Page:Early History of Medicine in Philadelphia - George W Norris.djvu/79

 umbrage, looking upon himself as degraded from the rank of Director-General and Physician-in-Chief to that of Director only, and took the liberty to write to the President of Congress, stating "that he hoped there would be no unnecessary abridgment of rank and authority in his person that was necessary for the head of the department, and was consistent with real usefulness, to which every other consideration should give way." He nevertheless obeyed the order of Congress, looking upon it as a matter for present convenience.

In the northern department of the army, to which Dr. Stringer had been appointed by Congress Chief Physician and Surgeon, independent of Dr. Morgan as Director-General, the sufferings of the sick at this time were great. In a letter to Mr. Samuel Adams, a member of the Medical Committee of Congress at this date, Dr. Morgan describes the state of the army there (derived from a medical officer who had just left it), as "truly deplorable and scarcely credible." "From all I am able to learn," he adds, "everything in the Medical Department in Canada displays one scene of confusion and anarchy; nor has the Congress taken upon itself, or vested any person with a power sufficient to establish a general hospital there. I am not sure that our disgrace and misfortunes in Canada are