AmAu|ust^mm*}      Teachers  of  Chemistry  in  America.  355 
of  Harvard,  the  most  conspicuous  for  progressiveness  was  the 
Academy,  later  known  as  the  College,  of  Philadelphia,  founded  by 
Benjamin  Franklin  in  1749.  The  Board  of  Trustees  of  this  institu- 
tion, in  1754,  elected  Mr.  William  Smith,  "  a  gentleman  lately  ar- 
rived from  London,"  to  teach  logic,  rhetoric,  ethics  and  natural 
philosophy. 
In  the  latter  department  he  was  assisted,  after  1758,  by  the  Rev. 
Dr.  John  Ewing,  who,  in  that  year,  was  elected  professor  of  natural 
and  experimental  philosophy. 
The  institution  of  medical  schools  necessitated  a  fuller  and  more 
exhaustive  exposition  of  what  was  then  known  of  medical  chemis- 
try. Dr.  John  Morgan,  the  founder  of  the  first  medical  school  in 
America,  was  also  the  first  to  teach  this  special  branch  of  chemis- 
try, or,  as  he  defines  it,  in  his  "  Discourse  on  the  Introduction  of 
Medical  Schools,"  "  pharmaceutic  chemistry,  that  branch  of  philo- 
sophic chemistry  which  regards  the  particular  properties  of  such 
bodies  as  are  appropriated  to  medicine." 
Dr.  Morgan  was  succeeded  in  the  chair  of  chemistry  by  Br. 
Benjamin  Rush,  who,  at  the  suggestion  of  John  Morgan,  had  paid 
special  attention  to  the  study  of  chemistry  while  abroad.  . 
Dr.  Rush  was  elected  professor  of  chemistry  in  the  College  of 
Philadelphia  in  1769.  While  it  cannot  be  said  that  Rush  was  the 
first  to  teach  chemistry  in  this  country,  he  was  probably  the  first  to 
teach  it  in  the  more  practical  or. demonstrative  way  that  was  being 
followed  in  the  larger  institutions  of  Europe.  On  his  return  from 
England  he  had  brought  with  him  "a  compleat  chymical  appa- 
ratus," the  gift  of  the  proprietor,  Thomas  Penn.  One  of  the  special 
qualifications  that  fitted  him  to  teach  this  branch  in  the  newly 
established  medical  school  was  that  he  had  seen  every  important 
chemical  experiment  carried  out  at  least  twice,  and  felt  assured  that 
he  could  duplicate  them  on  his  return. 
Dr.  Rush  continued  as  professor  of  chemistry  until  after  the 
breaking  out  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  when  the  courses  of  lectures 
in  the  medical  department  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia  were,  for 
the  time  being,  discontinued. 
In  1768,  the  year  before  the  appointment  of  Dr.  Rush  as  pro- 
fessor of  chemistry  in  Philadelphia,  Dr.  James  Smith  was  appointed 
professor  of  chemistry  and  materia  medica  in  the  medical  school  of 
Kings  County,  New  York.    Dr.  Smith  had  studied  at  Leyden,  and 
