Page:Early History of Medicine in Philadelphia - George W Norris.djvu/123

 "An Essay on the Expediency of Inoculation, and the Seasons most proper for it. Humbly inscribed to the inhabitants He must have left the army soon after coming here, for he carried on business as a druggist in Second Street near Market, at the sign of the "Golden Pestle," in partnership with one Stewart, but I believe never practised medicine. In 1761 he proposed a scheme for the erection, in the neighbourhood of the city, of warm and cold baths, connected with a public garden and a house of entertainment, by a subscription lottery. The project, however, was considered unfriendly to morals, and petitions were addressed to the Governor by a number of prominent citizens, as well as by societies, to prevent the scheme being carried into effect. A part of one of the petitions is very curious, and I think may amuse the reader. In this it is said, "That they believed that a public ground will be a nursery of all kinds of dissipation. How destructive such places are to the morals of a people, what they usually terminate in, and how ill-suited they are to the circumstances of this young city, and the former character of its inhabitants, we need not mention to your Honour. Were there nothing more in view than what is pretended, it might be effected with as near a few hundred pounds as there are thousands proposed, Were a hot or cold hath necessary for the health of the inhabitants of the city they might, at a small expense, be added to the hospital [hot, cold, and steam-baths had been introduced into this institution by Dr. Bond, soon after its foundation], put under the sober government of that place, and kept separate from those used by the patients, and as to a public place for walking, the State House green or garden is, by a law of this Province, set apart for that purpose."

The enterprise was abandoned, and the doctor soon after left the country. Mr. Graydon informs us that "he was considered to have great skill in his profession,