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Our surgical heritage
I
Our Surgical Heritagd D. P. HALL, M.D., Surgical Department, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky
UNITED
STATES
OF AMERICA
JOHN hIORGAN
J
OHN MORGANwas born in Philadelphia in 1735, the son of a wealthy prominent citizen. Morgan was educated in the cIassics at Nottingham Academy and proceeded to the College of PhiIadeIphia from which he was graduated in the first cIass of I 757. It was during the Iatter years of his study in this institution that he became a student of medicine under Dr. John Redman. Soon thereafter he became a surgeon as we11as a Iieutenant in the Iine during the French and Indian War in 1758, and was attached to Forbes’ expedition against Fort Duquesne. In 1760 Morgan saiIed for Europe to continue his medica studies. In London, he worked with WiIIiam Hunter for a year, then spent two years in the University of Edinburgh, from which institution he was granted the degree of M.D. in 1763. His thesis, “De Puopoiesi” was a master contribu653
American
Journal
01 Swgery,
Volume IW, Ocrober ry6o
Our SurgicaI
Heritage
tion to surgery, but went unrecognized. In short he postuIated that in inffammatory Iesions the true secretion of pus was from the bIood vesseIs. It ramined for Cohnheim, one hundred years later, to verify the truth of Morgan’s thesis. Continuing his European sojourn he went to Paris where he spent a winter in the study of anatomy. He was we11received by Morgagni and by Voltaire. Morgan was made a member of the Academy of Surgery in Paris and became a Licentiate of the CoIIege of Physicians of London and a member of the CoIIege of Physicians of Edinburgh. Dr. Morgan returned to PhiIadeIphia in 1765 and with the coIIaboration of Dr. WiIIiam Shippen, Jr. a medica schoo1 was estabIished in connection with the CoIIege of PhiIadeIphia, known as the MedicaI Department of the University of Pennsylvania. With the beginning of the RevoIutionary War in 1775, Morgan was appointed Director Genera1 of the miIitary hospitaIs and Physician in Chief to the American Army. His army experience was not too happy as many differences and quarreIs arose between other physicians in the service. John Morgan was a briIIiant surgeon, a deIightfu1 personaIity and certainIy a diIigent worker in the cause of American Iiberty. His idea and ambition in estabIishing the University of PennsyIvania Department of Medicine as the first medica schoo1 in the United States aIone insures his fame but his fight for sound premedica1 education shouId be remembered.
654
Our Surgical Heritagd D. P. HALL, M.D., Surgical Department, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky
UNITED
STATES
OF AMERICA
JOHN hIORGAN
J
OHN MORGANwas born in Philadelphia in 1735, the son of a wealthy prominent citizen. Morgan was educated in the cIassics at Nottingham Academy and proceeded to the College of PhiIadeIphia from which he was graduated in the first cIass of I 757. It was during the Iatter years of his study in this institution that he became a student of medicine under Dr. John Redman. Soon thereafter he became a surgeon as we11as a Iieutenant in the Iine during the French and Indian War in 1758, and was attached to Forbes’ expedition against Fort Duquesne. In 1760 Morgan saiIed for Europe to continue his medica studies. In London, he worked with WiIIiam Hunter for a year, then spent two years in the University of Edinburgh, from which institution he was granted the degree of M.D. in 1763. His thesis, “De Puopoiesi” was a master contribu653
American
Journal
01 Swgery,
Volume IW, Ocrober ry6o
Our SurgicaI
Heritage
tion to surgery, but went unrecognized. In short he postuIated that in inffammatory Iesions the true secretion of pus was from the bIood vesseIs. It ramined for Cohnheim, one hundred years later, to verify the truth of Morgan’s thesis. Continuing his European sojourn he went to Paris where he spent a winter in the study of anatomy. He was we11received by Morgagni and by Voltaire. Morgan was made a member of the Academy of Surgery in Paris and became a Licentiate of the CoIIege of Physicians of London and a member of the CoIIege of Physicians of Edinburgh. Dr. Morgan returned to PhiIadeIphia in 1765 and with the coIIaboration of Dr. WiIIiam Shippen, Jr. a medica schoo1 was estabIished in connection with the CoIIege of PhiIadeIphia, known as the MedicaI Department of the University of Pennsylvania. With the beginning of the RevoIutionary War in 1775, Morgan was appointed Director Genera1 of the miIitary hospitaIs and Physician in Chief to the American Army. His army experience was not too happy as many differences and quarreIs arose between other physicians in the service. John Morgan was a briIIiant surgeon, a deIightfu1 personaIity and certainIy a diIigent worker in the cause of American Iiberty. His idea and ambition in estabIishing the University of PennsyIvania Department of Medicine as the first medica schoo1 in the United States aIone insures his fame but his fight for sound premedica1 education shouId be remembered.
654