Читать книгу A Philadelphia Story - Lori Litchman - Страница 18

ANOTHER NOTABLE FIRST in Philadelphia’s health history is the founding of the country’s first independent biomedical research facility. The Wistar Institute opened its doors in 1892. The institute derives its name from Dr. Caspar Wistar, a prominent early doctor. Wistar, who started his medical practice in 1787, was the author of the first American textbook on anatomy. Wistar was friends with Thomas Jefferson and was a president of the American Philosophical Society. He was also a professor and chair at Penn’s medical school in the Department of Anatomy. Throughout his career, Wistar would collect preserved human body parts, which he would dry and inject with wax. His friend, Rush, also constructed sculpted anatomical models. The collection kept growing in size and use and ultimately became known as the Wistar and Horner Museum, the second name originating from Wistar’s friend Dr. William Edmonds Horner.

A fire in the University of Pennsylvania facility that housed the collection caused the provost at the time, Dr. William Pepper, to start a movement to provide a home for the collection where medical professionals could study. Wistar, whose family was widely involved in Philadelphia society, died in 1818. Some years later, his great-nephew, Isaac Jones Wistar, came to the rescue of the collection. Isaac Wistar was a prominent lawyer and brigadier general in the Civil War and decided to make a generous donation that led to the creation of The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology. The Wistar Institute grew into a center for medical and biological research. It has been a leader in research in the areas of vaccines, cancer, DNA, gene expression, and numerous other areas.

Other notable medical firsts include the following:

■The nation’s first children’s hospital, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), is known today as the Children’s Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Francis West Lewis founded it in 1855, aided by two colleagues, Drs. T. Hewson Bache and R. A. F. Penrose.

■The nation’s first eye hospital, Wills Eye Hospital, was established in 1832 by James Wills. Today it is part of Thomas Jefferson University.

■The nation’s first medical school for women, The Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, was founded in 1850. It was later renamed The Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1970 when men were admitted. It is now part of the Drexel University College of Medicine.

■Friends Hospital is the oldest private psychiatric hospital in the nation. Quakers founded it in 1813 to provide dignity and support for those suffering from mental illness. It still operates today in northeast Philadelphia.