Page:A History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania.djvu/213

 solemnity, as the highest mark of literary honour which they could receive in the Profession.

“Dr. Morgan, who was appointed to that part of the Business, entered into a particular account of those Branches of study which the Medical Gentlemen ought still to prosecute with unremitted Diligence, if they wished to be eminent in their Profession, laying down some useful rules for an honourable practice in the Discharge of it. He observed that the ‘oath’ which was prescribed by Hippocrates to his Disciples had been generally adopted in Universities and Schools of Physic on like occasions, and that laying aside the form of oaths, the College, which is of a free spirit, wished only to bind its Sons and Graduates by the ties of Honour and Gratitude, and that therefore he begged leave to impress upon those who had received the distinguished Degree of Doctor, that as they were among the foremost sons of the Institution, and as the Birth Day of Medical Honours had arisen upon them with auspicious lustre, they would, in their practice, consult the safety of their Patients, the good of the community, and the dignity of their Profession, so that the Seminary from which they derived their Titles in Physic, might never have cause to be ashamed of them.”

E.—page 81.

* * * “It has given Dr. Shippen much pain to hear that notwithstanding all the caution and care he has taken to preserve the utmost decency in opening and dissecting dead bodies, which he has persevered in chiefly from the motive of being useful to mankind, some evil-minded persons, either wantonly or maliciously, have reported to his disadvantage that he has taken up some persons who are buried in the Church Burying Ground, which has distressed the minds of his worthy Fellow Citizens. The Doctor, with much pleasure, improves this opportunity to declare that the Report is absolutely false, and to assure them that the bodies he dissected were either of persons who had wilfully murdered themselves, or were publickly executed, except now and then one from Potter’s field, whose death was owing to some particular disease, and that he never had one body from the church or any private Burial Place.”—Pennsylvania Gazette, Oct. 31, 1765.