of the College was abrogated, its officers removed, and its property transferred to a new institution. This decree of the Legislature had been anticipated by authoritative interposition.[1]
From the Minutes of June 1st, 1779, we learn that Mr. John Foulke was examined for the Bachelor’s Degree, but after the mandamus was issued, the Commencement was interdicted by the President of the Executive Council of the State. This was the beginning of the difficulty which eventuated in the action of the Legislature above referred to. Still, the movement must have been more sudden than was expected, inasmuch as we find the following notice in the “Pennsylvania Gazette”:—
“College of Philadelphia, October 24, 1779. The Lectures on the different branches of Medicine will begin on the first Monday of December.”
The institution which superseded the College of Philadelphia was entitled the “University of the State of Pennsylvania,” to which were given more extended educational privileges and larger endowment.[2] The Trustees at once directed attention to the Medical Department in common with others, and it appears from the Minutes of the Board that on December 8th, 1779, it was—
“Resolved, that Dr. Shippen, sen., Dr. Bond, and Dr. Hutchinson be a Committee to inquire into the state of the late Medical School, as it stood in the late College, and what is the establishment thereof in Foreign Universities; and to digest a plan, for the consideration of the Board, for establishing the school on the most respectable footing. That the said Com-
- ↑ For an exposition of the circumstances which led to this act on the part of the Legislature, and for the full discussion of the merits of the transaction, we must refer to the History of the University of Pennsylvania by George B. Wood, M. D., in the 3d vol. of Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pa. Also to the Pa. Gazette, March and April, 1788, for a Remonstrance against the Act of Assembly of 1779 and an exposition of the origin of the College. In the same paper are “Reasons for abrogating the Charter of the College from Minutes of the Council of Censors,” August and September, 1784. Also an Exposition of the Controversy between the College and the University, March, 1789.
- ↑ We have seen a diploma of Bachelor of Medicine of 1785, in which the title University of Philadelphia is used. The title stated in the text is given in the Book of Charters and Statutes.
