Moore, and John Redman. It is worthy of notice that at the time of the incorporation of this charitable institution, when, on an appeal for assistance being made to the Provincial Assembly, one of the objections offered to the measure was that the cost of medical attendance would alone be sufficient to consume all the money that could be raised, it was met by the offer on the part of Drs. Zachary and the Bonds to attend the patients gratuitously for three years. This became the settled understanding with the Board of Physicians and Surgeons; nor have we learned that the compact has ever been annulled or abrogated during the period of one hundred and seventeen years (from 1751 to the present date), an instance of disinterested philanthropy which has been generally followed in the charitable institutions depending on medical attendance, not only of this city, but throughout the length and breadth of the land.[1]
In this institution was the first clinical instruction given by Dr. Thomas Bond in connection with the collegiate course, and it may be stated, so close has been the association between the hospital and the medical school, that of the twenty-nine professors, who have occupied collegiate chairs, eighteen have been attending physicians or surgeons of the hospital, and five of the seven medical men first elected to these positions in the hospital were trustees of the college.
The foundation of the medical library of the hospital dates as far back as 1763. The first medical book possessed by it appears to have been a gift from that warm friend and generous benefactor of the institution, Dr. John Fothergill. It was the Materia Medica of Dr. William Lewis, London, 1761. “When the managers resolved to demand a fee for the privilege of attending the wards of the hospital, and consulted with the physicians in regard to the destination of the sum raised, these gentlemen, Thomas Bond, Phineas Bond, Cadwalader Evans, and Thomas Cadwalader, although having claims upon such gratuities, according to the custom of the
- ↑ In his “Travels in the United States” in 1788, this fact was thought by Brissot de Warville of sufficient importance to be particularly noted and published.
