Morgan, John (1735-1789)

US physician. Having taken the lead in founding the medical school at the College of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania) in 1765, he joined the faculty and wrote his influential ‘Discourse upon the Institution of Medical Schools in America’ (1765).

Morgan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After serving an apprenticeship, he continued his medical studies in Great Britain and Italy. After the American Revolution had begun, Congress appointed him medical director of the hospitals and chief physician of the colonial army (1775); he insisted on such charges in the medical department and upon such high standards that his subordinates rebelled and Congress finally removed him (1777). He returned to teaching at the Pennsylvania Hospital and to his private practice, but not without publishing a defence of his conduct.