Box 1

Overview This committee, consisting of William S. Forbes, Samuel D, Gross, and D, Hayes Agnew, was appointed on 6 February 1867. The committee travelled to Harrisburg to express its support of Senator Worthington's "Act for the promotion of Medical Science and to prevent the traffic in dead bodies". This act made legal the distribution of dead bodies buried at public expense to physicians or surgeons in the same city for the promotion of medical science; the act also forbade the transport of bodies from...

Overview This joint committee was established to voice the support of the medical community for an act that would make communications between patient and physician privileged and confidential, even in a court of law. William V. Keating and James V. Ingham were appointed on 7 November 1877 to be delegates from the College of Physicians to this committee. In their report, Keating and Ingham request permission from the College to act in cooperation with the other medical societies in their attempt to pass...

Overview This committee was appointed in November 1884; its members were Walter F, Atlee, Richard A. Cleemann, and Arthur V. Meigs. The committee's purpose was to prepare a written statement recommending preventative measures to defend the city against the threatened invasion of cholera, which had already reached epidemic proportions in Europe. The address drafted by the committee urged local officials to open dispensaries and clinics, clean the streets, and attempt to relieve over-crowded conditions in...

Overview The Committee on Tablets was appointed on 4 November 1885. The committee, consisting of S. Weir Mitchell, J, Ewing Mears, Charles W. Wurts, W. S. W. Ruschenberger, and Isaac Norris, Jr., was established to determine the names of the founding members of the College of Physicians, so that these names could be inscribed on a memorial tablet. The Report of the Sub-committee of the Committee on Tablets, prepared by W. S, W. Ruschenberger, contains information derived from the minutes of the first...

Overview The above committee was a joint committee consisting of Harrison Allen, Solomon Solis-Cohen, J, Ewing Mears, Charles K, Mills, and members of the Philadelphia County Medical Society. The committee, appointed on 5 June 1889, was formed to raise money to aid members of the medical profession who were victims of the Johnstown flood. After raising over $5,000 and distributing these funds to Johnstown physicians, the committee gave its final report and was discharged on 6 November 1889.

Overview The Committee to Prepare a Memorial of the Late Dr. Samuel Lewis was appointed on 7 January 1891, shortly after Lewis's death. The committee, consisting of Alfred Stille, S, Weir Mitchell, and John Ashhurst, Jr., was responsible for designing a memorial tablet, determining where it would be hung, and raising the funds to pay for it. The tablet was financed by donations from Fellows and was hung on the wall of the second story landing of the College building on 13th and Locust streets. The...

Overview On 3 May 1893, three delegates from the College of Physicians were selected to serve on the Union Committee on a Permanent Water Supply and General Sanitation. Richard A, Cleemann served as chairman of the Sub-Committee on General Sanitation, and Alexander C. Abbott and Charles W. Dulles were delegates to the Sub-Committee on Water Supply, The object of these sub-committees was to pass legislation that would guarantee a pollution-free water supply for the residents of Philadelphia. A month...

Overview The Standing Committee on Cholera was appointed in March 1893 to help alleviate the spread of the cholera epidemic in Philadelphia. The committee was chaired by Edward O. Shakespeare; other members included Jacob M, Dacosta, Horatio C. Wood, James C. Wilson, Frederick P. Henry, John H. Musser, and John K. Mitchell, After meeting with the mayor and other city officials, the committee began dispersing circulars to the Philadelphia medical community. The circulars were used to report "nuisances...

Overview This committee was established in January 1894. Committee members Arthur V. Meigs, Wharton Sinkler, and David F. Woods met with the mayor of Philadelphia on 17 January 1894 to inform him of the need for continuously ringing bells on the trolley-cars in the city. The mayor said that he would consider their proposal but could not guarantee its implementation. The committee, having done all it could in the matter, was discharged after presenting its final report to the Fellows of the College of...

Overview On 2 January 1895, William Pepper, James C. Wilson, Horatio C. Wood, J, Ewing Mears, William E. Hughes, Edward E. Montgomery, and John Guiteras were appointed to serve on the Committee on a National Board of Public Health. The committee was formed to investigate the organization of departments of public health in other nations and to consider steps to establishing such a department in the United States government. On 3 December 1895, chairman William Pepper reported that the committee was...