Sect. III.] United States of America. 265 



mind, which are equally honourable to their pos- 

 sessor, and to his country. Should his life and 

 health be spared, he bids fair to attain a place 

 among the most accomplished scientific natura- 

 lists of the nineteenth century. 



In the science of Medicine^ America has pre- 

 sented specimens of learnii g and talents of the 

 most honourable kind. It may be questioned 

 whether this science is cultivated more zealously 

 or more successfully in any part of the world than 

 in America; or whether any medical school in 

 Europe furnishes, on the whole, greater advan- 

 tages to the student than that of Philadelphia*. 

 The spring which was given to the study of me- 

 dicine within the last ten years of the eighteenth 

 centur}', in the United States, deserves to be no- 

 ticed as very remarkable. This was effected, not 

 only by the writings of several distinguished 

 physicians of America, among whom Dr. Rush 

 holds the first place, and to whom medical sci- 

 ence in that country owes a large debt of gra- 

 titude ; but also, and perhaps more especialh^, 

 by the unprecedented frequenc}^ with which it 

 has been visited, during this period, by pestilen- 

 tial diseases, which have roused tli^ attention 

 and called forth the talents of its physician?, 



* It is not contended, that the advantages to be enjoyed in the 

 medical school at Philadelphia are equal to those furnished by 

 the clinical lectures and practice, in the numerous and large 

 hoi<pitals of London, and the still more numerous courses of lec- 

 tures, delivered by private instructors in that city. It is onlv 

 meant to be asserted, that no regular medical school, connected 

 with any university of Europe, offers to the student better means 

 of medical instruction than those which may be enjoyed in Phi- 

 ladelphia. 



