Sect. V.] Materia Medica. 19 



pointed professor of Botany^ and of the Materia 

 Medica; and in 17^9 Dr. Benjamin Rusli, who 

 had just completed his medical studies in Europe, 

 was chosen professor of Chemistry. To these gen- 

 tlemen was added Dr. Thomas Bond, wdio was 

 selected to give Clinical Lectures on the cases of 

 disease in the Pennsylvania hospital. The first 

 American medical school, thus organised, became 

 the resort of students from every part of the then 

 colonies : it has since undergone considerable 

 changes, by the death and resignation of profes- 

 sors, and new appointments 5 but continues to 

 flourish; and will now bear a very honourable 

 comparison, at least wath regard to the talents and 

 learning of its professors, with the most respecta- 

 ble institutions of a similar kind in Europe. 



In 1764 Dr. Shippen lectured to ten students. 

 In the season of 1801-2 the number of students 

 attending the different medical professors amount- 

 ed to one hundred and ttiirty, of whom twenty- 

 one were admitted to the degree of doctor of phy- 

 sic. 



The laudable example set by the physicians and 

 college of Philadelphia soon excited the zeal of 

 the physicians of New York to establish a medical 

 school in King's College: accordingly, in 1767 a 

 letter v/as addressed to the governors of that insti- 

 tution, by Drs. Samuel Clossey, Peter Middleton, 

 John Jones, James Smith, Samuel Bard, and John 

 V. B. Tennent, urging the propriety and impor- 

 tance of attempting to form a plan of medical in- 

 struction, and offering their services for carrying it 

 mto effect. In consequence of this letter the go- 



G2 



