76 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



bunglers, except as he himself chooses to make much 

 of his diploma.* 



In America every man who drives the curing trade 

 is known without distinction as Doctor, as elsewhere 

 every person who makes verses is a poet so there are 

 both black doctors and brown, and quacks in abun- 

 dance.f 



Since this University lies nearer the West Indies 

 than any of the European universities, it is hoped that 

 young students from thence will now resort to Phila- 

 delphia rather than take the longer way to England. 

 But this will probably not come about at once. In the 

 University building there is a collection of books 

 neither large nor complete, containing however several 



* " In a quarrel of the Connecticut Doctors with the hud- 

 dlers and quacks of the colony, it was the purpose of the 

 Doctors to allow no ungraduated person, unless first exam- 

 ined by them, to visit the sick or to prescribe medicines. The 

 Assembly of the province declared against the Doctors, call- 

 ing their Association a monopoly which was enriching the 

 learned. To the reply of the Doctors the Assembly, of 1766, 

 returned no answer but the following: 'Medicine can effect 

 nothing without the blessing of God. The quacks do not pre- 

 scribe unless a minister has first prayed for a blessing, whereas 

 the Doctors ascribe all the good to the medicine and none to 

 the blessing prayed for.' Every person, as before, had the 

 liberty of healing disease." Vid., Beytr'dg. zur Lander und 

 Volkerkunde (Neuest Zustand von Connecticut), II, 197. 



f According to late advices, the physicians of Philadelphia 

 have come together in a society (after the manner of the 

 London and Edinburg Colleges of Physicians), the chief 

 object of which will be to contribute to the diffusion of medi- 

 cal knowledge through the publishing of their observations 

 and discussions. The same has happened in New York, and 

 perhaps the good example will be followed by the physicians 

 of the other states. 



