whom the communication was referred, to wit: “That it is of great importance to keep the Departments of Medicine and Natural Science under their present distinct arrangement, and that if at this or any other time it should be thought proper to make Botany a part of the necessary medical instruction, it will be most expedient to do so by the establishment of a new Professorship in the Medical Faculty, and not by the transfer of a Chair from one Department to another.”[1]
In 1827, it was deemed expedient to aid the Chair of the Theory and Practice of Medicine and Institutes of Medicine, in consequence of the wide range embraced by it. To effect this Dr. Samuel Jackson was chosen Assistant to the Professor, whose duties consisted in giving lectures upon the Institutes of Medicine. This he continued to do twice weekly, until the re-establishment of the Chair of Institutes in 1835.
At the termination of the session 1830-31, Dr. Physick resigned his active connection with the school, and was appointed Emeritus Professor of Surgery and Anatomy. The Chair of Anatomy was conferred on Dr. Horner.
Philip Syng Physick was born in Philadelphia in 1768, the year of the first Medical Commencement. After the requisite preparation in classical studies by Robert Proud, teacher of Friends’ Academy, and the historian of Pennsylvania, he was admitted to the Department of Arts of the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1785. The same year he commenced his medical studies under the direction of Dr. Kuhn, and attended the lectures delivered in the University.
In 1788 he embarked for Europe, and for two years resided in London, as a pupil of John Hunter and part of the time as House Surgeon of St. George’s Hospital. In proof of the estimation in which Dr. Physick was held while occupying this position, reference may be made to the laudatory testimonials of his medical qualifications and correct deportment from the governing authorities of that hospital. At the expiration of his services in the hospital, he received a license from the
- ↑ Soon afterwards Dr. Barton resigned his Professorship of Botany in the University to take that of Materia Medica in the Jefferson Medical College.
