the board at a special meeting, accompanied with a written proposal from Dr. Morgan, "setting forth his plan of opening medical schools under the patronage

search after knowledge, in all the branches necessary for the practice of his profession, and has gained such esteem and love from persons of the first rank in it, that as they very much approve his plan, they will from time to time, as he assures us, give him their countenance and assistance in the execution of it. We are made acquainted with what is proposed to be taught, and how lectures may be adopted by you, and since the like systems have brought much advantage to every plan where they have been received, and such learned and eminent men speak favourably of the Doctor's plan, I could not but in the most kind manner recommend him to you, and desire that he may be well received, and what he has to offer be taken, with all becoming respect and expedition, into your most serious consideration, and if it shall be thought necessary to go into it, and thereupon to offer professorships, that he may be taken into your service.

"When you have heard him, and duly considered what he has to lay before you, you will be best able to judge in what manner you can serve the public, the institution, and the particular design now recommended to you.

"I am, gentlemen,

"Your affectionate friend,
"THOMAS PENN.

"LONDON, February 15th, 1765.”

and government of the College, and intimating his desire to be appointed professor of the theory and practice of physic." The trustees approved the scheme, and, “entertaining a high sense of Dr. Morgan's abilities, and the honours paid to him by different learned bodies and societies in Europe," unanimously appointed him to the office for which he applied. The date of this event, the 3d of May, 1765, is deserving of commemoration, as the birth-day, in America, of that system of medical education, which has been carried to such high perfection, and has so powerfully tended to advance the profession in knowledge, reputation, and usefulness.

In the following September, Dr. Wm. Shippen, upon application to the board, was unanimously chosen professor of anatomy and surgery. Dr. Adam Kuhn was afterwards made professor of botany and materia medica, and Dr. Benjamin. Rush, of chemistry. This last appointment was preceded by a letter from the proprietors to the trustees, written at the request of Dr. Fothergill, recommending

Dr. Rush to their notice as an expert chemist, and requesting their acceptance of a suitable chemical apparatus. At the same time that instruction was given to the students by these gentlemen in their respective branches, a course of clinical lectures was delivered by Dr. Thomas Bond, in the Pennsylvania Hospital.

In the year 1767, a system of rules was adopted, necessary for the proper organization of this new school. Two grades of medical honours were established, corresponding with those in the department of the arts and sciences. The qualifications for the first degree, or that of Bachelor in Medicine, were a competent acquaintance with the Latin language, and with those branches of mathematics and natural philosophy which were deemed necessary prerequisites to a good medical education; the serving of a sufficient apprenticeship with some reputable practitioner of physic; a general knowledge of pharmacy; and finally, an attendance upon at least one complete course of lectures, and on the practice of the hospital for one year. To

obtain the degree of Doctor of Medicine, it was necessary that the applicant should have been a Bachelor of Medicine for at least three years, should have attained the age of twenty-four, should write a thesis, and, except in cases of absence abroad, or in some distant part of the colonies, should defend this thesis publicly in the College. It will be perceived that this system differs materially from that now in operation; and the modern has, in several respects, a decided advantage. Perhaps it would have been well to preserve that regulation which demanded a previous knowledge of the Latin language, the neglect of which is too common among medical students of the present day.

The first medical commencement was held on the 21st of June, 1768, when the following gentlemen received their bachelor's degree:-John Archer of Newcastle. County, Benjamin Cowell of Bucks, Samuel Duffield and Jonathan Potts of Philadelphia, Jonathan Elmer of New Jersey, Humphrey Fullerton of Lancaster County, David Jackson of Chester County, John

Lawrence of East Jersey, James Tilton of Kent County on Delaware, and Nicholas Way of Wilmington.

Such was the origin of a school, which, by the talents and industry of its successive teachers, has attained a station little inferior to that of the most celebrated in Europe; which has for a long time diffused medical knowledge, in copious streams, over the whole of this widely extended country, and given birth to numerous similar institutions, emulous of their parent school in honour and usefulness; which, while it affords to its officers a dignity in rank and an affluence in subsistence beyond any other private association on the continent, at the same time imparts to the city in which it is located, a degree of prosperity and reputation which the most sanguine of its founders never ventured to anticipate from its operations.