the society would not grant it and he kept on for four years more.
Dr. Appleton's records as secretary require special mention for they exhibit a thoroughness that has been only too rare in the history of similar societies. Beyond the fact that his handwriting was good he thought it worth while to set down all the important doings of the society and its council. He did not delegate this to others; he did it himself, and he wrote conscientiously and regularly through a series of years. Who will gainsay that this attention to detail was a leading factor in establishing on a sound basis a new society that was to exercise a potent influence for bettering the standards of medicine in the community?
On January 2, 1793, he signed the records for the last time after resigning his office and received the thanks of the society for his past services. He attended meetings of society and council until April 3, 1794; April 16 he sent a letter presenting the society with "a folio edition of Smellie's anatomical tables; a quarto edition of the medical works of Richard Smead, M.D. and a small box containing a few anatomical preparations." He was made an honorary Fellow and moved to Marietta, Ohio. He returned to Boston and died April 15, 1795, two months before his fortieth birthday.
The Rev. John Clarke preached a funeral sermon on Appleton April 19, 1795, at the "First Church in Boston," taking for his text: "Lover and friend hast thou put far from me; and mine acquaintance into darkness." Having been in the next class to Appleton in college, when classes contained only thirty or forty members, it is likely that Clarke knew a good deal about the subject of his discourse. We feel sure that Appleton would have approved of the clergyman's remarks for in one of his letters to his friend Pearson in 1784 he speaks of sending him a similar sermon preached by Dr. Clarke on the death of the Rev. Dr. Cooper in 1783. The custom of the time did not countenance in a funeral oration anything but "reflections," so posterity must be content with the only direct reference to Appleton as contained in the following quotation: "It is acknowledged that the person, whose death has led to these reflections, was the man of pure and undefiled religion;—was a pattern of all the excellencies which adorn the human character. His integrity, his veracity, his meekness, his benevolence, his profound reverence of the Deity, his respect for the Saviour, and his ardent love for his country, were displayed on numberless occasions; and gathered new brightness through every successive period of life."
Appleton wrote two papers for the Massachusetts Medical Society that were published in the "Medical Communications": "An account of the successful treatment of paralysis of the lower limbs, occasioned by a curvature of the spine," and "History of a hemorrhage from a rupture of the inside of the left labium pudendi."
Archer, John (1741–1810)
The first medical graduate in America, a soldier of the Revolution, medical teacher, statesman, a founder of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, John Archer was born near the present village of Churchville, Hartford County, Maryland, May 5, 1741, his father, Thomas Archer, having emigrated to America from the north of Ireland, and settled in Maryland as a farmer and agent for iron works. He was educated at West Nottingham Academy, in Cecil County. Here he had as classmate Dr. Benjamin Rush. In 1760 he received his A.B. at Princeton College and his A.M. three years later. In 1762 he projected a grammar school in Baltimore, but shortly after abandoned it to enter upon the study of theology under Presbyterian auspices. He progressed so far in this field as to preach his trial sermon, but failed to pass a satisfactory examination. This led him to turn his attention to medicine and in the spring of 1765 he became a pupil of Dr. Morgan, and in November following entered upon the initiatory course of lectures of the Philadelphia College of Medicine, begun then by Drs. Morgan and Shippen. In the summer of 1767, between his second and third course of lectures, he began to practise in Newcastle County, Delaware, staying there two years, taking his degree of M.B. at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, on June 21, 1768. This was the first occasion in America of the conferring of a medical degree after actual attendance.
Declining an offer of partnership made by Dr. Morgan, he returned to his native county in July, 1769, where he practised nearly forty years. He took active part in the great strug-
