The medical lectures of the session 1829-30 were delivered in the new building, and the first class of medical graduates issued from its walls in 1830.
The history of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania is here brought to a close. The author has endeavored to present a clear exposition of the circumstances connected with the rise and progress of this School of Medicine, and at the same time to give a succinct account of the lives and labors of the illustrious members of the Profession whose reputation is inseparably connected with it.
In this narrative, omission has designedly been made of any extended exposition of the character and services of the distinguished men still living, who have so greatly added to the strength and contributed to the prosperity of the school; who have retired from the scene of their usefulness, and who now enjoy the reward of consciousness that their talents and acquirements have been employed honorably and effectively in the cause of science and humanity. They now continue in connection with the University in the honorary position of emeritus professors. Their distinctive qualities and merits will be the theme of the future historian.
From the uniform success which has attended the career of the medical school of the University, assurance is given that the responsible charge which has been transmitted from generation to generation has been faithfully preserved; that the trust committed to its professors has always been regarded
- John Andrew Shulze, Governor of the State of Pennsylvania.
- John B. Gibson, Chief Justice.
- George M. Dallas, Mayor of the City of Philadelphia.
“This inscription, deposited March 21st, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, commemorates the laying of the corner-stone of the new Medical Hall, sixty-four years after the original organization of the Medical Faculty by Drs. Morgan and Shippen; the institution having in the meantime conferred the degree of Doctor of Medicine upon upwards of two thousand gentlemen educated within its walls, who, dispersed in different quarters of the United States, have thus extended the blessings of sound medical instruction, and in many instances organizing themselves into new schools of medicine, have thus made the University of Pennsylvania the parent of Medical Science in the United States.”
