The Early History of Medicine in Philadelphia.
Dr. Thomas Bond was born in Maryland, in 1712, and began his medical studies in that State under Dr. Hamilton, a learned practitioner of Calvert County, who had emigrated thence from Scotland in the year 1700. He afterwards travelled in Europe, and spent a considerable time in Paris, in attendance upon the lectures at the Hôtel-Dieu. Upon his return to America he settled in Philadelphia, and commenced business in 1734. Dr. Bond took high rank as a surgeon as well as a physician, and was distinguished for his skill in lithotomy. I find mention made of his having performed that operation successfully in the Pennsylvania Hospital as early as 1756,[1] and afterwards in 1759, '62, '65, '68, and many succeeding years. In 1765 it is mentioned that he cut three patients, and removed stones weighing one ounce and five drachms (a child aged seven), two and a half drachms, and another "of large size."
- ↑ This was the first case of stone operated on at the Penna. Hospital (October 29th, 1756), and was soon after the opening of this institution, during its location at Fifth and Market streets. The patient was "a female, from whom was extracted a stone of unusual size." In a report made to the American Medical Association (Transactions, vol. iv. p. 272), Dr. Paul F. Eve mentions that about the year 1760 Dr. Jones, of New York, first performed the operation of lithotomy in America. The first case of Dr. Bond was four years previous to this.
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