1884.) 431 (Ruschenberger, 
The circumstance indicates his character as a student and at 
the same time Dr. Bache’s kind appreciation of his worth. 
Dr. Bridges graduated from the medical department of the 
University of Pennsylvania, March,1828. “ Neuralgia” was the 
subject of his thesis. 
He immediately opened an office at the south-east corner of 
Vine and Thirteenth streets, where he remained till 1837. He 
did not obtain a lucrative practice.. His mother died, February 
19, 1839, in the fifty-cighth year of her age, a loss generally 
among the saddest in man’s experience. 
A carefully prepared tabular record of 2099 cases of vacci- 
nation under his observation, between April 1, 1880, and May, 
1840, indicates that he was a vaccine physician of the south- 
western district of the city during ten years. An ordinance of 
January 2, 1830, divided the city into four districts, designated 
as the North-eastern, North-western, South-eastern and South- 
western Districts, and directed the Mayor to appoint a vaccine 
physician to each on the first Monday of January every year.* 
The Board of Health appointed Dr. Bridges, July 17, 1832, 
the cholera year, one of the attending physicians in the district 
which included the Eastern Penitentiary, then at the north- 
west corner of Broad and Arch streets. The work was ardu- 
ous. Entire nights were passed in the prison ministering to 
cholera patients. The remuneration for this perilous service 
was very small, 
Dr. Bridges was a constituent member of the Friday Even- 
ing Medical Club, which was formed in 1835 or’86, and ceased 
to exist about 1872. The meetings were held, in turn, at the 
houses of the members. The entertainment was limited to tea, 
coffee and biscuits. The object of the club was to promote 
social intercourse among members of the medical profession in 
the city. 
He was elected a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences 
of Philadelphia, January 1835; of the Franklin Institute, Jan- 
* Vaccine physicians were appointed in the Northern Liberties underan ordi- 
nance of May 15, 1820, and in Kensington, under an ordinance of December 4, 
1822, 
