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utility that would attend it, and the desire I had of presenting, as a tribute of gratitude to my alma mater, a full and enlarged plan for the institution of Medicine, in all its branches, in this seminary where I had part of my education, being amongst the first sons who shared in its public honours. I was further induced to it from a consideration, that private schemes of propagating knowledge are instable in their nature, and that the cultivation of useful learning can only be effectually promoted under those who are patrons of science, and under the authority and direction of men incorporated for the improvement of literature.
Should the trustees of the college think proper to found a professorship in Anatomy, Dr. Shippen having been concerned already in teaching that branch of medical science is a circumstance favourable to our wishes. Few here can be ignorant of the great opportunities he has had abroad of qualifying himself in Anatomy, and that he has already given three courses thereof in this city, and designs to enter upon a fourth course next Winter.
I propose in a few months to employ myself in giving a course of lectures on the Materia Medica, in which the pharmaceutic treatment of medicines, as well as their virtues, will be described, and the
