The gentlemen who were called upon to give their aid and counsel to this enterprise were among the most respectable in the community.[1] Five prominent physicians were members of the Board of Trustees in 1765, viz: Thomas Bond, Phineas Bond, Thomas Cadwalader, William Shippen, Sen., and John Redman. To such an organization was the proposal of Dr. Morgan submitted.[2]
Upon examining the records of the College and of the University, it will be found that for more than half a century medical men were admitted to participate in their government. No jealousy or suspicion appears to have been entertained towards them, and certainly it may be affirmed that medical men have as deep a stake in the prosperity of the schools as the representatives of other professions or occupations. Although the custom of electing members of the medical profession was for a time suspended, the return to it may be regarded as a happy omen, and the present honorable body may be congratulated upon the accession to its deliberations of such discreet and proper members as the medical gentlemen who now constitute a portion of its number.[3]
The impression which the arguments in his communication and his earnestness made upon the Board of Trustees, sustained by the letters from abroad which were submitted, prevailed with them to accede to Dr. Morgan’s propositions. The Trustees approved the scheme, and, as the minutes express it, “entertaining a high sense of Dr. Morgan’s abilities and the high honors paid to him by different learned bodies and societies in Europe, they unanimously elected him Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic.” The first medical professorship in America was thus created. The date of this event is May 3d, 1765.
- ↑ The Board has consisted since its commencement of twenty-four members.
- ↑ The history of the College of Philadelphia and of the University of Pennsylvania has been written by Dr. George B. Wood. It was published in vol. iii. Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. In addition to the trustees mentioned, Dr. Lloyd Zachary had been in the Board in 1749.
- ↑ The present (1868) medical gentlemen in the Board of Trustees arc Drs. Rene La Roche, George W. Norris, and George B. Wood.
