of France, which have reflected so much light upon the science, were effected long after this period. Nor was it till since our ancestors left Europe, that the great medical schools of Edinburgh, London, and Paris, acquired that celebrity, and exerted that influence on the science, which has been so extensively experienced through the world during the last century.

When we consider, then, the object for which our ancestors emigrated to America; the difficulties they had to encounter; the state of the country to which they came; and, above all, the depressed state of medical science throughout Europe at the time, it is easy to explain their disregard of medical education, and its slow progress for many years that followed.

From the scanty records which contain the medical history of America, we are left in doubt with respect to the exact state of the science, for a considerable time after its settlement. We are informed by the few scattered fragments of history which are left us, as well as by tradition, that our early divines, in imitation of the ancient priests of Egypt, of Greece, and Rome, united with their clerical profession the practice of medicine. A venerable and distinguished physician of New-England, now living on the spot where the pilgrims of Plymouth first landed, says, in a letter received on this subject, "That for many

* Dr. James Thacher.

years after the first settlement of the country, it was deemed indispensable for clergymen to acquire a knowledge of practical medicine, to discharge the duties of piety and humanity to their suffering brethren; and though they were not endowed with high attainments in medical science, they were, nevertheless, qualified for great usefulness in their respective stations. Altogether unlike the ignorant empirics of later times, they were actuated by the purest motives, and the highest considerations of benevolence. By their amiable manners, zealous attention, and pious converse, they endeared themselves to their people, mutual attachments were formed, and the fullest confidence reposed in their skill."

So far were the professions of divinity and medicine united, that the clergy not only prescribed for the sick, but entered into medical controversies, and wrote practical works on the diseases of the country. The first medical work published in America, was written by a learned clergyman of Boston, and entitled "A Brief Guide in the Small Pox and Measles." It was printed in the year 1677. This was soon followed by the work of another clergyman, which bore the title of "A Good Management under the Distemper of the Measles."

However proper and necessary it might have been, in the then existing state of the country, and under the peculiar circumstances of the times, to

mingle the two professions; and although we must ever entertain a grateful recollection of these pious clergymen, for their benevolent offices to the sick, as well as for their efforts for the promotion of the science while in the hands of others ;* it is obvious that medicine could have been but little advanced by the desultory and distracted labours of a class of men occupied with the arduous duties of another profession, and who could have possessed but a very imperfect knowledge of the structure and laws of the animal economy, and of the nature of disease. But the clergy were not the only persons to whom was confided the practice of medicine, even in the earliest period of our country. On the first settlement of America, a few physicians came over with the colonists, planted themselves in the country, and as far as circumstances admitted, or occasion required, devoted themselves to the duties of their profession. But they settled in the principal towns and villages, extending their labours only in extreme cases to the remote parts of the colonies, and among the Indian tribes of the country; while, in all ordinary cases, the great mass of the community were either dependent on the clergy, or compelled to employ those who were much less qualified to administer medical aid.

*See Note B.

† See Note G.

B

This state of things, however, did not continue for a long time. As early as 1638, Harvard College was founded at Cambridge, in New-England; and, though originally designed to form young men for the ministry, and to educate the native Indians of the country, it was not long before some of its graduates began to turn their attention to the profession of medicine. Several young men of this description, after studying a suitable time with the most eminent physicians of America, repaired to Europe to enjoy the benefit of lectures, and finish their education in the public schools. The number was augmented by the graduates who came out from William and Mary College of Virginia, and Yale College in Connecticut the former of which was founded in 1691, and the latter in 1700. At a later period, several of the graduates of Princeton College; New Jersey, founded in 1746, pursued the same course.

Thus were introduced into America, a number of well educated physicians, who were natives of the country, besides several distinguished European physicians, who in the mean time had emigrated with the early settlers.* Yet the number was so small, and the increase so inconsiderable, when compared with the rapid progress of the population, that the demand for medical practitioners could not be supplied.

* See Note D.

In those days it was not uncommon for a skilfu surgeon to ride one and even two hundred miles, to amputate a limb, or reduce a dislocated shoulder, while patients for more difficult operations were compelled to cross the Atlantic; and at this period females were the only accoucheurs of the country. No medical schools for the education of physicians had been established; and such a thing as a respectable medical library did not exist. The works of Sydenham, Boerhaave, Van Swieten, Mead, Brooks, Huxham, Cowper, Keill, Douglass, Heister, Ledran, and Lewis, were almost the only authors that were known or studied in America; and these were seldom found in the same collection.

Such was the general state of medical science in America, for more than a century and a half after its first settlement; and if any exceptions to it existed, they were only to be met with in the larger towns and cities, where, from the density of the population, and the greater number of physicians, a spirit of emulation was excited, occasions of professional intercourse increased, and more extensive opportunities enjoyed for reading and observation.

The

But a new era was about to commence. science had already begun to revive in Europe, and to present a new aspect. In 1719 the foundation of the great medical school of Edinburgh was laid by the elder Monro; medical instruction in London