also mentioned as a companion of Captain Smith, in his survey of Chesapeake Bay in an open boat, in 1608. But the fact that Smith was obliged to return to Europe the very next year, to procure surgical aid, on account of an injury to his hand. "there being none to be had in the colony," shows that Dr. Russell's stay was short, or else he was not a man skilled in his profession. These are the only names that we can find mentioned among the first settlers, either at Jamestown, Plymouth, or New York. The fact that there were either very few physicians among the early colonists, or that they were poorly prepared to discharge their responsible duties, is further corroborated by the almost total neglect of those sanitary regulations so necessary to preserve their health, and the consequent great mortality that took place in all the colonies during the first few years. A surgeon is mentioned as on board one of the ships sent to aid Capt. Mason in his expedition against the Pequoit Indians in 1637, but whether he belonged to the colony, or the ship merely, is not known. In 1649, we find a law passed by the Massachusetts Colony, forbidding "Chirurgeons, Midwives, Physicians, or others, to exercise, or put forth any act contrary to the known rules of art, in each mystery and occupation, to exercise any force, or violence, or cruelty, upon or toward

the body of any, whether young or old (not even in the most desperate cases) without the advice and consent of such as are skillful in the same art, (if any such may be had,) or at least, of the wisest and gravest there present, and consent of the patient or patients, if they be mentis compotes, much less contrary to such advice and consent, etc." This provision is sufficiently indicative of the condition of the profession, at this early period, in the New England States.

Indeed, with the exception of the two Governors Winthrop, one of Massachusetts and the other of Connecticut, and a few of the clergy, we find no names of even respectable attainments in the profession, during the first half century after the commencement of our colonial existence.The younger Winthrop not only practised medicine extensively, but was also a member of the Royal Society of London, to which he made several respectable communications. And even so late as 1753, we are told by the Independent Reflector, a paper then published in the city of New York, "that it (the city of N. Y., then containing about 10,000 inhabitants) could boast of more than forty gentlemen of the faculty, the greatest part of whom were mere pretenders to a profession, of which they were entirely ignorant; and convincing proofs of their incapacity were

exemplified in their iniquitous practices. The advertisements they published proved them ignorant of the very names of their drugs" etc. etc. Dr. Nicholas Romaine, in his annual address before the New York State Medical Society, (in 1811) speaking of this early period, says: "It would be painful to intrude on your notice, the humble cold..ion of medicine which seems to have existed for more than a century after the first settlement of this State.-It could only consist of a statement of the arts and intrigues, by which the practitioners of physic succeeded in advancing their private interests and professional emoluments." The reasons for such a state of things, at this period, are obvious,-there being no medical schools in the colonies, or any institutions for the instruction of medical students, the only sources of supply consisted in emigrations from the mother country, or in the sending of native young men to the hospitals and colleges of Eu

rope.

The circumstances of the country during the whole of the first century were such, that no man already established in practice on the other side of the Atlantic, would think of leaving it for the hardships, the poverty, and wilds of America ; while the absence of all those medical societies and institutions, which constitute so powerful an

object to the aspiring ambition of the thoroughly educated student, equally prevented this class from resorting hither. Hence, as a general rule, only those physicians who had failed to obtain a practice at home, or were too conscious of their own unfitness to make the attempt, emigrated to America. On the other hand, the great expense attending the education of young men belonging to the colonies, in the medical institutions of Europe, operated as an equal barrier to this source. Thus it was, that while persecution filled the clerical ranks of the colonies with men of the deepest piety, and the most varied learning, and the patronage of the crown induced a full supply of legal talent, the profession of medicine sunk to a comparatively low state.

In New England, the greater number of those who practiced medicine were priests, whose medical knowledge was chiefly derived from the writings of Hippocrates, Galen, Aretæus, etc., which they had read during their collegiate education in Europe. Some of the nonconformist clergy, however, who were persecuted or silenced in the Old World, went through with a regular course of medical studies before leaving home, and afterwards became exceedingly useful, both as physicians and preachers, among the colonists here. Of this number, were Drs. Giles Firmer

and John Fisk; the first arrived in New England 1633, and the last in 1637. Both lived to an advanced age, and were highly respected. Dr. Thomas Thatcher also came about the same. time; and his pamphlet, entitled "A Guide in Small-Pox and Measles," published in 1677, is said to be the first medical publication in America. About the middle of the seventeenth century, Drs. Bellingham and Henry Saltonstall, after receiving a general education at Harvard College, went to England, where they completed a full course of medical studies, received the degree of M.D., and returned to practice their profession in the Massachusetts Colony. These were the first young men of whom we can get any account, who left the colonies to obtain a regular medical education in the mother country, for the purpose of practicing here.

But during the latter part of the first half of the eighteenth century, a new era began to dawn on the medical profession in America. It was during this period that we find several young men of the highest order of native talent, after receiving a thorough course of instruction in the medical institutions of Great Britain and the Continent, returning to practice their profession in the New World. Among these we find the names of Dr. Zabdiel Boylston and Dr. James