in Second Street above Walnut, on the back part of the lot which faces Dock Street. The Bank of Pennsylvania subsequently occupied the site. With respect to these lectures, Dr. Wistar remarks: “I suppose that the anatomy of that day, as well as of the present, enjoyed the honorable protection of literature, and that the dissections were made under the auspices of the most profound scholar of Pennsylvania, the President, James Logan, founder of the Loganian Library.” “This probably was the first business of the kind ever done in Philadelphia.”[1]
Credit is likewise to be awarded to Dr. William Hunter, of Newport, Rhode Island, a native of Scotland, and a relative of the celebrated Hunters, who, upon settling in America, gave lectures upon anatomy in 1754, ’55, ’56. As Dr. Cadwalader had been established in Philadelphia some time before the year 1751, at which date he was appointed one of the physicians of the hospital, and gave his lectures upon his return from Europe, the probability is in favor of his having first entered upon this branch of teaching.
Dr. William Shippen, Jr., the son of Dr. Shippen already mentioned, who had recently returned from Europe, commenced a course of anatomy in 1762. In the “Pennsylvania Gazette,” November 25, 1762, is the following announcement: “Dr. Shippen’s Anatomical Lectures will begin to-morrow evening, at six o’clock, at his father’s house in Fourth Street. Tickets for the course to be had of the Doctor, at five Pistoles each, and any gentlemen who incline to see the subject prepared for the lectures and learn the art of Dissecting, Injections, &c., are to pay five Pistoles more.”
The Introductory to this course of lectures was delivered in one of the large apartments of the State House, and many of the gentlemen of Philadelphia heard it with pleasure. The number of students who attended his lectures was twelve. Dr. Wistar, in his Eulogium upon Dr. Shippen, after the preceding statement, adds, “Such was the origin of our medical school.” Three courses of this private character were delivered.
- ↑ Wistar’s Eulogy upon Dr. Shippen, Jr.
