Cutting-Edge Ideas
Major medical firsts took place
at some of Philly’s top tourist spots
It’s easy to understand why Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation’s first, would be the site of numerous medical milestones.
Less obvious is the fact that even the way the hospital obtained funding was revolutionary. Like so many other things in Philadelphia — this creative idea came from Ben Franklin. We’ll discuss two of his groundbreaking fundraising innovations a bit later.
A surprising number of Philadelphia’s historic tourist sites involved important medical breakthroughs. We’ll start with the better-known ones, and work down the list.
Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation’s oldest hospital, was founded in 1751.
Pennsylvania Hospital
Address: 800 Spruce Street, Phila., PA 19107
Website: http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/
Claim to Fame: The nation’s oldest hospital, founded in 1751 by Thomas Bond and Ben Franklin; known for: having the first surgical amphitheatre in the U.S., the first medical library and the first medical resident.
Purpose: To “care for the sick-poor and insane who were wandering the streets of Philadelphia.”
Seal: The Good Samaritan, with the phrase “Take Care of Him and I will repay Thee” on it.
Virtual Tour: http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/tour/
John Gallery, former long-time executive director of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, calls the center section of Pennsylvania Hospital “one of the finest examples of the Federal style in the country.” The building is definitely worth a visit, even just to walk around the outside.
Among the medical highlights:
“Christ Healing the Sick in the Temple,” a renowned painting by Benjamin West that attracted 30,000 visitors in the first year. Now, free to view, its first 25 years of admission fees added $15,000 to the hospital’s coffers.
The Surgical Amphitheatre: The top floor of the Pine Building houses “the dreaded circular room.” Since there was no electricity at the time, surgeries took place on sunny days from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Medical students and locals paid to watch the show, with up to 300 people present during any given operation. Opened in 1804, the amphitheatre served until 1868.
The most common procedures performed here were: amputations; removal of internal and external tumors, bladder stones and cataracts; repair of hernias; and the setting of fractures.
Interesting Oddities:
With no anesthesia used here until the 1840s, patient choices were “rum, laudanum or a tap on the head with a mallet to dull the pain.”
When hospital physicians finally did accept the use of anesthesia in 1846, they used it only on women. Why? They believed women were less resistant to pain.
The Hill-Physick House, photographed by Beyond My Ken.
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.
Hill-Physick House
Address: 321 S. 4th Street, Phila., PA 19106
Claim to Fame: Home of “The Father of American Surgery”
Website: philalandmarks.org/physick-house
The Hill-Physick House, the last remaining free-standing townhouse in Society Hill, is considered one of the city’s finest examples of Federal architecture. First built in 1786 for Henry Hill, a wealthy importer of Madeira wine, it has an elaborate fanlight imported from London on the front door.
Years after Henry Hill died of yellow fever, this became the home of Dr. Philip Syng Physick, a noted surgeon responsible for many important medical and surgical advances.
Among his successes: He pioneered use of the stomach pump, introduced catgut sutures and designed a number of surgical instruments, including the needle forceps. Dr. Physick also excelled at cataract surgery, and performed frequent autopsies for observation and discovery. When Chief Justice John Marshall, age 76, required surgery to remove numerous small bladder stones, Dr. Physick, then in his 60s, performed the successful operation.
You’ll see some of his instruments on your visit, along with a modern version of artificially carbonated soda water he sold to patients with gastronomical problems. Dr. Physick was one of the first to offer health insurance in America, saying he would take care of an entire family’s medical needs for $20 a year.
Interesting Oddities:
Although Dr. Physick used autopsies extensively for teaching purposes, he left instructions in his will that he was not to have one. In addition, fearful of being buried alive, he stipulated that his burial be delayed.
Dr. Physick is credited with performing the first human-to-human blood transfusion in 1795. But he did not publish the particulars. A believer in Dr. Benjamin Rush’s treatment of “bleeding” yellow fever patients, Dr. Physick himself was bled a total of 176 ounces.
The Mütter Museum is famous for its unique collection of medical oddities.
Mütter Museum
Name Rhymes With: Scooter
Address: 19 S. 22nd St., Phila., Pa 19103
Claim to Fame: Includes a unique collection of medical oddities, anatomical and pathological specimens, antique medical equipment and more.
Website: muttermuseum.org
Purpose: To help the public appreciate the mysteries and beauty of the human body … while understanding the history of diagnosis and treatment of disease.
Unusual Specimens: Einstein’s brain, tallest skeleton on display in North America, plaster cast and conjoined liver of “Siamese Twins” Chang & Eng, “The Soap Lady” and Dr. Joseph Hyrtl’s human skull collection.
Caution: Some visitors may be unnerved by these collections. Even the headline under the “Visit” page of the museum’s website describes it as: Disturbingly Informed.
This marvelously macabre museum is named for Thomas Dent Mütter, a very special human being whom I previously knew nothing about.
That changed dramatically after I read interviews with and about Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, a poet and author of “Dr. Mutter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine.” I now know much more … after reading her book. It is wonderful.
After studying under some of France’s best surgeons, Dr. Mütter returned to Philadelphia and became one of America’s first plastic surgeons. He found great success performing reconstructive surgery on people society deemed “monsters” — those severely deformed by birth defects like cleft palates or accidents like burns. And he gave them new lives.
Dr. Mütter reportedly was tender and caring, “painfully sympathetic with the suffering of the patient.” Unlike many other physicians of the time, he paid great attention to pre- and post-surgical care. Before surgery, he massaged a patient’s affected skin, tenderly touching it with his instrument. After surgery, he carefully monitored patients and cleansed their wounds. He even insisted that Jefferson Medical College — where he taught and practiced — keep patients overnight after surgery, rather than jolting their bloody wounds on the city’s cobblestones while riding home.
Interesting Oddities
Dr. Mütter added the umlaut or double dots above his name as a way to brand himself after studying in Paris. He returned as Thomas Dent Mütter.
Dr. Mütter was the first surgeon to use ethyl ether anesthesia in Philadelphia.
On its website, Thomas Jefferson University says it would have housed Mütter’s collection — had the school possessed a fireproof building. Instead, Dr. Mütter donated his teaching collection of 1,700 items and specimens to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1858.
Video: The Mütter offers some wonderful videos on its YouTube channel, including a 9-part miniseries, titled: “Broken Bodies, Suffering Spirits: Injury, Death and Healing in Civil War Philadelphia.” Another: “Spit Spreads Death,” about the 1918–19 influenza pandemic in Philadelphia.
Back to Ben Franklin and Pennsylvania Hospital: To help raise the needed funds, Franklin created the first matching gift promotion. He gave people “an additional motive to give, since every man’s donation would be doubled.” He also listed donors’ names in a promotional booklet that served as an early “development report.” And he even included a contribution form on the last page! The man knew how to raise money!