attending in the summer season the lectures of a celebrated accoucheur, Dr. McKenzie, which were delivered near St. Thomas’s Hospital. As he removed to this neighborhood, we may suppose it was in consequence of the practical advantages afforded by proximity to the poor, as Dr. William Hunter was then at the height of his reputation as a teacher and practitioner of Midwifery.[1] He next proceeded to Edinburgh, where he graduated in the spring of 1761. His thesis was entitled “De Placentæ cum utero nexu.” This production evinces a continued interest in obstetrical studies. He afterwards travelled in France, where he formed an intimate acquaintance with Senac and other physicians of Paris.
Dr. Shippen, as has been stated, went to Europe in 1757, where he remained until 1762, while Dr. Morgan arrived there in 1760, and returned to this country in 1765. They were therefore together between one and two years in Europe. As these two zealous and enthusiastic young men, natives of the same city and imbued with the same aspirations, were treading abroad the same ground of preparation for their calling, it is natural to conceive that they should have possessed similar sentiments with respect to the urgent wants of their common country—that they should have conferred with those interested in the subject, and that the scheme of establishing, on this side of the Atlantic, systematic medical education, which was subsequently put into operation, was there entertained by both of them. In support of this opinion, Dr. Rush may be quoted, who, in his account of Dr. John Morgan, states “that it was during his absence from home that he concerted with Dr. Shippen the plan of establishing a Medical School in this city,” meaning Philadelphia.[2] From the testimony hereafter presented it is clear that Dr. Rush was perfectly conversant with all the transactions connected with the origin of the medical school. Dr. Shippen paved the
