Several of the medical professors took their place as medical officers of the army. Morgan and Shippen successively acted in the capacity of Medical Director-General during the Revolution, and Rush as Medical Director of the Middle Department. The latter was also a member of the Congress which signed the Declaration of Independence.[1] The account of the services rendered by the Medical Professors as well as by the members of the Profession generally, may be gathered from the biographies which have been given us of the most eminent physicians and surgeons of the period. Two of the graduates, of the Class of 1768 and 1771, of the College were useful and distinguished physicians of the Hospital Department of the American Army, viz., Jonathan Potts and James Tilton. An estimate may be formed of the difficulties encountered by the army physicians and surgeons from the transcript of part of a letter written by the former of these gentlemen, Dr. Potts, who was Director for the Northern Department.
“The distressing situation of the sick here is not to be described; without clothing, without bedding, or a shelter sufficient to screen them from the weather, I am sure your known humanity will be affected when I tell you we have at present upwards of one thousand sick, crowded into sheds, and laboring under the various and cruel disorders of Dysentery, Bilious, Putrid Fevers, and the effects of a Confluent Small Pox. To attend this large number we have four surgeons and four mates, exclusive of myself, and our little shop doth not afford a grain of Jalap, Ipecacuanha, Bark, Salts, Opium, and sundry other capital articles, and nothing of the kind to be had in this quarter. In this dilemma our inventions are exhausted for succedaneums; but we shall go on doing the best we can in hopes of speedy supply.”
This letter was addressed to the Director-General.[2]
The spirit which actuated these gentlemen in the cause of
- ↑ Dr. Rush was elected to Congress after the Declaration of Independence, for the express purpose of signing it.
- ↑ It is among the papers of Dr. Potts, in the collection of the Historica Society of Pennsylvania.
he thus saved the archives from which we have been enabled to compile much of our information.
