Philadelphia Almshouse Infirmary: casebook

Student's case book recording details of patients at the Philadelphia Almshouse Infirmary, 1819, compiled by the four Senior Students: C.J. Wilstack, R.E. Griffith (Robert Eglesfield Griffith, 1798-1850), D. Atkins and E.R. Craven. The Attending Physician was Dr. James Rush (1786-1869). Information given about patients includes age and (usually) race as well as the disease(s) for which they were treated.

1819

1 volume 1 volume, 4to., modern binding. 108 ff. plus modern end-papers. Of these, ff.86-105 are modern paper, presumably inserted to fill the place of original pages torn out; the stubs of other modern pages occur between ff.87-88 and 104-105.

ff.1-25: index f.26: blank ff.27-85: cases, with some blank pages. Arranged in chronological order of admission. ff.86-106: blank, chiefly modern paper ff.107-108: cases (continuations of earlier notes)

Purchased from Paul Breman, June 1983.

The Philadelphia Almshouse Hospital provided medical care for the poor of the city from 1732 onwards. At the time of this casebook's compilation the hospital occupied its second building, which was located on Tenth and Eleventh Streets between Spruce and Pine and held the hospital from 1768 to 1833. This volume dates from a period of comparative calm, between two epidemics that affected Infirmary: one of typhus lasted until April 1818 and an epidemic of malignant fever began in summer 1820. At the time of this casebook the hospital held two classes of student: four Senior Students attended patients and took case histories, while four Junior Students dressed cases, cupped and bled students and reported cases to the Senior Students. Of the four Senior Students, biographical data is only available for Robert Eglesfield Griffith (1798-1850). He graduated MD from Pennsylvania in 1820 and practiced in Philadelphia. He became Secretary to the Board of Health (1826-c.1828), then its President (1833-1836). This was followed by a series of professorships: Professor of Materia Medica at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (1835), Professor of Materia Medica, Therapeutics, Hygiene and Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Maryland (1836-1838) and Professor of Practice, Obstetrics and Medical Jurisprudence at the University of Virginia (1838-1839). He returned to Philadelphia in 1839 as a result of ill health and became Vice-President of the Academy of Natural Sciences in 1849. He died in 1850 agesd fifty-two. In addition to the professional positions listed above, he wrote widely and edited the Journal of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and the American Journal of Pharmacy. Dr. James Rush, the second child of Dr. Benjamin Rush, graduated MD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1809 and pursued further study in Edinburgh and London before returning to practice in Philadelphia in 1811. From 1828 he began to reduce his medical practice (and social interaction) and devoted himself to studying and writing on psychology, of which he was perhaps the founder in the United States. He died in 1869.

In other repositories: A series of similar case notes, from 1815 to the late nineteenth century, can be found in the Philadelphia General Hospital Archive.