Page:Early History of Medicine in Philadelphia - George W Norris.djvu/34

 originating the Pennsylvania Hospital is generally, though erroneously, accorded to Dr. Franklin, for he himself asserts that the suggestion of it is due to Dr. Bond.

When the medical school was originated, the gentleman who proposed and digested the measure, Dr. Morgan, thought it necessary to the design that it should enjoy the aid of Dr. Bond's skill and experience by his delivering a course of clinical lectures in the hospital—the first regular lectures of the kind ever given in America; and his introductory to the course, which is extant, and which will be particularly referred to hereafter, shows how well he was fitted for the task. That they were properly appreciated, is attested by the fact of their being attended in 1766, the first year, by a regular class of thirty students. In 1768 he was appointed Professor of Clinical Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Rush states that it is to Dr. Bond that the city of Philadelphia is indebted for the introduction of mercury into general use in the practice of medicine. He called it emphatically "a revolutionary remedy," and prescribed it in all diseases which resisted the common modes of practice. He gave it freely in the Cynanche Trachealis. Bathing at this period was but little employed in the treatment of acute diseases. Dr. Bond,