The Early History of Medicine in Philadelphia.
not cultivated in France, until a short period prior to their Revolution; it will be evident that the teachers of our school and hospital, and the practitioners who encouraged and supported them, were not only awake to the advance and improvements in the healing art, but also quick to adopt the good practices of Europe.[1]
- ↑ In 1725 there were but three hospitals in the city of London for the sick and lame, St. Bartholomew's, St. Thomas's, and Guy's. The latter was founded only in 1722. St. George's was founded in 1733. The London Hospital in 1740; and the Middlesex in 1750. Until 1729, when the Surgeons and Physicians opened a house for the reception of poor patients, no hospital existed in Edinburg, and the Royal Infirmary there was not founded until the year 1736.
The first Clinical Schools were established in Italy about the middle of the sixteenth century; but there appears to have been no clinical teaching of much note till the time of Boerhaave, who acquired great renown by it. In 1753, Van Swieten opened a clinical hospital at Vienna, and was followed by De Haen, Stoll, and Hildenbrand. Dr. Rutherford introduced the system to Edinburg, and is stated to have been the first who gave clinical instruction in Great Britain. He was succeeded by Cullen and others. In France, it was not till the year 1794 that there was any clinical organization, when Desault and Corvisart were made the first professors. Dr. Taylor[2] states that clinical lectures were not delivered in London until the commencement of the present century. After their introduction they appear to have been discontinued, for Dr. Billing informs us "that at the time he adopted the practice in 1822, there were none given in London."
Otley, in his life of Hunter,[3] mentions that up to the time of Dr. William Hunter (1745), lecturers on Anatomy in Great Britain "had been accustomed to employ but one subject for demonstrating all parts of the body, excepting the bones and arteries, which were described on preparations; and the nerves, for exhibiting which, a foetus was usually employed. Practical dissection was unknown to the great bulk of the profession. The lecturers of that time," says he, "treated in one course on a number of subjects sufficient to furnish matter for three or four distinct courses, according to our present system." Mr. Bromfield, a teacher of considerable note, comprised Anatomy and Surgery in a course of thirty-six lectures; and Dr. Nicholls, in whose school Dr. William Hunter studied, "taught Anatomy, Physiology, and general principles of Pathology and Midwifery in thirty-nine."
1 Spence, Edin. Med. Journ., vol. 10, page 489.
2 Introductory Lecture, Lancet, 1841-2, page 47.
3 The Works of John Hunter, by James P. Palmer, London, 1835, vol. 1, pp. 5 and 6.
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