of first introducing the use of mercury as a remedy' in inflammatory diseases. The latter gentleman, in his own account of the remedy, says his attention was first called to it by a medical officer of the army, in 1764; whereas, we have seen in the preceding chapter, what Dr. J. B. Beck has so fully presented in his little volume on Infant Therapeutics, that mercury, in the form of calomel was used in a malignant epidemic sore throat by Dr. Douglass of Boston, as early as 1736. It was still more extensively used and recommended. by Dr. James Ogden of Long Island, in 1749; and it was very successfully introduced into the practice of the profession in Philadelphia, about the same time, by Dr. Thomas Bond. And Dr. Rush says, in speaking of the period which intervened between 1760-66, "Mercury was in general use in the years that have been mentioned." We thus see that the practice of which Dr. Armstrong speaks, was already in general use in the American colonies, even prior to the time it was first suggested to Dr. Hamilton. The second mistake to which we allude is that of Dr. Stokes, in his valuable treatise on diseases of the chest, where he gives Dr. Cheyne the credit of having first introduced the practice of giving tartar-emetic in the cynanche trachialis or croup. The first publication on the subject by Dr. Cheyne was in 1801. But Dr. Richard Bayley of New York had accurately pointed out the great value of this remedy in the same disease, in a letter to Dr. Wm. Hunter, published in New York city in 1781, just twenty years previous to the publication of Dr. Cheyne. Dr. Bayley is, not only fully entitled to the credit given by Dr. Stokes to Dr. Cheyne, but it is to him that the profession are also indebted for having first pointed out the true inflammatory nature of the disease here referred to. It was also during the last part of the eighteenth century that Dr. Thomas Cadwallader, of Philadelphia, first introduced the practice of treating the "dry gripes," or colica pictonum and bilious colic with anodynes, until the pains and spasms were allayed, and then moving the bowels only by gentle laxatives. The almost universal custom had been to give the most active and drastic purgatives, which often served only to increase the muscular contraction of the intestines, instead of relieving the patient. The treatment practiced by Dr. Cadwallader was afterwards adopted and highly recommended by Dr. Warren, of London. The medical writings of this period seem to have been confined almost wholly to the pages of the three medical journals which had been established in New York and Philadelphia, and to here and there a pamphlet or a paper read before some organized society. Indeed, I have not been able to find a single volume on any branch of medical science or practice, published by an American physician during the first twenty years after the close of the Revolutionary War. And yet, as we have already seen, it was a period in our history which was graced with some of the noblest and most active minds ever devoted to the cultivation of medical science. But the art of mere book making, which has been brought to such perfection in this, our day, was little known to our professional ancestors. CHAPTER III. HISTORY OF THE PROGRESS OF MEDICAL EDUCATION AND SIX TO ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND To those who limit the means of education to the preceptor's office, and the college halls, and the period of its acquirements to the season of pupilage (and there are, unfortunately, many such), much of the matter contained in this work may appear irrevelant or superfluous. But it is unnecessary for us to state that we attach to the word a far more liberal and comprehensive meaning. Whatever increases the enterprize, stimulates the spirit of philosophical investigation, or adds an item to the stock of knowledge possessed by the profession, or whatever elevates it in the great scale of social being, is as truly a part of its education as is the study of its text-books, and the frequenting of its schools. The latter may, indeed, constitute the foundation, but many other things are required to complete the superstructure of a fair medical education. And among those other things, none are of greater importance than well organized associations, admitting of frequent communications, and free interchange of thought among their members. Such associations not only elicit observations, stimulate investigations, and save from oblivion numberless facts, but they counteract the selfish feelings of individuality— they diffuse knowledge-they elevate the social feelings and they embody and generalize facts that otherwise would remain isolated and useless. In this respect, the commencement of the period embraced in this chapter, forms an important era in the history of the medical profession in this country. For though several medical societies had been duly incorporated, and some of them continued in active operation for a quarter of a century, yet they were almost wholly confined in their influence to a few of the larger cities. Hence, as intimated near the close of the last chapter, the great mass of the profession were alike unsocial and ungoverned by ethical laws, and, consequently, without harmony of action or true. dignity of professional character. This condition of things was fully appreciated by a few enlightened members of the profession in Saratoga County, New York, so early as 1796; during |