Page:A History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania.djvu/214



F.—page 120.

Number of Graduates from 1768 to 1810.

It is impossible to present a complete list of the students attending lectures in the College and University prior to 1810. No catalogues are in existence to which to refer for information, and all that can be known of the progressive prosperity of the School is derived from the annual registration of the graduates. For a long time no regular minutes of the Faculty of Medicine appear to have been kept, and our source of knowledge of the affairs of the Medical Department is the record of the Board of Trustees. The system of rotation in the office of Dean was not calculated to secure the methodical transcription of the business operations of the Faculty, which is now desirable in determining points of historical interest, and, until the appointment of Dr. Horner as permanent Dean, perfect regularity in the preservation of all the minutiæ connected with attendance and graduation, was not introduced. The following summary may be regarded as correct with reference to the graduates within the period specified above; it was carefully prepared by Drs. Wood and Horner, and introduced into the sketch of the Medical Department published with the general list of graduates.

It will be perceived that there is a deficiency from 1773 to 1780. This was the period of the political troubles, which occupied the attention of the country, and of the most stirring events of the Revolution.