ; Kuhn, botany and materia medica. Dr. Morgan was to be offered theory and practice of medicine upon his return from the West Indies. A cloud seemed to have fallen upon this most gifted physician, from the fact of his dis- charge from the post of medical director-general. Ile was exonerated afterward from the charges alleged against him ; but he lost much of the activity he had been wont to employ, and died six months after the reorganization of the college. The same year Dr. Rush was made professor of Theory and Practice, and his chair of Chemistry bestowed upon Dr. Caspar Wistar. Dr. Adam Kuhn left the college and was appointed to Practice in the University, Dr. Samuel Powel Griffitts to Materia Medica and Pharmacy, and Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton to Natural History and Botany. About the same time the professorship of Materia Medica and Chemistry in the University was conferred upon Dr. James Hutchinson.

It had been the earnest wish of Dr. Wistar, before and after taking position in the college, that the two institutions should be consolidated. They, however, continued to battle with each other. It is remark. able that during this rivalry the college determined to abolish altogether the granting of the Bachelor's degree. The experience was that comparatively few Bachelors, after three years of practice, many of them in theatres distant from Philadelphia, ever returned to obtain the doctorate. The first es- tablishment of this degree, indeed, had not been

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cordially approved by the parent (so to name the University of Edinburgh), some of the wisest of whose savants had predicted this result. The Univer- sity, however, continned to confer the two degrees.

In such a struggle it was apparent that the interests both of the community and of the medical sciences were receiving less development by this division of duties among two faculties. Finally, in 1791, hostili- ties were ended, and the union was made, the con- solidation taking the name of the University of Pennsylvania. The union, on the petition of the two

The new University was opened in November, 1791. Dr. Rush made the introductory address, and con- gratulated all parties upon the fact that "by means of this event, the ancient harmony of the different professors of medicine will be restored, and their united efforts will be devoted, with accumulated force, toward the advancement of our science." The rule heretofore adopted by the college, regarding the Bachelor's degree, was adopted by the new institu- tion, and henceforth only the degree of Doctor of Medicine has been granted.

Mis far

The man who probably had been most instrumental in effecting this saln- tary arrangement was Dr. Caspar Wis- tar, than whom the city of Philadelphia never had a citizen more alive to all its interests, more intelligent and active, and influential in their development. It is really delightful to consider the career of this man, so gifted in the char- acteristics that make a man an orna- ment and a blessing in the community wherein he resides. He was an infant at the opening of the first of Dr. Ship- pen's anatomical courses, having been born in Philadelphia in 1761. As his name indicates, he was of German ex- traction, his grandfather having emi- grated from the Duchy of Baden very early in the century. His ancestry on the mother's side was English, of a family named Wyatt (Quakers), who came over about the time of William Penn. Wistar received his academic education at the Friends' Academy, then on Fourth Street, below Chestnnt. After finishing this course he studied medicine under Dr. John Redman, who had already reared several men destined to become pre-eminent in their profes- sions. Afterward he became a student of the University that had been recently founded upon the ruins of the college, and took his degree in 1782.

It is a curious fact that at that time the examination of the students was held in public. The trustees were ex- pected, and all other citizens were per- institutions, was consummated by act of the Legisla- | mitted to attend. In the funeral oration pronounced ture in September, 1791.

on Dr. Wistar, by Chief Justice Tilghman, in alluding that lay on the border lines of their several professor- ships, and the natural desire to make his own promi- nent in the examination, he said,-

It was a matter for general congratulation when the ' to the different theories of professors upon subjects two colleges were consolidated. They had not been acrimoniously hostile, for Dr. Shippen occupied the chairs of Anatomy in both. He seems to have been a man as discreet, as he was unquestionably at the head of his special art. Students from both institutions "Each professor examined with an eye to his own system. Of this Wistar was aware, and had the address to answer each to his satisfac- tion in his own way, with such ancommon promptness and precision as excited the surprise and commanded the admiration of all who heard him." attended his lectures, though the number that came from the college was far in excess of those from the University.

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Like his illustrious predecessors, he also went abroad and attended the lectures at Edinburgh. The rapidity of his rise in reputation while a student was most remarkable, especially considering he was a foreigner to most of the students, and citizen of a country with which Great Britain had lately had a war of seven years that had ended to its great dis- comfiture. He was elected by the students one of the presidents of the Royal Medical Society of Edin- burgh, and president of the Society for the further investigation of Natural History. He made inti- mate acquaintance, not only with the professors of the medical department of the University, some of whom had already attained to great fame, but with several other distinguished men, as Mr. Jeffrey, Mr. Emmet, and Sir James McIntosh. In 1786 he took his degree of Doctor of Physic. Upon his return, in 1787, he was at once appointed to a position in the Philadelphia Dispensary, and was elected one of the fellows in the College of Physicians.

It was well known that while abroad he had not confined his studies to the peculiar branches that he was to practice, but had made himself familiar with quite a number outside of these. At the time of his

return the Philadelphia Society had then among its his sons or his younger brothers, in whom he felt the controlling members names whose equals the country has not yet produced,-Thomas Jefferson, David Rit- tenhouse, and Benjamin Franklin. These men quickly invited him to join in their labors and investigations, and thus, at twenty-five years of age, he became a leading spirit in that famous institution. A personal friendship soon grew up between him and Mr. Jeffer- son, which continued throughout their joint lives, even to the cordial espousal of the political opinions of that statesman, in which action he differed from his family, all of whom, except himself, were sup- porters of Mr. Adams.

The union of the two institutions placed the new school incontestably at the head of the medical insti- tutions of the country. The acceptance by Wistar of the adjunct's chair, under Dr. Shippen, evinced the simplicity, the freedom from jealousy, the small desire of reputation, compared with the greater objects of professional endeavor, that are most pleasant to see in a man of genius. A fervent admirer, himself very eminent (Dr. Hosack), pays this generous praise. Alluding to his assuming the duties of his profes- sorship, he says,-

" He at once evinced those great qualifications by which he was afterward distinguished. The same fluency of utterance, the unaffected ease and simplicity of manner, the perspicuity of expression, the ani- mation and earnestness arising from the conviction of the truths he was delivering, as well as from the desire to impress them upon the minds of the pupile, and the readiness with which he summoned and applied the numerous and varied resources of his inind, which many of you now in my hearing have had an opportunity of witnessing, Dr. Wistar displayed in the most remarkable manner in the first lectures he de- livered. Such were his fascinating powers of description that even upon those subjects that are usually considered as an uninviting part of a course of anatomical lectures, the attention of his bearers was ever awakened and nuremitting. Even in the demonstration of a muscle or a bone, his viewe were those of a philosopher as well as the anatomist."

It would be well for college professors and college students everywhere if the former would follow the precedent set by Dr. Wistar, who was no less a good man than a learned one, no less a gentleman than a great physician, in his continual endeavors to make happy as possible all with whom he came in contact, brethren of the faculty, students, patients, citizens. Intercourse with Dr. Wistar was simply a delight to all who held it. There is scarcely any praise which a just and gifted man might desire to be said of him after death than the following beautiful tribute from Dr. Caspar Morris :

" Universally known and respected, his daily course through the streete was interrupted by persons of every grade in life, who were permitted to stop him by the way to consult him about their aliments or to testify their gratitude for the benefits received from his skill. Ilia courtesy to all was unbounded ; the poorest, equally with the richeet, were received with kindness, and their cases treated with respectful consideration. llis walks were almost sn ovation, and childhoud ns well as manhood rejoiced at the beaming look and pleasant bod, which gave evidence of his recognition of each token of respect."

As for his intercourse with his students, it was char- acterized by a patience, a painstaking, and an assidu- ity that would not have been greater had they been solicitude natural to such affectionate relationsbips. It became a habit with students at the close of his lec- turcs to approach the platform where he was wont to stand and ply him with questions until the last moment that he could remain before proceeding to other calls. Instead of discouraging, he was pleased with these evidences of the interest he had excited in them, and answered with a ready cheerfulness that imparted universally the sense of ease and freedom. Not only this, but his office and his residence, it was understood, were accessible at all becoming hours to these students, who were wont often to repair there for solutions of difficulties arising from time to time during the course. What was fully equal, if not su- perior, to such treatment was the habit he began of often inviting parties at different times to supper in his mansion. There were few towus of any consider- able size at that period throughout the country. Even Philadelphia, the most important, had a population not far above thirty thousand, and the majority of the young men attending the medical lectures were from country districts. Besides, it was after the close of a long war wherein they had had but scanty opportu- nities for learning such manners as are always so aux- iliary to the practice of a professional man, especially a physician. It is not possible to say how benign are the influences exerted by such a man as Wistar upon such youths. That he employed them for any other purpose than to benefit them not one among them, and not one among any class who knew of them, ever had the smallest suspicion. It was a part of his duties as a trainer of youth for the difficult and often most delicate duties in the careers they were to lead. He had these youths at his board and in his drawing-

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room, with the same motives wherewithal he had them daily assembled in the lecture-hall.

Never was a professor who was not only the more effective in his teachings, but the happier in his heart, from every action during his office that brought him and his pupils close together in sympathy and in the interchange of civilities and friendly attentions. It was, doubtless, the observation of the value of these re- unions that led to those more important that he began at his house, wherein were used weekly to resort the most cultured of that society, and gifted visitors from other places who might have happened to be then so- journing in the city. These were the origin of the Wistar Parties, an honorable name that remains to this day a memorial of the founder.

The traditions of Dr. Wistar in his intercourse with the sick under his charge are most pleasant. "He was," says Dr. Morris, " sincere and truthful ; and the patient iu the hospital, in the wards of which he was a faithful attendant during seventeen years, or the poor sufferer in an alley, received from him the same delicacy of attention as the proudest citizen who claimed his services for a fee."

Mr. Jefferson resigned the presidency of the Philo- sophical Society in 1815. For twenty years Dr. Wis- tar had been one of the vice-presidents. He was now made president, and so continued until his death, three years afterward. A physician hy profession, yet, as we have seen, his mind discoursed upon other studies. It was to him that the society owed the movement to begin the collection of isolated, frag- mentary portions of the history of Pennsylvania and the rest of the States. Although he taught anatomy specially, yet he had become quite familiar with other branches of science, as mineralogy, chemistry, bot- any,1 and natural history. The last pursuit he had grown to be particularly fond of, and had his life continued the results of the studies he had projected in this field would, doubtless, have been most im- portant.

It is remarkable that men of such extraordinary culture as Wistar, Morgan, Shippen, and Kuhn should have written so little for the public. This seems, strangely enough, to have been common with the profession everywhere during this period. Be- ' sides his contributions to the Philosophical Transac- tions, he wrote little, except his "Human Anatomy," which was a text-book in the medical schools through- out the country until the advances in anatomical sci- ence made necessary new works. The men of that generation seemed to be content with making Ameri- can editions of the works of foreign authors, instead of producing original. If Wistar had had ambition in that line, or if he had taken from his professional engagements opportunities for that purpose, his repu- tation would have been among the first in medical literature. Ile was twice married,-first, to Miss Mar-

shall, and, some years after her early death, to Miss Elizabeth Mifflin, daughter of George, and niece of Governor Thomas Mifflin. Probably the death of no citizen of Philadelphia was ever more generally and sincerely lamented than his, which occurred Jan. 18, 1818.

It seemed to be the rule with those young meu who sought high rank in the medical profession to employ the best opportunities for qualifying themselves for its behests. It was this mainly that gave to Phila- delphia that preponderance in the number of able men in both law and medicine which, so far as the · latter is concerned, it can with truth be said she still holds. Dr. James Hutchinson, a native of Bucks County, born in 1752, took the highest honor of his class on graduating at the College of Philadelphia, and having taken the degree of Bachelor of Medicine in 1774, repaired to London, and became a pupil of Dr. Fothergill. This connection was unfortunately interrupted by the war of independence. He neces- sarily had to leave London ; thence he went to Paris. But his studies there were discontinued by the uncer- tainty consequent upon the great proportions which the war seemed destined to assume. He had already become eminently distinguished, particularly in chem- istry, for which, at the attainment of his Bachelor's degree, he had received from the College of Philadel- phia a gold medal. He resolved to return to his native country and bear his part in its struggles. At that time, as is known, Dr. Franklin was our minister at the court of France. Upon the young student's re- turn he confided to his care dispatches for the govern- ment that were near being lost. The ship on which he sailed was captured by a British man-of-war; but his biographer, Dr. James Hutchinson, his grandson, says, "Wheu near the American coast the ship in which he was a passenger was chased by a British armed vessel, and, being anxious to save the dispatches, he left the vessel in an open boat, under a heavy fire from the enemy, and landed safely. A short time after he left the vessel she was captured by the enemy in sight, and he lost everything he had, in- cluding a fine medical library collected in England and France."

Dr. Hutchinson served the government of the United States and of his native State for three years. As oue of the trustees of the University founded upon the ruins of the college, while cordially inter- ested in its fortunes, yet he declined the appointment first of professor of Practice, and afterward of Chem- istry, in deference to the sympathy that was felt by a majority of the citizens for the parent institution and the men who had mainly supported it. When the college was restored to the rights of which it had been deprived, he consented to serve as professor of Chem- istry and Materia Medica in the University. Two years after, in 1791, when the two were cousolidated, and the various chairs could be adequately distributed, he took that of Chemistry, while Materia Medica was

1 The botanical name " Wistaria" is for him.

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assigned to Dr. Griffitts. He survived this appoint- treatise on Natural History, which was his favorite ment only three years; at the same time he was one of the secretaries of the Philosophical Society. Chem- istry was then assigned to Dr. John Carson, who was prevented by death from accepting it or from entering upon its work.

Dr. Samuel Powel Griffitts was also a native of Philadelphia, the junior of Dr. Hutchinson by seven years, having been born in 1759. We do not find his name among the descendants of Thomas Griffitts, the councilor, heretofore mentioned, but we have no doubt that he was connected with him. After gradu- ating at the college of his native city, he studied medicine with Dr. Kuhn, and took his degree of Bachelor of Medicine at the University in 1781. Afterward, in pursuance of the precedents of the most eminent men in the profession, he went abroad. On account of the relations between the United States and Great Britain he went first to France. Spending about a year in Paris, he went to Montpellier. Thither he was attracted by Barthez, at once a phy- sician and philosopher. He remained there about a year, and after the achievement of independence by his country, devoted the following year to the prose- cution of his studies at London, finishing off his course at Edinburgh.

We have heretofore spoken of the Philadelphia Dispensary, founded mainly by Dr. Rush. Dr. Grif- fitts warmly co-operated in the scheme upon his re- turn to Philadelphia. It was located in Strawberry Alley, and began its operations in 1786. Dr. Griffitts became one of the secretaries of the board of man- agers and one of its physicians. His colleagues were Dr. James Hall, Dr. William Clarkson, Dr. John Morris, Dr. John Carson, and Dr. Wistar. Ou the merging of the college in the University he was made, as we have seen, professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy. He seemed never to have liked his professorship, although there were never any doubts as to his competency for the discharge of its duties. He retired from it about the year 1797, and devoted himself thereafter to practice, though serving to the last in some capacity in the dispensary. He died in 1826.

Immediately upon his resignation, the professor- ship devolved upon Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, wlio hitherto had held that of Botany and Natural History. This he continued to fill until the death of Dr. Rush, in 1813, when he was placed in the chair of Practice thus made vacant. Dr. Barton was a native of Lan- caster, son of the Rev. Mr. Barton, who married a sister of Rittenhouse, the philosopher. His school education was conducted at York under the care of Dr. Andrews, who afterward became provost of the University. His medical studies were had under Dr. Shippen. He also went to the University of Edin- burgh, where he stayed two years. Then he left for Göttingen, in Hanover, where he received his degree. While in London, in 1787, he published a small

study. The report of the proficiency made in his studies while abroad led to his being elected a mein- ber of the American Philosophical Society. It was said that the professorship of Botany and Natural History, to which he was elected, had been created through the special efforts of Dr. Kuhn, for the pur- pose of securing for the institution a mau so specially gifted in these branches. He thus became the first public teacher of natural history in the United States, botany having been before that time taught, but with comparatively little patronage, by John Bartram.

The services of Dr. Bartou were of incalculable value in developing his science. Through various agencies he made extensive collections of the flora of many sections of the country. Both Frederick Pursh and Thomas Nuttall were indebted to him for much of the information embraced in the "Flora Americana Septentrionalis" of the former, and the "Genera of North American Plants" of the latter. The sway of his instructions naturally followed that of his mind, and he imparted to his students much of his own fondness for botany. It was his wont to take them to the Botanic Garden of Bartram, situated on the Schuylkill, below the city. Hle formed the Lin- næan Society, of which he became first president, and was the first in Philadelphia to erect a greenhouse. This was attached to his residence, on Chestnut Street, below Eighth. It afterward became enlarged when the property of George Pepper, father of Pro- fessor Pepper. In 1804 he began a periodical, en- titled The Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, which was continued for about five years, when it ceased, probably from want of the business qualifi- cations needed for such an undertaking. The appre- ciation in which he was universally held was mani- fested by the honors bestowed upou him at home and abroad. Ile was one of the vice-presidents of the Philosophical Society, and in the year 1809 was made president of the Philadelphia Medical Society, a position which he continued to hold until his death.

We have thus noticed the leading names in the medical profession in Philadelphia from the earliest times to the union of the college with the Univer- sity, and the members of the faculty under the new organization. It has been interesting to us to trace the development of medical science in this new com- munity, and we cannot but reflect how fortunate it was in the men who originated and those who con- ducted this development. It is simply wonderful how many young men of the very best society were willing to undergo the years of apprenticeship and study, to risk the dangers of voyages across the sea, and remain so long absent from home, families, and friends, before entering upon careers in which fame and fortune were ready to be made with the attain- ments they had already gained long before the period

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 175

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