Inoculation in Pennsylvania / by J.M. Toner.

  • Toner, Joseph M. (Joseph Meredith), 1825-1896.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inoculation in Pennsylvania / by J.M. Toner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    voyager, and laid its heavy hand on many of the emigrants, some of whom died on the passage and found a grave in the ocean. On land- Dr. Adam Kuhn, a native of Germantown, Pa., studied medicine in the office of his father a well-educated physician, and then went to Europe and took his degree of Doctor in Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, in 1767. He had been a student for the two previous years at the University of Upsal, when the celebrated Linnaeus was in the very zenith of his merited popularity, and with whom he had become a favorite pupil—a friendship that was mutual, and was cultivated throughout their lives. He returned to Philadelphia the same year that he graduated, and, on the following January, 1768, was elected by the trustees of the College of Philadelphia to the professorship of Materia Medica and Botany. He was a worthy disciple of the immortal Linnaeus. In May, 1768, according to a historical sketch of the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, published by direction of the faculty, Dr. Thomas Bond was elected to the Chair of Clinical Medicine, a department in which he had already engaged and distinguished himself at the Pennsylvania Hospital. It is stated, on page 378 of the fourth volume of the North American Medical and Surgical Journal, that Dr. Bond was never appointed to a professorship in this college. Let this be as it may, he was long a popular and eminent teacher of clinical medicine at the Pennsylvania Hospital. At the commencement of the Philadelphia College, on the 27th of June, 1768, Dr. Benjamin Franklin in the chair, the degree of Bachelor of Medicine was conferred upon ten gentlemen, which were the first medical honors bestowed by any American institution. Dr. Benjamin Rush, the Hippocrates of America, and one of the immortal signers of the Declaration of Independence, returned to Philadelphia, in 1768, with his degree of medical doctor received from the University of Edinburgh. On the 1st of August, 1769, he was elected by the faculty of the college to the Chair of Chemistry. This appointment completed the medical faculty, accord- ing to the original design. Dr. Rush brought with him a complete set of in- struments for chemical experiments, a present to the college from the Hon. Thomas Penn. It is truly an imperishable honor for Dr. Rush to have been so intimately connected with the organization which successfully established the first medical college on this continent; but there is a glory and dignity clinging around his name, transcending most earthly honors, for the important part he played in ushering a great and independent nation into existence, and establishing it in health and vigor among the nations of the earth. The Rev. Dr. William Smith, provost of the University, heartily co-operated with the faculty in endeavoring to make the medical department attractive, and he delivered lectures to the medical class himself upon natural and experi- mental philosophy. On the 14th of August, 1769, an advertisement was circulated, announcing that on Wednesday, the 1st of November, a regular course of lectures, embracing all the branches of medical science, would be commenced. Dr. Bond was to give his lectures at the Pennsylvania Hospital. The medical faculty lectured for a long time, if not from the first, in a small building on Fifth