OF THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF PHILADELPHIA. VOLUME I. FROM NOVEMBER, 1841, TO AUGUST, 1846, INCLUSIVE. PHILADELPHIA: QUARTERLY SUMMARY OF THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF PHILADELPHIA. NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1841, AND JANUARY, 1842. The College of Physicians of Philadelphia was instituted towards the close of the year 1786; the first stated meeting, after its full organization, was held on the 2nd of January, 1787. About two years afterwards an act of incorporation was obtained from the Legislature of Pennsylvania. It is believed to be the oldest College of Physicians in the United States, and among its founders and early members, it includes some of the most eminent physicians that our country has produced. The objects of the association, as expressed first in the Constitution and afterwards in the preamble to the charter, are "to advance the science of medicine, and thereby lessen human misery, by investigating the diseases and remedies which are peculiar to this country; by observing the effects of different seasons, climates and situations upon the human body; by recording the changes which are produced in diseases by the progress of agriculture, arts, population, and manners; by searching for medicine in the American woods, waters, and in the bowels of the earth; by enlarging the avenues to knowledge from the discoveries and publications of foreign countries; and by cultivating order and uniformity in the practice of physic." In order more fully to accomplish these important objects -to encourage and stimulate its members to their more zealous pursuit, the College, agreeably to the recommendation of a committee, consisting of Drs. Condie, B. H. Coates, Parrish, Bond, Moore and Pepper, appointed at the stated meeting in June, 1841, resolved, at the stated meeting in September ensuing, to publish a bulletin of their transactions, after the example of other scientific bodies, who have adopted the practice with so much advantage to their own interests, and that of science generally.—At the meeting in Novem VOL. I. NO. I. |