Page:A History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania.djvu/84

 their country may be learned from the following passage of a letter of Dr. Thomas Bond. Sen., to the Council of Safety, December 4th, 1776, giving his views in relation to the organization of military hospitals:—

“When I see so many of my friends and valuable fellow-citizens exposing themselves to the horrors of war, I think it my indispensable duty to make them a tender of the best services in my power, upon the condition that I can have the joint assistance of my son in the great undertaking, who I am certain you will find on enquiry has already distinguished himself in this Department. As I am told many of the sick are near the City, the sooner this matter is concluded the better.”

Dr. Bond at that time was over sixty years of age.

The privations and hardships which were suffered, the difficulties and vexations which were encountered, and the sacrifices submitted to by the medical officers during the War of Independence have been graphically depicted in his Military Journal by that venerable sharer of them, the late Dr. Thatcher. When, on the conclusion of the contest, the services of these medical patriots were no further needed, they returned to their civil posts, imbued with knowledge and experience, from which in after life they derived the benefit.

So far as the concerns of the College were affected, it required time before they assumed their former tranquillity and regularity. The account of the next ten years is an eventful one in the history of the Medical School, until the University was placed on its present secure foundation.

The Institution, being of colonial origin and patronage, needed, as was thought, thorough reorganization to place it upon a basis harmonizing with the regime of Independence. The removal of constraint by a hostile force permitted it to be re-established under different auspices. It was alleged further that disaffection existed on the part of some of the members of the Board of Trustees to the new Government. By an Act of the Legislature, November 27th, 1779, the charter