CHAPTER VII.
The fortunes of our medical school, for twenty years after the organization of the faculty in 1769, were checkered and unequal. An intermission of Dr. Morgan’s lectures took place in the winter of 1772-73, in consequence of his absence in the West Indies, whither he had been sent by the Board of Trustees to collect funds for the College. At this time the medical class had increased to between thirty and forty students. But soon the disordered condition of society, attendant upon the Revolution, disturbed the quiet flow of scientific pursuits, and led to the suspension or to the serious embarrassment of academic establishments on the American Continent. In illustration it may be stated that the Professors of the College of Philadelphia applied to the “Council of Safety” for relief from their annoyances, informing it “that the Schools were interfered with and inconvenienced by the occupation of the grounds and buildings by soldiers, who did much injury to the property.”[1]
In the years 1776 and 1777, the lectures upon anatomy were wholly suspended in the College, and afterwards necessarily shorter than usual, and, as far as can be ascertained, the lectures on the other branches were either interrupted or but partially given.[2] The occupation of the city by the British in the autumn of 1777 was the occasion of the removal of the effects of the College, which, as far as possible, were secured privately by the professors.[3]
