Page:A History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania.djvu/51

of different kinds calculated to spread the light of knowledge through the whole American continent wherever inhabited.”^[1]

It is worthy of note that at the time this was uttered the population of the city of Philadelphia was about twenty-five thousand, and of the colonies in the aggregate less than three millions.^[2]

In September following the appointment of Dr. Morgan, Dr. Shippen was, on application to the Board, unanimously elected the Professor of Anatomy and Surgery.^[3] The application for this position was thus expressed:—

“To the Trustees of the College, etc.:

“The institution of Medical Schools in this country has been a favorite object of my attention for seven years past, and it is three years since I proposed the expediency and practicability of teaching medicine in all its branches in this city in a public oration read at the State House, introductory to my first course of Anatomy.

“I should long since have sought the patronage of the Trustees of the College, but waited to be joined by Dr. Morgan, to whom I first communicated my plan in England, and who promised to unite with me in every scheme we might think necessary for the execution of so important a point. I

1. A Discourse upon the Institution of Medical Schools in America, delivered at a Public Anniversary Commencement, held in the College of Philadelphia, May 30 and 31, 1765, with a Preface, containing, amongst other things, the Author’s Apology for Introducing the Regular Mode of Practising Physic in Philadelphia. By John Morgan, M. D., &c., and Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the College of Philadelphia. Printed and sold by William Bradford: 1765. A review of this Discourse will be found in the North American Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. iv. p. 362, written by Prof. Charles D. Meigs, M. D.
2. In his work upon Yellow Fever, Dr. La Roche has given the data from which this conclusion is drawn. Mr. Thomas Smedley makes the same statement. The population of the city of Philadelphia, in 1760, was 18,756; and in 1769 it was 28,042. The rate of increase was then about one thousand annually.—A Complete Atlas of the City of Philadelphia, 1862.
3. At a meeting (special) of the Board of Trustees, held September 23d, 1765, the following minute was made: “Dr. William Shippen, Jr., applied by letter as follows,” &c.