In the “Transactions of the American Philosophical Society,” printed in 1769, which contain the joint contributions of the two societies for the previous year, of twenty papers upon various interesting subjects eight pertain to medical science.[1]
The subsequent volumes contain many important and interesting medical communications, as well as others upon general science from members of the medical profession.
The other institution to which we must now allude, as filling a large space in the affections of the public, and quite as much dependent for its successful operation upon the medical profession as upon legislative or private aid, and whose annals in connection with the medical administration are blended with those of the University, is the Pennsylvania Hospital. It is not necessary to detail minutely the circumstances under which this noble charity sprung into existence. A professor of the University has accomplished the task of writing its history, and it may be said of this, as of all his literary labors, “nihil tetiget quod non ornavit.”[2] The fact on which we desire to dwell is that the instigation to meet the requirements of the sick and wounded indigent citizens of the increasing colony emanated from its most natural source, the medical profession, in the person of Thomas Bond, who, although most ably seconded by the suggestive mind of Benjamin Franklin, may be regarded, without disparagement to the benevolence and efficiency of the great philosopher, as the originator of the undertaking.
The physicians of the hospital first appointed were Lloyd Zachary, Thomas and Phineas Bond. To these were soon added Thomas Graeme, Thomas Cadwalader, Samuel Preston
- ↑ The small volume of Transactions to which reference is here made was the first published by the Society. It is of the small octavo size. A copy is not in the possession of the Society, whose first series of Transactions is a reprint in quarto form, not following the order of the original. We met with this original publication in the Philadelphia Library in connection with the “Pennsylvania Magazine” for 1769, edited by Lewis Nichola, and bound with it. The number in the catalogue is 1504 O. Apparently this early volume of Transactions had been lost sight of and forgotten.
- ↑ An address on the occasion of the Centennial Celebration of the Founding of the Pennsylvania Hospital, delivered June 10, 1851, by George B. Wood, M. D., published by the Board of Managers.
