allowed to notice a few circumstances, connected with the earliest period of its history.* of detail, and all the pains-taking accuracy characteristic of its author, Jos. Carson, M.D., now Professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy in the University.-Note to the edition of 1872. * The following extract of a letter from James Logan to Colonel Hunter, Governor of New York, dated 5th month 1st, 1717-18, contains the earliest account we have seen of a proposition to deliver medical lectures in Philadelphia. The individual referred to was Dr. Colden. "All I know of that bill is only this. He came to me one day, to desire my opinion of a proposal to get an Act of Assembly for an allowance to him as physician for the poor of this place. I told him I thought very well of the thing, but doubted whether it could be brought to bear in the House. Not long after, R. Hill showed me a bill for this purpose, put into his hands by the governor, with two farther provisions in it, which were, that a public physical lecture should be held in Philadelphia, to the support of which every unmarried man, above the age of twenty-one years, should pay six shillings and eight-pence or an English crown yearly, and that the corpses of all persons whatever that died here, should be visited by an appointed physician, who should receive for his trouble three shillings and fourpence. These things I owned were very commendable, but doubted our Assembly would never go into them, that of the lecture especially.” By a letter from Dr. William Shippen to the Board of Trustees, written in September, 1765, it appears that the institution of a medical school in this city had long been a favourite object with him, and that in an introductory lecture to a course of anatomy, delivered three years previously to the date of the letter, he had publicly announced his belief in the expediency and practicability of the measure. Having, when in England, communicated his plan to Dr. John Morgan,* who was then prosecuting his medical studies in that country, he had resolved to postpone any attempt to carry it into effect, till the return of that gentleman should afford an opportunity of securing his cooperation. In the mean time, however, Dr. Morgan had interested in favour of the project several influential individuals in England; and it was proposed that a school of medicine should be engrafted on the Philadelphia College, the pro * The gentleman already mentioned among the first graduates of the College. fessors to be appointed, and the degrees to be conferred, as in the other department. Among those who exhibited the strongest interest in the affair were Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Peters, former presidents of the board, at that time residing in Great Britain, and Thomas Penn, the proprietary of Pennsylvania; from all of whom Dr. Morgan, on his return to Philadelphia, brought letters to the trustees, strongly advising the adoption of his plan, and recommending the Doctor himself to their choice, as one of the professors.* These letters were presented to * The following is the letter from Mr. Penn, extracted from the minutes of the Board of Trustees. "Dr. Morgan has laid before me a proposal for introducing new professorships into the College, for the instruction of all such as shall incline to go into the study and practice of physic and surgery, as well as the several occupations attending upon these necessary and useful arts. He thinks his scheme, if patronized by the trustees, will at present give reputation and strength to the institution, and though it may for some time occasion a small expense, yet after a little while it will gradually support itself, and even make considerable additions to the Academy funds. “Dr. Morgan has employed his time in an assiduous |