There can be no doubt that the organization and presentation of a curriculum in medicine at the College of Philadelphia in 1765, the first medical school in the English-speaking New World, was a momentous event in medical education.
In support of their decision to institute a medical school, the College trustees invited Dr. John Morgan, chief promoter of the school, to give the commencement address in May, 1765. After completing an apprenticeship in Philadelphia, John Morgan had earned the MD degree at the University of Edinburgh and subsequently received professional honors while visiting London and the Continent. He had been home only a few weeks when the college trustees, influenced by persuasive letters of recommendation from abroad, elected him the professor of theory and practice of medicine and offered him the commencement platform.
His address, the primer of American medical education, contained sound guide lines for the development of medicine