[Original]
The Medical Department of King's College, New York, now Columbia College, was organized in 1767, by Clossey, an Irishman; Middleton, a Scotchman; James Smith, a graduate of Leyden; Tenant, an alumnus of Princeton College; and Bard, who was by far the most eminent of the group, a Philadelphian by birth, who had studied under the best masters in England.
The Medical Department of Harvard University was organized in 1783. Most prominent in connection with it was Dr. John Warren, the first teacher of anatomy and surgery, and the founder of a family of eminent medical men, whose descendant, Dr. J. Collins Warren, is to-day an occupant of the chair of surgery in the same school. The Medical Department of Dartmouth College was organized in 1798 by Dr. Nathan Smith,—a man of great energy and unusual versatility.
While these medical colleges were developing their strength the medical profession were not idle, and institutions and libraries sprang up in various places. The Pennsylvania Hospital, for instance, founded in 1762, is to be credited with the oldest medical library in this country, many of its volumes having been selected especially for it by Louis, of Paris, and the famous Lettsom, of London. It now contains nearly fifteen thousand volumes. The library of the New York Hospital, not quite so large, was founded in 1776; that of the College of Physicians, in Philadelphia, in 1788. The profession of New Jersey organized the State Medical Society in 1765. In 1781 was founded the Massachusetts Medical Society. In 1787 arose the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
In 1789 the profession of Maryland organized the so-called Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, constituting thereby the same organization as the societies of other States. Before the close of the century, Delaware, New Hampshire, and South Carolina had also organized societies. In the larger cities extensive hospitals were also founded,—the Pennsylvania Hospital, in Philadelphia, in 1751, inside of which the first clinical instruction in this country was given by Dr. Thomas Bond. The New York Hospital began in 1769, simultaneously with the organization of the Medical Department of King's College. The first insane-asylum in America was built at Williamsburgh, Va., in 1773, although the charter of the Pennsylvania Hospital, dated 1751, provided for the care of lunatics, though not at that time in a separate institution.
[Original]
The most conspicuous medical character of the century in American history was undoubtedly Benjamin Rush (1745-1813). He was one of Shippen's earliest students in anatomy, studied widely abroad, was a member of the Continental Congress, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. After him is named Rush Medical College of Chicago. He was an extensive writer on a variety of subjects, not only professional, but political, philosophical, etc. He recognized but two kinds of remedies,—stimulants and depressants,—and held it to be the principal duty of the physician to decide as to which were most advisable in a given case. He called calomel the "Samson" of the materia medica, and his opponents contended that he was right, since it had undoubtedly slain its thousands. As an accurate observer of disease, he was correct and exact, and his descriptions are to-day both classic and reliable.
The study of practical anatomy lias always been carried on in this country under great disadvantages. At first only the bodies of executed criminals were sparingly furnished.