438 JOSEPH LEIDY. 



he made such good use of the opportunity for studying the nature of 

 various drugs, and in compounding medicines, that the proprietor 

 recommended the boy as being competent to take charge temporarily 

 of the retail drug-store of a customer. 



This success led him to consider seriously the advisability of becom- 

 ing an apothecary. All this time he had continued his natural history 

 studies, and by the dissection of a few cats, chickens, etc., he devel- 

 oped such an interest in comparative anatomy that his step-mother de- 

 cided that Joseph should become neither an artist nor a druggist, hut 

 a physician. Having decided upon the study of medicine, he gave his 

 first year to the study of practical anatomy, and under the preceptor- 

 ship of Doctors Paul B. Goddard and James McClintock took three 

 full courses of medical lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, re- 

 ceiving in the spring of 1844 the degree of Doctor of Medicine, his 

 thesis being an admirable essay on " The Comparative Anatomy of the 

 Eye of Vertebrated Animals." He now entered upon the active prac- 

 tice of medicine, and at the same time was appointed Assistant to the 

 Chair of Chemistry in the University. He also assisted Dr. Goddard, 

 the Demonstrator of Anatomy. 



At the end of two years he gave up the practice of medicine in order 

 that he might devote himself entirely to study aud teaching. His skill 

 in anatomy was so great that he was appointed Prosector to the Chair 

 of Anatomy by Professor Horner. In 1846 he was elected Demonstra- 

 tor of Anatomy in the Franklin Medical College, which position he held 

 for one year and then resigned to return to the University, where 

 he was again associated with Professor Horner. He also gave private 

 courses in anatomy. In the spring of 1848 he accompanied Dr. Hor- 

 ner to Europe, in the fall gave a course of lectures on Histology, and 

 in the following spring lectured on Physiology at the Medical In- 

 stitute. This constant application affected his health so that he was 

 obliged to abandon all work for some months. In 1850 he went abroad 

 with Dr. George B. Wood to make a collection of models, drawings, 

 etc., with which to illustrate Dr. Wood's course of lectures on Medi- 

 cine. This trip was of very great value to Dr. Leidy, as it enabled 

 him to visit all the great museums of Europe, and to make the ac- 

 quaintance of such distinguished anatomists and physiologists as Owen, 

 Majendie, Hyrtl, Johannes Muller, and others. He returned from 

 this trip with renewed health, and in 1851 resumed his anatomical 

 work at the University. 



During this year he was elected a member of the College of Phy- 

 sicians aud appointed Pathologist to St. Joseph's Hospital. In the 



