Page:A History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania.djvu/35

 

CHAPTER III.

 

Commencement of medical teaching in America—Dr. Cadwalader’s lectures on anatomy in Philadelphia—Dr. Hunter’s lectures at Newport— Dr. Shippen, Jr., opens an anatomical school—Dr. Fothergill’s contributions for teaching anatomy—Dr. John Morgan, his education and early labors—Dr. Shippen’s education and studies—Dr. Morgan submits his plan of a medical school to the trustees of the college.

It has been stated that the medical men who first settled in the Province of Pennsylvania came with their countrymen from Europe, and that into their offices or shops apprentices were received, to be trained in a knowledge of the healing art. It was well understood, however, that the highest grade of medical acquirement could not be derived from the resources alone of private practitioners, no matter how well informed they might be, or versed in the every-day application of science to the demands that were made upon their skill; and hence the resort, on the part of the rising generation, to prominent seats of instruction abroad.

The return of these youthful travelled aspirants was hailed with pleasure by their friends and fellow-citizens. The acquirements additionally gained by them from a visit to Europe afforded promise of a life of usefulness and distinction. They were believed to be conversant with the latest discoveries and improvements, and the exponents of the progressive attainment of the age. To their preceptors they returned with interest the debt of gratitude for early instruction, becoming in turn the teachers whose field of enterprise and labor lay in diffusing the results of their studies and inquiries. In exemplification it may be stated, that Dr. Cadwalader, who had studied anatomy in London under the guidance of the celebrated Cheselden, gave demonstrations to the physicians of Philadelphia, when he settled himself among them. It is interesting to know, that the place of delivery of these lectures was