The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-06-22

"a member of Congress and Assembly
Judge and signer of the Declaration Of
Independence. He was a musician and
writer Of ability; in fact, the most prolific
writer Of both prose and verse ever grad
uated from the college. He became
trustee in ITS, and his family has been
prominently identified with the institution
to the present day." His name brings to
mind our old friend Francis Hopkinson
Smith, the brilliant and versatile author
and artist, who was christened in honor
of this patriot of the Revolution.
The history of the University of Penn
sylvania, has been extremely diversified.
Successful and prominent at first, it suf-
fered reverses during the Revolution and
afterward during a long controversy
growing out of an attempt to bring the
institution under State control. Its re-
sources were depleted by the vicissitudes
of the civil war, and its fortunes were at
a pretty low ebb when DIR. Charles J.
Stille was elected provost in 1868. This
event marked the entrance of the uni
versity into the place it had held in Col
onial days. Old restrictions were aban-
dOned and progressive reorganization Of
the college undertaken, the faculty greatly
strengthened, contributions secured and
the great move to West Philadelphia
accomplished" The succeeding provosts
were William Pepper, M. D. (1SS1 to
1894, and Charles C. Harrison 1884 to
1917 and by reason of their administra-
tive ability, personal generosity and zeal
the University Of Pennsylvania came to
be great university in every sense of the
word. During DR.. Peppers term of SER
vice the area of the property Of the uni
versity was enlarged from fifteen to fifty
four acres, the membership of the faculty
from 88 to 268 and tho number of stu
dents from 9S2 to 2,1S0. No other doctor
of medicine ever achieved so high de-
gree of success as college president. He
was a man of charming personality and
Irresistible persuasiveness." Provost
Harrison was a worthy successor. He not
only gave largely to the university out of
his own purse but raised 100000 by
way of voluntary contributions from
others.
Mr.. Horace Mather Lippincott evil
IDENTIFY regards his alma mater as the
first university ever established in this
country, for he begins his book with a
chapter entitled "The Story of Americas
First University" We do not quite IN
derstand this claim, inasmuch as Harvard
and Yale were both founded earlier
Harvard in 1896 and Yale In 100. 1t
appears to be the idea of the author that
the pre-existing college developed into a
university upon the establishment of a
medical department in connection there
with in 1765, through the fundamentally
Of DR.. John Morgan of the class of 1857,
who had served as a surgeon of the Pro-
vincial troops in the French and Indian
wars, completed his medical education
later in Europe, and came home to be
made professor of the theory and practice
of physick for his alma mater "This was
begun the first medical school in America,
which, as Thomas Penn SAID, gave repu-
taion and strength to the institution and
made it the first university on the con-
tinent, fact which was strengthened by
the first law department in 1890" The
first professor of law there was James
Wilson, great Pennsylvania lawyer, who
was appointed a Justice of the Supreme
Court Of the United States by President
Washington. For many years the med
ical school was the most popular and
prominent part of the university, often
having ten or twenty times as many stu
dents as the college proper. Now the
students are more uniformly distributed
throughout the several departments of the
university, old and new; the number in
attendance has risen from less than a
thousand in 1870 to 5000 in 1916; the