In 1788, in New York, occurred the celebrated "doctor's mob," which attested the vehemence of public objection to dissection, and which for two days defied the control of all the authorities. Secret dissections had been practiced in Harvard College so early as 1771, but the practice was against the law even for sixty years later in Massachusetts. Physiology, as such, was not taught in any medical school in this country during the century, and experimental physiology was practically unknown. Surgery was eagerly studied, especially during war times, and Dr. John Jones (1729-1791), of the King's College School, was, perhaps, the most eminent of the surgeons of his day. Others who vied with him were William Shippen, Jr., the first teacher of surgery in the College of Philadelphia; John Warren, of Boston; Richard Bayley, of Connecticut; Baynham, of Virginia; and McKnight, of New York.
The position of midwifery during the earlier years of the country may be, perhaps, understood by the following extract from the New York Weekly Post-Boy, of July, 1745:—
"Last night died, in the prime of life, to the almost universal regret and sorrow of this city, Mr. John du Puy, M.D., man-midwife," etc.
The first practitioner of obstetrics in New England was Dr. Lloyd (1723-1810), a pupil of Hunter and Smelley; while Dr. Shippen, in Philadelphia, endeavored to organize a school for the instruction of midwives, in which, however, he met with insuperable difficulties.
The first attempt to regulate practice in colonial times was an act passed by the General Assembly of 1760, providing for at least a form of examination in physic and surgery, registration, etc. The first medical journal to appear in the United States appeared about 1790. It was entitled A Journal of the Practice of Medicine and Surgery and Pharmacy in the Military Hospitals of France, consisting merely of translations from the French journals of military medicine. The first real American medical journal was the Medical Repository, begun in 1797 and discontinued in 1824.
The present century, now drawing to its close, saw in its earlier half the rise of a large number of American physicians and surgeons who have made their names illustrious for all time by their teachings, their writings, and their invention and originality. While it is, of course, invidious to select names, the following certainly deserve honorable mention in this list, without the slightest disrespect or intentional slight to many others whose names must be omitted for want of space.
John R. Cox (1773-1864), an early student of Benjamin Rush, filled the chair of Materia Medica and Pharmacy in the University of Pennsylvania, and published the American Dispensatory in 1806. Caspar Wistar (1761-1818) was the author of a System of Anatomy,—held in great favor in his day as a text-book. Nathaniel Chapman (1780-1853) was Professor of Theory and Practice in the University of Pennsylvania until 1850. John Eberle held the similar chair of the Jefferson School from 1825-1831. The former wrote on Materia Medica and Therapeutics, the latter on the Practice of Medicine, both works being exceedingly popular. John W. Francis (1789-1861) taught obstetrics in the College of Physicians and Surgeons from 1826-1830. Franklin Bache (1792-1864) was one of the authors of the Dispensatory of the United States of America, published in conjunction with George B. Wood, who was Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Pennsylvania, and who wrote also extensively on his chosen subject in monographs and large works.
