the private engagements of these gentlemen, rendered it necessary for them to ask some assistance, for which object, Dr. Cumming, August 10, 1795, was appointed assistant visiting physician without salary.

Whatever may be thought of the credulity of the present generation, it is no less clear that the people of 1796 were not proof against charlatan imposition. Every age has had some crotchet on which to betray mental imbecility. The whale must have a tub with which to amuse itself. At the period above named, it was Perkinism or the cure of disease by metallic tractors. The most extravagant reports of extraordinary cures affected by this manipulation had been bruited abroad in advance. of the doctor's arrival in Philadelphia. The eyes of the blind had been opened; the ears of the deaf unstopped; the lame man made to leap as a hart; and in fine, a universal catholicon for human diseases and infirmities had at length been discovered.

On the 27th of February the visiting committee of the house reported having witnessed several successful operations by Dr. Perkins with his metallic points, and had seen the grateful acknowledgments of many others who had been the subjects of his new method; that the hospital contained numerous cases which might be benefitted by his skill, and proposed that George Davis, one of the members of the board, be authorized to invite Dr. Perkins to attend the institution on the following Wednesday, at 10 o'clock, thus giving the other members an opportunity of being present during his visit. The doctor made his appearance on the appointed day, and managed so successfully to close the eyes of the sage managers as to secure from them the purchase of his patent for the benefit of the hospital; and this house today owns the exclusive right to practice in Philadelphia the cure of disease by metallic points.

Where is Perkinism to-day? That gigantic humbug, which overrun with unparalleled rapidity, towns, cities, villages, and rural districts at home and abroad, and was endorsed by three American universities. Gone to the tomb of the Capulets, where every other ism, system, and device of man, not resting on a substratum of truth, must sooner or later sink, never to be unburied except by the pick of some future fossilist, delving among the caput mortuums of exploded systems for specimens of human folly, either to adorn a cabinet or point the shaft of ridicule. That

Perkinism could not have proved very efficient in the Philadelphia Almshouse may be inferred from the fact that on the 20th of March the sick had become so numerous as to require an additional number of physicians to aid Dr. Duffield and his assistant in their labors. The gentlemen selected by the board were Drs. Samuel Clements, Jr., Wm. Boyce and Samuel Cooper, at a salary each of one hundred dollars annually. It would appear Dr. Cooper declined the appointment, and the corps remained without any substitute being elected. They were required to visit the hospital three times a week ordinarily, and oftener if the state of the sick demanded it; two were to attend together, and in case an operation was required the operator was to be selected by a majority vote.

In the fall of 1797 Dr. Pleasants died, and on the 23rd of December of the same year Drs. John Church and Thomas C. James, the latter subsequently professor of obstetrics in the University of Pennsylvania, were elected, the former to supply the vacancy occasioned by the death, and the other in the place unoccupied by Dr. Cooper.

Until 1801, there were no changes to notice, when on the 6th of April of this year, Dr. Boyce tendered his resignation, shortly after which Dr. Elijah Griffiths was elected his successor. In August, Dr. Duffield, who seemed to be a necessary appurtenance to the house, having been connected with it for twenty-nine years, was dismissed in consequence of having furnished a certificate admitting a patient with typhus fever into the institution. At this time there seems to have been very close police exercised by the managers over admissions, in consequence no doubt, of the recent epidemic of yellow fever which had desolated so many homes, and produced such wide-spread distress and consternation in the community. After the removal of Dr. Duffield, the number of medical attendants was increased by the election, on September 7, 1801, of Drs. John Proudfit, Philip Syng Physick, the father of American surgery, and Charles Caldwell, familiar to the present generation of medical men as the author of his own biography; a man unquestionably of remarkable intellectual force, combined, however, with such incongruous elements of character, as were calculated to defeat the best appointed plans of ambition. These gentlemen were to receive a salary of twentyfive pounds per annum.

In 1804 a very extraordinary event occurred in view of the very amiable nature of doctors in general. This was a quarrel among the physicians, originating mainly in a private difficulty between Drs. Caldwell and James. The dispute grew to such magnitude, that the managers, as the shortest way to establish the peace of the institution, on the 9th of January proceeded to the election of a new board, consisting of Drs. Philip Syng Physick, John Church, Elijah Griffiths, John Rush, Thomas C. James, Benjamin Smith Barton and Samuel Stewart; each of whom was to receive the old salary of twenty-five pounds, subject to all reasonable out-door calls. Dr. Rush declined the appointment, and on the 19th of the same month, Dr. James Reynolds was elected to take his place.

On the 17th of January, 1805, the same year in which he was elected to the chair of surgery in the University, Dr. Physick offered his resignation. Very soon after its acceptance, Dr. James Hutchinson was appointed his successor. The latter gentleman's name is associated with a modification of the Desault splint for fractures of the thigh. His service was of short duration, his resignation being recorded three months after the announcement of his election. During this year a difficulty occurred between the managers and Dr. Barton, in consequence of the latter declining to attend out-door patients. Their views being irreconcilable, the doctor was dismissed, and to supply the two vacancies now existing, Drs. J. Cathrall and Peter Miller were elected by the board.

It was also during this year Dr. Church died. His place was occupied by the brilliant but short-lived John Syng Dorsey, who in his brief career of professional life, occupied no less than three prominent positions in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania-first, as an adjunct to Physick; then as a successor to Chapman on materia medica, and last, as a successor to Wistar on anatomy. The next change was produced by the death of Dr. Reynolds in 1807. After this event an additional physician was added to the corps by the election of Dr. Nathaniel. Chapman to supply the vacancy occasioned by the death of Dr. Reynolds, and Dr. Joseph Parrish to make up the complement of the staff.

On the 17th of November, 1809, a resolution was introduced and adopted by the managers, constituting the medical officers of

the Almshouse a medical board. They were to meet the first Monday of every month, at 4 o'clock, P. M., and report rules for the government of the hospital department.

The following year, 1810, furnishes us with the first instance, so far as I know, of a hospital in this country receiving a female resident physician. On the first of July, a Mrs. Lavender made application to be admitted to the institution as an assistant midwife, in order the better to perfect her education. Such a charming name as Lavender" so overcame the physical senses of the members of the board, that they lost their intellectual senses and granted her petition. During my term of service in the winter of 1856, several women from the Female Medical College of this city were furnished with tickets to the clinical lectures without my knowledge. You may imagine my astonishment, when entering the lecture-room to discharge the duties of the hour, I saw seated on one side of the amphitheatre a number of these misguided creatures. I had selected for the instruction of the class that morning a series of cases all illustrating some disease of the genital organs; and as it was now too late to recede, I proceeded to operate for phymosis, and to exhibit and treat some blooming specimens of chancre. Notwithstanding there was a large number of male students present, and the personal exposure necessary for the conduct of the clinic, they never betrayed the slightest evidence of shame, but sat with the imperturbable indifference of primeval innocence. This I suppose some would consider praiseworthy and philosophical, but I confess it exhibited to me a perversion of character utterly below my preconceived views ever entertained of strong-minded women. The occurrence was never repeated, as I at once addressed a letter to the board, when their money was returned and admittance refused.

Two vacancies occurred in 1810, one by the withdrawal of Dr. Griffits and the other by the death of Dr. Stewart. To supply these, Drs. Stewart and Joseph Klapp were elected. On the 2d of September, 1811, Dr. Dorsey tendered his resignation, and on the 9th of the same month, was succeeded by Dr. Thomas Hewson.

The service of various gentlemen now connected with the house was so arranged that one portion were to attend to surgical and the other to medical and obstetrical cases. The surgical staff consisted of Drs. Cathrall, Miller and Parrish; the medical, of

Drs. Chapman, Stewart and Hewson. Between the managers of the Philadelphia Almshouse and Pennsylvania Hospital there existed, at this time, much unamiable temper as well as jealousy. Both were anxious to secure the patronage of medical students, and therefore stood in the attitude of rivals. To such a degree were the minds of the former influenced by these feelings that they were led to pass a resolution calculated to act prejudicial rather than favorable to the prosperity of their institution. This resolution rendered all the physicians and surgeons holding places in the Pennsylvania Hospital ineligible to an election in the almshouse. In 1813 this measure was reaffirmed, but from being associated with certain other matters drew out an opposition, the influence of which became sufficiently potential to secure its repeal. In 1814 Dr. Dorsey again became a member of the medical board, and it was to his personal influence that the meritorious poor, recovering from disease, were indebted for the housecarriage, purchased by the managers to afford to convalescents the benefit of exercise and fresh air.

In 1815, in consequence of the managers assuming to regulate the term of service of the medical board in a manner not agreeable to its members, Dr. Chapman resigned, and was succeeded on the 8th of May by Dr. Joseph Klapp. The obstetrical department having been placed exclusively under the control of Dr. James, its duties necessarily absorbed more time than was compatible with the proper discharge of other engagements, and at his request, on the 2nd of November, 1818, Dr. John Moore was elected associate obstetrician to the house.

In 1818 Dr. Dorsey, after a few days illness, terminated his mortal career in the 35th year of his age. By the death of Dorsey the profession lost one of its noblest ornaments; the institution a man who reflected honor on its hospital; the poor a compassionate and devoted friend. The place thus made vacant by the hand of death was filled on the 20th of November by Dr. Joseph Hartshorne, then among the leading practitioners of Philadelphia. Two sons of Dr. Hartshorne, enjoying deservedly high reputations as men of culture and position, perpetuate the eminence of their paternal ancestor in our midst to-day. Dr. Hartshorne's connection with the house continued until February 28, 1820, when an extensive and laborious practice compelled him to withdraw. On the same day in which his resignation was accepted Dr. John