401 



impression on the medical opinions of his countrymen, and his ardor, 

 fervor, and faith, were irresistible with his students. 



Upon his graduation in the spring of 1800, Chapman presented 

 an inaugural thesis on Hydrophobia, written at the request of Rush, 

 in answer to an attack on the Professor's favorite theory of the 

 pathology of that disease. He had previously prepared an essay on 

 the sympathetic connections of the stomach with the rest of the 

 body. This paper, afterwards read before the Philadelphia Medical 

 Society, contained the germs of Chapman's doctrines, regarding the 

 pathology of fever, as well as the 7nodus operandi of medicines. 



During his pupilage, Chapman found leisure to contribute to peri- 

 odical literature. About this time " The Portfolio" was established, 

 under the editorship of the celebrated Dennie. Our young Doctor 

 wrote several articles for this journal, under the signature of Falk- 

 land. They refer chiefly to European politics, and are strongly 

 tinctured with the anti-Gallican and anti-Bonapartist views, which 

 then pervaded the Federal party of the country, of which the "Port- 

 folio" set were strong partisans. 



Chapman did not obtain the advantage of an hospital residence, 

 upon his graduation in Philadelphia. His friend and compatriot, 

 Hartshorne, was more fortunate. " Through the assistance of his 

 uncles (then influential managers of the Hospital), and of other 

 relatives, Hartshorne was enabled, in 1801, to secure an appoint- 

 ment to the post of Resident Apprentice and Apothecary, then 

 vacant in the Pennsylvania Hospital." But Chapman, destitute of 

 influence in these quarters, determined to seek the most celebrated 

 schools and hospitals of Europe, with the view to the completion of 

 his medical education. 



He remained abroad three years, nearly one of which he spent in 

 London, a private pupil of Abernethy's. This celebrated man had 

 great powers as a teacher, and an unrivalled faculty of impressing 

 the minds of his students. The founder of the Physiological School 

 of Surgery, and the author of a rational constitutional treatment of 

 surgical diseases, he carried his pathological views also into the do- 

 main of Medicine. Constitutional disorders, he maintained, either 

 originate from, or are allied with derangements of the stomach and 

 bowels, and can be reached only through these organs. These doc- 

 trines probably took no little hold of the mind of his young Ame- 

 rican pupil. They are traceable throughout his future teachings 

 and writings. 



There was something, moreover, congenial in the temperaments 



VOL. VII. — 3 B 



