Page:Early History of Medicine in Philadelphia - George W Norris.djvu/72

 to much dissatisfaction, and five of the surgeon's mates who refused to submit to it were dismissed from the service. By his energy and industry an ample collection of both medicines and stores was made for the General Hospital. His system was economically and prudently arranged; disputes and contentions were repressed; and his personal supervision of, and attention to the sick, was never wanting.

The economy, regularity, and order which he carried into the department committed to his care, together with his opposition to, and reform of abuses that were creeping or had crept into it, raised up to him an enmity among some, at the same time that others, through malignancy or envy, misrepresented his actions, and seized hold of every occasion that times of confusion and public calamity presented, to sully and asperse his character.

To understand the ground of these complaints and misrepresentations, it is necessary to cast a glance at the organization of the department of which he was the head, in the beginning of the revolutionary struggle.

The hospital department was established by act of Congress on the 27th of July, 1775, on a plan reported by a committee of three of that body who had previously been