6  John  Morgan.  {^AZl^S^ 
Philadelphia,  as  well  as  his  personal  friends  were  first  broached  or 
consulted  as  to  the  feasibility  or  desirability  of  such  an  innovation. 
On  his  return  to  London  Morgan  visited  a  number  of  the  friends 
of  the  institution  and  secured  from  them  letters  of  commendation 
for  his  plan  of  medical  instruction. 
Soon  after  his  arrival  in  Philadelphia  he  proposed  his  plan  for 
connecting  a  medical  school  with  the  College  of  Philadelphia  to  the 
Board  of  Trustees  and  also  intimated  that  he  was  desirous  of  being 
appointed  professor  of  the  theory  and  practice  of  medicine.  The 
project,  ably  presented  and  liberally  endorsed  by  the  Proprietor  of 
the  Province  and  other  friends  of  the  institution  abroad,  was  unani- 
mously adopted,  and  on  the  third  day  of  May,  1765,  John  Morgan 
was  duly  appointed  Professor  of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Physic 
in  the  College  of  Philadelphia,  the  first  chair  of  medicine  in  a  regu- 
lar chartered  college  in  America. 
At  the  succeeding  commencement,  on  May  30th  and  31st  of  the 
same  year,  Dr.  Morgan  delivered  his  discourse  or  defence  of  his 
proposed  plan  of  education  before  a  representative  gathering  of 
medical  men,  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  and  other 
friends  of  the  institution. 
This  discourse,  while  it  elicited  commendation  in  some  directions, 
was  severely  criticised  in  others.  Morgan  was  accused  of  trying  to 
transplant  into  a  new  country,  ideas  that  were  only  suited  to  Con- 
tinental practice  and  not  at  all  adapted  or  adaptable  to  conditions  in 
America. 
The  stand  taken  by  Morgan  at  that  time  was,  it  is  true,  a  revolu- 
tionary one  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  then  medical  practitioners. 
For  Morgan,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  essential  to  be  consistent 
with  his  training  and  his  accomplishments. 
To  digress  for  a  moment,  it  is  unfortunate  indeed  that  this  little 
pamphlet,  the  first  and  one  of  the  most  valuable  of  American  medi- 
cal classics,  is  not  more  available  at  the  present  time,  as  much  of  the 
contained  material  would  be  well  worth  bringing  to  the  attention  of 
medical  students  and  medical  practitioners  of  the  present  time. 
Much  of  the  credit  for  the  high  ethical  stand  taken  by  this  first 
Professor  of  Medicine  is  no  doubt  due  to  Benjamin  Franklin,  whose 
letters  of  introduction  secured  for  Morgan  the  friendship  and  patron- 
age of  men  at  the  very  head  of  their  profession  in  Europe.  The 
advantage,  in  a  professional  way,  of  not  dispensing  medicines,  was 
