Page:A History of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania.djvu/90

 as Professor of the Theory and Practice, and on the 19th of December, 1789, Dr. James Hutchinson, an active member of the Board of Trustees, was elected Professor of Chemistry and Materia Medica in that institution.

When, in 1789, the College was restored to its former position, with possession of its functions and privileges, it was determined no longer to confer the degree of Bachelor of Medicine. The reason for this course is thus stated: “It having been considered that it would not be for the honor of the College or the advancement of sound literature to continue the degree of Bachelor of Medicine, lest young and inexperienced men under the sanction of that degree and of their Collegiate education, assuming the name of Doctor, might be tempted to impose upon the public, by a too early Practice, it has, therefore, been determined that the Degree of Doctor in Medicine shall be the only medical degree conferred in this Seminary.”

In point of fact it would appear from the early records that, as was anticipated, comparatively few of the primary graduates ever applied for the doctor’s degree, and even these bore no proportion to the whole class of students in attendance, most of them going into active service without the evidence of qualification. With regard to the system of degrees established, Dr. Rush, in his correspondence with Dr. Morgan, as early as 1768, makes this comment: “I have read the laws you have established with regard to the conferring degrees in Physic, and have shown them to several gentlemen in this place (Edinburgh) who, upon the whole, approve of them. Some of them have thought that conferring Bachelors’ Degrees in Physic would tend to depreciate their value, as few young men would ever have leisure enough after they began to practise, to return a second time to the College in order to write a Thesis or go through the other necessary forms, previous to being admitted Doctors of Physic. Upon this account they have proposed that no one should be admitted to the physical honors, until he had studied there two or three years, and afterwards published a Thesis. But you who are upon the spot can best judge of the propriety of the