Читать книгу A Philadelphia Story - Lori Litchman - Страница 15

FRANKLIN’S ABILITY TO PULL TOGETHER the best and brightest in Philadelphia is ultimately what led to a cleaner, healthier Philadelphia. One of Franklin’s greatest contributions to both Philadelphia and American society was the support and leverage he put behind starting the nation’s first hospital. As Philadelphia’s population continued to balloon, so did the need for care for the “sick-poor and insane who were wandering the streets of Philadelphia.” In the early 18th century, Penn’s city was the fastest growing of all the 13 colonies. One of Franklin’s friends, Dr. Thomas Bond, came up with the idea to start a hospital in Philadelphia. Bond, a native of Maryland, had worked with Franklin on many of his projects, including the Library Company and the American Philosophical Society. Bond studied medicine in London and spent some time in France at a time when the idea of hospitals was emerging.

The original building of Pennsylvania Hospital, the country’s first hospital

(Photo: © Rytyho usa/Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-SA 3.0)

In 1750, Bond came up with the notion of building a hospital in Philadelphia, a new idea for the developing city and nation. As the story goes, when Bond asked Philadelphians to support the idea, many asked what Franklin thought of it. So Bond approached his friend, who immediately gave his support for the hospital. In fact, Franklin created what may have been the first American fundraising plan. Franklin went to the Pennsylvania Assembly and told them that he would raise 2,000 pounds from the general public to support the hospital, and if he could garner such support, then the Assembly should match the funds. The General Assembly thought that Franklin would fail, but he ended up raising more than 2,000 pounds, and the General Assembly gave the green light for the hospital in 1751. The hospital purchased land from the Penn family in 1754, and the doors to the new building at Eighth and Pine Streets opened in 1756, where the building still stands. Today it is referred to as the Pine Building and remains open. Bond shared his knowledge of medicine by giving lectures, which were offered to the first students at Penn’s new medical school at the hospital. Bond earned the moniker “The Father of Clinical Medicine.” He spent the rest of his life working at the hospital until his death in 1784. Bond’s brother, Phineas, also aided his brother in the hospital’s founding and was one of the first doctors to serve at the hospital. Today, Pennsylvania Hospital is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia also serves as a major medical hub in the United States, home to five medical schools within the city limits.

One of the most important (and controversial) doctors to come out of Pennsylvania Hospital was Dr. Benjamin Rush, dubbed “The Father of American Psychiatry” for his dedication to treating the mentally ill. Rush is also well known for his use of bloodletting to cure patients, particularly those with yellow fever during the two epidemics Philadelphia experienced. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and kept the company of other founding fathers, including John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine. He was a tireless advocate for the poor, the mentally ill, slaves, and women. He helped found the first antislavery organization in the colonies—the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage. He also created the Philadelphia Dispensary, which provided medical care to the poor of Philadelphia, the first facility of its kind in the developing nation.

Portrait of Benjamin Rush by Charles Willson Peale

(Via Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Rush was born outside of Philadelphia in 1746 and attended the College of New Jersey, known today as Princeton University. After Rush earned his degree, his uncle encouraged him to study medicine rather than law. Rush found a mentor in Dr. John Redman and attended lectures at Penn’s new medical school. Rush ultimately chose to go overseas to study medicine. At the same time, Franklin was overseas, and the two became friends. Rush was even elected to the American Philosophical Society before his return to Philadelphia. Upon his return to the city of brotherly love, Rush was appointed as chair of the College of Philadelphia’s chemistry department. Rush was also one of 24 doctors to found the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1787, the country’s first private medical organization. The founders said the organization’s mission was “to advance the science of medicine and to thereby lesson human misery.”

Museum of Medical Oddities

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED what Einstein’s brain was like? Well, you can see for yourself—literally—at the Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Surgeon Thomas Dent Mütter donated 1,700 objects and $30,000 to the college. His mission was to reform medical education, and he made the college promise to “hire a curator, maintain and expand the collection, fund annual lectures, and erect a fireproof building.”

The museum’s first location was at 13th and Locust Streets and opened in 1863. Today, the museum is located at 19 S. 22nd St. and houses more than 25,000 objects. Some of the things you can see at the Mütter Museum include slides of Albert Einstein’s brain, more than 5,500 historical medical instruments, hundreds of bones, and numerous body parts floating in jars.

After the Revolutionary War, Rush added courses to his teaching load to include the practice of medicine. He was a beloved teacher, and by the end of his career, he had taught more than 3,000 medical students. He worked as a senior doctor at Pennsylvania Hospital for 30 years, and during that time, he instituted reforms for treatment of the mentally ill. He believed in treating patients with mental illness as human beings, and he abolished cruel practices and procedures that were established medicine. He published the first psychiatry textbook in America, Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon the Diseases of the Mind, in 1812, the year before he died of typhus fever. Rush was harshly criticized, however, for his treatment of yellow-fever patients during the epidemic Philadelphia experienced in 1793.