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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    [Extracted from the Transactions of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania, June, 1865.] INOCULATION IN PENNSYLVANIA. BY J. M. TONER, M. D., OF WASHINGTON, D. C. Philadelphia, next to Boston, was the most prominent theatre of incidents connected with the progress of inoculation on this continent. It was natural that such a reform should find its warmest friends and bitterest foes among the professional men of populous cities and towns. Philadelphia had the precedence of New York till after the Revolu- tionary war, and had, next to Boston, the honor of introducing the new remedy into the country. The medical reputation of Philadelphia was perhaps in advance of the other colonial cities, owing chiefly to the fact that early in the set- tlement of this colony, a number of highly educated and eminent medi- cal practitioners1 from Europe took up their residence there. Phila- > Among the doctors who came at an early day to Philadelphia was Dr. Thomas Wynn a Welsh physician of eminent, who had practised with success for some years in London. He and his brother, also a doctor, took up their residence in Philadelphia in 1682, and practised among the early settlers. Thomas, the elder brother, had a turn for politics, and was elected a member of the Provincial Assembly, which body chose him their Speaker. He left his son-in-law, Dr. Jones, who was a physician of repute, to succeed him in practice. Dr Griffith Owen, an English physician, about the same period and for many subsequent years, did a large if not the principal medical business of the city, and died in 1717, at the age of 70, leaving a son a doctor, who succeeded him in business, and practised for many years. Dr. John Goodson was also an English physician and chirurgeon m successful nractice previous to 1700. Dr. Hodgson, an emigrant from Great Britain, practised physic and surgery in Philadelphia about the same period. iMMAa All these practitioners, except Dr. Jones, belonged to the Society of inends, and were men of science and of high repute with the public. Dr. Christopher Witt came to Philadelphia and settled to practise his profes- sion in 1704. He was a skilful physician, and a man of great learning : bu the vulgar suspected him of being a conjurer. He died in 769, at the age of 90. Dr Graeme arrived in 1717 with Sir William Keith, the Governor of the Pro-