In the New Netherlands, controlled first by die Dutch West India Company, it was pro vided in their charter that they should procure a *Comforter for the Sick.* The first one of prominence under this provision was Bogaerdet in 1637; later came LaMontaigne, who was both a Huguenot and a physician. Prominent during the middle of the century was one Samuel Megapolensis, who was born in this country and graduated from Harvard in 1657, and then went to Utrecht, where he took his medical degree. He practised in Manhattan both as a physician and preacher. In 1772 a Quaker, George Fox, was traveling with John Jay when the latter was thrown from his horse and had his neck apparently broken. Fox at once instituted a manipulation by which, apparently, the dislo cation of the upper vertebra: was reduced and by which Jay was restored to life. This must be one of the earliest cases of this kind on rec ord. When William Penn came to this country he brought with him Dr. Wynne, an accom plished Welshman and probably the most com petent man of his profession in America at that time.
The colonies were swept during this cen tury with fierce epidemics of yellow fever, smallpox, scurvy, dysentery and many other dis eases, by which the colonists suffered great loss, Those who came over with William Penn num bered about 100, of whom one-third died on the voyage of smallpox. This was perhaps the most terrible scourge of all and was not successfully battled with until Dr. Boylston dared to institute the method of inoculation to which his attention had been called by Mather, who had read of its successful introduction into England from Constantinople by Lady Monta gue. In this is constituted one of the most inter esting episodes in the history of medicine in this country. The Rev. Cotton Mather, distin guished both as a politician and divine, still had this on his mind even after he had lost his interest in the burning of witches. In 1721 he read a paper on Turkish Inoculation written by one Timonius, and became deeply interested in it. He endeavored to interest various young men, especially a Dr. Douglas, in the discovery and in the method. Failing in this he turned to Dr. Boylston, then of Brookline, Mass., who saw the importance of the method and the ripe ness of the occasion. As soon as his purpose became understood he was at once denounced in the pulpits and attacked by the multitudes, and had as his only backer the man Mather, who had not yet lost his authority with the clergy. Opposed, then, by his colleagues and by the clergy in general, and the universal rabble, Boylston had the hardihood to inoculate first. his own son and two negro servants, and this only six weeks after the first inoculation was done for Lady Montague in London, by Dr. Maitland. But Boylston lived to reap glory and profit from his intrepidity. The controversy which he aroused had subsided in this country when he went to London, where he found it still raging, and where, he again aroused a storm, but eventually triumphed. method must not be confused with vaccination, but consi4ts of the actual inoculation of the dis ease by pus or discharge from the lesions of the patient suffering from the real malady. It is practically the same method which had ex isted for centuries in the Orient).
A great part of the 18th century was spent in warfare between natives and the newcomers to this country. The Indians were alniost al ways active, while the English and French fought more or less continually, the scene of conflict extending from Quebec on the north to the Niagara Frontier on the west and Geor gia on the south. In spite of the many oppor tunities thus afforded for the study of military surgery it does not appear that much was done in the way of improvement of older methods or in new discoveries. The wounded soldier of 1776 had but little better treatment than the wounded pilgrim of 1676. These were .a ,few' men of such prominence scattered along the coast line in the early and middle part of the 18th century that they deserve to be mentioned, at least by name. Cadwallader Colden was born in Scotland in 1688, and came to this country in 1707. In 1710 he moved to Philadel
phia. Here he wrote some of the first medical papers written in this country, particularly on animal secretion. After some years spent in this country he took up his residence in New York, in 1716. He was during the early part of his life an indefatigable student and attained remarkable popularity in his practice. He held numerous public offices and figured rather as a statesman than a physician. He acquired a large estate up the Hudson and became the inti mate friend of Benjamin Franklin, to whom he first suggested the foundation of the Amer ican Philosophical Society. He left a large number of writings and correspondence with the most eminent savants all over the world.
As the colonies steadily progressed in wealth and size, Charleston became more and more a prominent centre of influence, and here there lived and died during the century a group of five men, namely, Chalmers, Lining, Gardner, Moultrie and Bull, who made important contri butions to science and achieved unusual distinc tion. All of these were of Scotch origin save the last, of whom it was claimed that he was the first person born in South Carolina, as well as the first native to receive a doctor's degree. He was a pupil of Boerhaave, a graduate of Leyden in 1774. He gradually drifted into poli tics, as did Colden. Lining was perhaps the first American physiologist and published nu merous papers in the 'Transactions) of the Royal Society. He also published the first American account of yellow fever, which was the scourge of the century, and which appeared to spread to this country from the West Indies. Moultrie achieved an honorable position. He had a son who was also a doctor, and while both of them attained a high place in the es teem of their fellow-citizens, the death of the father was regarded as a public calamity, after some 40 years of phenomenal activity. Chal mers was already a friend of Colden and the others when he came to this country. He made himself generally known as a writer and de veloped power which would have made him, under suitable surroundings, a rare teacher. Gardner, like Colden, was a man of culture and fine education; in fact one of the most ver satile men of his century in this country. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. To these should be added, perhaps, John Mitchell, an Englishman by birth, who came to this country in 1705 and made a reputation which spread to the centres of learning in the old country. He published a number of essays in the Transactions.' A great epoch in the medical history of the 18th century was the foundation of the first hospital in this country. This must be duly credited the energies of Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Thomas Bond and, later, Drs. Shippen and Morgan. Bond was born in 1712, in Mary land. After studying for six years in this country he went to Europe, whence he returned full of the idea of introducing the hospital sys tem which had proved so advantageous abroad. Though he returned in 1734, not until 1751 were circumstances .sufficiently propitious to found something more than a mere camp for the treat ment of smallpox or a lazaretto for the care of sick seamen. Franklin threw the whole weight of his influence into this movement and finally 12,000 raised by private subscription, added to a similar sum contributed by the colonists, pre pared the way for the opening of the Pennsyl vania Hospital in 1752. After four years of existence in rented quarters, the cornerstone of a new building for that purpose was laid, bearing an inscription suggested by Franklin himself. This institution had an enormous in fluence in more than one respect, since its foun dation had made possible the creation of the first medical school in this country, which be came a part of the University of Pennsylvania, and which owes its inception to the study and liberal enthusiasm of Morgan. Although Har vard College was founded in 1636 and Yale in 1701, it remained for this to become the pioneer medical school in the United States. Albany has a somewhat famous history regarding civil and military hospitals.