CHAPTER VI.
From a comparison of the course of instruction in the College of Philadelphia, from the time of its inception to that of its complete organization, with that of the University of Edinburgh, there can be no doubt that this distinguished school was taken as the model for imitation.
The individuals who composed the medical faculty of the College, the first occupants of the chairs, were graduates of the Edinburgh school, and had unavoidably acquired an affection and preference for its system of instruction. They were familiar with all its details and methods; and on assuming their positions the bright days of their student life were vivid in their memories. Regarding with reverence and enthusiastic admiration the men who had been their preceptors, it was most natural that these zealous colonial students should desire to transfer to their native shores the peculiar doctrines that had been inculcated, as well as the stores of learning of which they had been the recipients.
But further, between our own school and that of Edinburgh the parallelism is so close as to be worthy of particular attention; indeed, the resemblance can only be explained by the laws of descent which mould the features of the child like those of the parent, and impart similar moral and mental characteristics. The medical school of Philadelphia may be said to be the legitimate offspring of that of Edinburgh. The latter had its origin with the Scotch students in attendance upon the lectures of the University of Leyden, who forty years previously were actuated by the same motives which prompted the American students, while abroad, to the projection of their enterprise.
We are told by Dr. Fothergill that “there had long been
