Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/312

hope assured success." u At the meeting of 23 September following a letter from his friend Shippen was read, applauding their action in so promptly meeting Dr. Morgan's views and scheme and stating to them "a Professorship of Anatomy and Surgery would be gratefully accepted by him," to which they unanimously appointed him. Thus were the two friends united in a congenial work in a public institution, fulfilling their plans as they talked them over during the interval of their Edinburgh studies. William Shippen, an alumnus of Princeton in 1754,^ had not the claim, though a Philadelphian, upon the College and the Academy of this city that its own John Morgan had, who- came with his proposition endorsed by the highest civil influence known to the province. The location of Morgan's Alma Mater in the largest city of the colonies enabled it to utilize his prac- tical schemes and secure for itself the honorable distinction o organizing a Medical Department in advance of other kin- dred institutions ; but Shippen contributed ideas from his own well stored brain and trained mind, thoughts and sug- gestions which helped to nourish the new Department, and it was but just that Princeton should furnish its second Pro- fessor. Dr. Morgan tells us when he returned from Europe, he departed from the customary practice, and was the first physician who restricted himself to simply prescribing for the sick. And he writes : As far as I can learn everybody approves of my plan for instituting medical schools, and I have the honor of being appointed a public pro- fessor for teaching physic in the College here. Can any man, the least acquainted with the nature of that arduous task, once imagine it possible 14 A Discourse Upon the Institution of Medical Schools in America ; Deliv- ered at a Public Anniversary Commencement held in the College of Philadelphia, May 30 and 31, 1765. With a Preface Containing among other things the Author's Apology for attempting to introduce the regular mode of practising physic in Phila- delphia. By John Morgan, M. D. : Fellow of the Royal Society at London Correspondent of the Royal Academy of Surgery at Paris ; Member of the Arcadian Belles Lettres Society at Rome ; Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in London and in Edinburgh; and Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the College of Philadelphia. Philadelphia : Printed and Sold by William Bradford at the corner of Market and Front Streets MDCCLXV. 15 And a classmate there of Provost Ewing.