Page:A History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania.djvu/6

 all the materials necessary for the extended history that is now placed before the medical public.

It is proper to state that a brief account of the Medical School has been in print for many years, prepared originally by Professor Wood as a valedictory discourse to the class of 1836. This was subsequently printed in connection with the catalogue of the graduates. Another notice of the Medical Department, by the same author, is contained in a General History of the College and University published in the third volume of the “Transactions of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania;” these have been employed for comparison and verification of impressions derived from original authorities.

The main sources from which the author has derived his materials are the Minutes of the Board of Trustees and those of the Medical Faculty. The former are entire from the foundation of the Academy and College; while the latter date from 1800. He has also consulted the Minutes of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and of the Philosophical Society, and the manuscript documents preserved in the Historical Society, as well as the public papers, more particularly the "Pennsyl-vania Gazette” and the “Pennsylvania Journal.” To these may be added numerous original letters in his own possession. He is largely indebted to biographies—many of them extremely rare—of the Professors who, at different epochs, have been connected with the University, and to the pamphlets and documents contained in the Philadelphia Library, as well as in the libraries of the Philosophical and the Historical Societies, and more especially in that of the Pennsylvania Hospital, which is rich not only in medical science, but in medical history.

Reference has been made to every source from which information is derived. There are, moreover, several mooted points discussed in the progress of the history which the