4o6 TWING B. WIGGINS 



knowledge of men, was due the money obtained half by popular 

 subscription and half by vote of the assembly,which enabled 

 a house to be rented, and made ready for patients in February, 

 1752. The rules provided for the reception of acute cases only, 

 except the contagious, and that the city poor should be received 

 without charge, at least one bed should be provided for ac- 

 cidents that required immediate relief. Pay patients could 

 only be received after all charity cases were taken care of, and 

 such should be allowed to pay their own physician or surgeon. 

 The last three rules were to the effect that the patients may not 

 swear, curse, get drunk, behave rudely or indecently, on pain 

 of expulsion, that there should be no card playing or dicing, 

 and such patients as are able shall assist in nursing the others, 

 washing and ironing the linen and cleaning the rooms, and such 

 other services as the matron shall require. Rules not unlike 

 those in force to-day were drawn up, governing the appoint- 

 ment of physicians and their conduct. The managers retained 

 all power in their own hands, with the right of dismissal at any 

 time, although the services of the attendiuj.; physicians were 

 gratis, a custom which still prevails. 



Very soon, through the efforts of John Morgan and William 

 Shippen, Jr.jboth of good families and having the advantage of 

 several years' training in Europe, the medical department of 

 the College of Philadelphia was established, about ten years 

 before the Revolution, the pioneer medical college of this coun- 

 try. The college was to confer the bachelor's and the doctor's 

 degrees in medicine, but the former was soon abandoned. The 

 candidate for the bachelor 's degree, should, at matriculation, 

 show efficiency in the natural sciences and in Latin, during 

 his studies he should attend at least one course of lectures in 

 anatomy, materia medica, chemistry, the theory and practice 

 of physic, and one course in clinical lectures, and should attend 

 the practice of the Pennsylvania hospital for one year, after 

 which he should be admitted for examination for the degree. 

 He must further have served an apprenticeship with some 

 physician. For the doctor's degree the candidate must wait 

 three years, and write and defend a thesis. Morgan was chosen 

 for the chair of the theory and practice of medicine, Shippen 

 became professor of anatomy and surgery and to these were 



