Page:Early History of Medicine in Philadelphia - George W Norris.djvu/64

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The Early History of Medicine in Philadelphia.

After leaving Paris he travelled through Italy, and while at Padua, called to pay his respects to the celebrated Morgagni, to whom he bore letters of introduction, and this venerable physician, says Rush, was so pleased with the doctor, that he claimed kindred with him from the resemblance of their names, and on the blank leaf of the folio edition of his works, which he presented to him, inscribed with his own hand the following words:—

"Affini suo, medico praeclarissimo, Johanni Morgan, donat Auctor."

From his MS. Journal, which is now before me, I extract the following interesting account of this visit. "He received me," says Morgan, "with the greatest politeness, and showed me abundant civilities with a very good grace. He is now eighty-two years of age, yet reads without spectacles, and is alert as a man of fifty. From his conversation, openness of behaviour, and winning disposition, I never talked with him that I did not think I was with my good Dr. Cullen. I found that he was unacquainted with anatomical preparations made by corrosion, and showed him a piece of a kidney which I had injected at Paris, and which was finely corroded, apologizing at the same time for the state it was in from having been

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