AND HIS ESSAY*

By WILLIAM SHAINLINE MIDDLETON

MADISON, WISCONSIN

HE aristocracy of was second only to Franklin, with medicine is deeply rooted in whom he was a contemporary." the traditions of the Colonial The growing interest in that emi­ period. Dr. Thomas Wynne, a nent American would justify an in­ Tfriend and counsellor of William quiryPenn, into the career of Thomas Cad­ accompanied the latter on his first voy­ walader, even though the latter might age to America in 1682. Wynne set a prove to have no grounds for inde­ precedent of civic consciousness for pendent consideration. As the story is subsequent generations of medical men evolved, however, Cadwalader takes an by becoming the president of the first increasingly important place. As a rule Provincial Assembly of . these splendid figures worked side by The hereditary order of the medical side in the common weal. Franklin was profession is a conspicuous trait. Dr. usually the leading spirit but Cadwal­ Wynne’s daughter, Mary, married Dr. ader never withheld his support. In Edward Jones and their daughter, Mar­ many instances their united strength tha Wynne Jones, in turn married John won the day. Nor did Cadwalader lack Cadwalader in 1702. The Cadwaladers the qualities of leadership that would arose from Cardiganshire, Wales. The deny independent action to him. original spelling of the name was Kad- Thomas Cadwalader was born in Philadelphia in 1707. His father, who waladyr and it meant ‘’battle arranger.” held his citizenship a serious responsi­ John, the founder of the Pennsylvania bility, died in 1734 and his mother in branch of the family, was the son of 1747. Thomas attended the Friends’ Thomas and Rebecca Evans Cadwala­ Public School in Philadelphia and the der. At 19 he accompanied William academy at Bensalem, Bucks County, Penn on the latter’s second voyage to under Rev. William Tennant. In 1725 Pennsylvania. To Martha Wynne Jones or 1726 he was apprenticed to his and were born three uncle, Dr. Evan Jones, for the study children, Mary, Rebecca, and Thomas. of medicine. Two years later, young Of the last named it has been written, Thomas went to Europe to complete ” 1 here was no public interest of any his medical training. In France he is kind that Dr. Cadwalader’s active and said to have studied in the University enterprising spirit was not the fore­ of Rheims. Thereafter he went to Lon­ most in promoting, whether in the po­ don where he applied himself assidu­ litical, social, professional, or institu­ ously to the study of anatomy under tional movements of his time, and in William Cheselden. This experience in his many-sided career of usefulness he human dissection was destined to have

*Read before the University of Wisconsin Medical History Seminar at the home of Dr. William Snow Miller. a much wider influence than the mere John Pringle (December 21, 1757) re­ training of a young American medical ported temporary, not permanent, ad­ student. vantage from electrotherapy in palsy. Shortly after Cadwalader’s return to Philadelphia the importunities of his medical contemporaries led him to con­ duct a series of dissections for their in­ struction. T hese dissections were made in a building in Second Street above Walnut. Caspar Wistar indicated that James Logan probably sponsored them. It is beside our present purposes to claim priority for these anatomical demonstrations (1731), but they at least served to stimulate a local inter­ est in more adequate training. Among the interested group was the elder Wil­ liam Shippen, then a medical student 18 or 19 years old, and it may be as­ sumed that this experience led him to offer his son William the opportunity for foreign study some thirty years later. Cadwalader’s nephew, John Jones, was one of his house pupils "who won distinction in the practice of medicine. In 1730 Thomas Cadwalader re­ Jones dedicated “Plain, Concise, Prac­ turned to Philadelphia and began the tical Remarks on the Treatment of practice of medicine. His background Wounds and Fractures’’ (1775) to his and training forecasted his immediate uncle in the following terms: success. To these impersonal attributes To you, whose whole life has been one were added unusual personal charm, continual scene of benevolence and hu­ poise and urbanity. Cadwalader joined manity, the most efforts to soften human Kearsley, Zachary, and Bond in prac­ misery and smoothe the bed of death will, ticing inoculation against smallpox in I know, be an acceptable present, however 1730. The correspondence between short the well-meant zeal of the author Governor Jonathan Belcher of New may fall of his purpose. Nor will you sus­ Jersey and (1751) pect me of the vanity of supposing I shall casts serious doubt upon the claim that convey anything new or instructive to men Cadwalader, the attending physician, of knowledge and experience in their pro­ fession, much less to yourself, to whose was the first to use electrotherapy. A excellent precepts, both in physic and singular confusion has entered the ac­ morals, I owe the best and earliest lessons counts of the Governor’s disability. in my life, and if I have attained in any Apparently he suffered from paralysis degree of estimation with my fellow citi­ agitans rather than from the results of zens, it is with the most sincere and heart­ electrocution, as some accounts read. felt pleasure that I acknowledge the Benjamin Franklin in a letter to Sir source. The medical fame of Thomas Cad­ Observations as may, I hope, be of Service walader rests securely upon his early to my Fellow Creatures. contribution of a monograph on lead I he Truth of it is, there can be no more poisoning from the imbibition of Ja­ maica rum distilled in leaden vessels. Yet the included clinical description of osteomalacia with the necropsy findings offers many details of greater signifi­ cance from the medical and historical standpoints. The brochure, “An Essay on the West-India Dry-Gripes; with the Method of Preventing and Curing that Cruel Distemper" was dedicated to and printed by Benjamin Franklin in 1745. The manuscript, a gift of S. Weir Mitchell, is in the Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. In many source references Cadwalader is credited with the authorship of a second article on the iliac passion. Dulles has traced this error to David Ramsey’s statement (1801): “Idle ear­ liest publication in America on a medi­ cal subject, which has come in my way, was a treatise on the iliac passion by the late Dr. Cadwallader (sic) of Phila­ delphia, printed about 60 years ago.” Dulles listed ten medical papers pub­ lished in America before Cadwalader’s Essay. The catalogue of the Library of the College of Physicians of Philadel­ phia remarks that the Essay is the a perfect work in the World, than a per­ “earliest medical treatise written and fect man. To say therefore of any Per­ printed in America known to be ex­ formance, that there are Faults in it, is in tant. The only known copy containing Effect to say no more, than that the Au­ the two prefaces, one of which was thor of it is a Man. suppressed.” I would not however be understood to For comparison the essentials of the insinuate, that the following Piece is in two prefaces are appended: any Degree as perfect in its Kind as Man First— could make it. I am sensible, that, like other Arts, the Faculty of writing well is To the Reader. only to be acquired by writing much. If It was neither Thirst after Gain, nor anything is here taught that may be use­ the Desire of Applause, but the Welfare fid to Mankind, the candid Reader will, of Mankind alone, which excited me to for its sake, excuse Faults of Method, Stile publish this Essay. I have therefore frankly and Expression; But if I have inculcated and honestly laid before the World such any Mistake that may be of pernicious Consequence, let the Publick be set right, known or practised by others. By this the whatever Opinion they may afterwards Medicinal Art has been, and may still be entertain of me. greatly improved. Many are the Advan­

Second— tages the Present Age reaps from such a disinterested Conduct in our Predecessors; To the Reader. and where we have freely received, surely I have long been of Opinion, that ’tis we should freely give. the Duty of Physicians frankly to com­ This has induced me to write the fol­ municate to the World, any particular lowing Essay on the Dry-Gripes, and to Method of treating Diseases, which they recommend a Method of Cure which ap­ have found to be successful in the Course pears to me to be drawn from the Nature of their Experience, and not generally and Cause of that grievous Distemper, and which has approved itself to me by a I he Pains are frequently so sharp, that, very extraordinary Success. the Patient will fall on the Floor and cry And tho’ the Method here laid down out violently in the greatest Agony. may be new to the Generality of the Pro­ fession. it has been practised some Years, with great Approbation, by several Gen­ tlemen of distinguished Characters in Philadelphia. From their Judgment of this Method, as well as my own, I am inclined to hope the following Piece may contribute, in some Degree, to the Welfare of Mankind. With this View I have caused it to be printed, and submit it to the candid Con­ sideration of the Publick. In both prefaces grateful acknowl­ edgment is made for the assistance of Dr. A. Spencer of Philadelphia in ‘re­ vising this Essay, as well as for embel­ lishing it with some curious and useful Observations, which he would not suf­ fer me to point out to the Reader.” Without further digression Cadwal­ ader passed to a clinical description of the “Dry Gripes” which he correctly concluded to be the same affection as the “Cholica Pictonum” of the Euro­ pean writers: They are both attended with excessive griping Pains in the Pit of the Stomach and Bowels, which are much distended with Wind; violent and frequent Reach- I'he Alcaline Acrimony impacted on ings to vomit, sometimes bringing up the Stomach and Intestines, is so great in small Quantities of bilious Matter; at many Cases, as to communicate its malign other times there is a Sensation, as if the Influence to the whole nervous System, Bowels were drawn together by Ropes; causing violent Convulsions, which arc great Costiveness, and frequently a con­ very dangerous Symptoms; tho’ I have tinual Inclination to go to Stool without known many recover after having a Num­ voiding any Thing. ber of them. But if the excessive Pain con­ The Ducts which open into the Intes­ tinues any considerable Time, the Peris­ tines, and excrete a Mucus to moisten and taltic Motion of the Intestines becomes lubricate them, are obstructed and glewed inverted, and the Iliac Passion ensues. up with a Viscosity not easily resolvable; This sore Malady usually degenerates and through the whole Course of the Dis­ into the Palsy, and a Deprivation of all temper, the Faeces are extremely dry and Sort of Motion in the Hands and Feet. hard, in small Lumps like Bullets. The Doctor Willis conjectured that the Tran­ Intestines are drawn towards the Back sition of a Cholic to a Palsy, was a Sign with almost continual convulsive Twitches. that the Morbific Matter was transmitted not by the Arteries but the Nerves, and Purge, so as to procure one Stool a that its Seat was not in the Coats of the Day.” Intestines, but the nervous Plexus of the In the active treatment of the affec­ Mesentery; which is very sensible, and tion he advised mild laxatives, com­ obnoxious to an Afflux of Humours of the bined with opium. His rationalization nervous Kind. But this Remark of Dr. of the use of the latter is very in­ Willis can only relate to the Hysteric teresting: Cholic, which sometimes counterfeits the Bilious; being accompanied with a Pain Every Pain acts as a Stimulus, or rather, about the Scrobiculum Cordis, the Region a Stimulus excites a Sense of pain: But of the Stomach, and a little lower, which every Stimulus provokes the Fibres to is followed with a Vomiting of Humours Contractions, and, if violent, throws them of a green or yellow Colour, and a great into Spasms. When, therefore, a Cholic Sinking of the Spirits; after a Day or two Pain is very vehement, the Intestines are the Pain goes off, but upon the slightest in some Places affected with Convulsions, commotion or Perturbation of the Mind and are as if bound hard with a Swathe; it soon returns again. insomuch that unless the Pain is lulled The remote Cause is supposed to be an asleep, neither the Faeces nor Wind can obstructed Perspiration, by being exposed be transmitted downwards: It is for this to a moist Night Air, and cold raw Winds; Reason, that every violent Cholic Pain is hard Drinking, especially Drams of Strong almost always attended with a great Cos­ Punch; and Want of a good Digestion, tiveness. It is, therefore, very rational to which renders the Chyle crude and viscid; add Anodynes to Purges in very vehement but the proximate Cause is an acrimoni­ Cholics. ous Bile. For intractable vomiting, tartar vit­ riolate and cinnamon water were ad­ Although Cadwalader lacked a clear vised. Cream of tartar was used as a appreciation of the cause of the “Dry laxative after the vomiting had been Gripes’’ he cautioned therapy in this controlled. Three or four evacuations manner, “In all kinds of Diseases it is a day were deemed adequate. Hot fo­ absolutely necessary to know the Cause; mentations aided this end. Oily clys­ for otherwise to attempt to Cure, is ters were next invoked. Bland fluids like a blind man shooting at a Mark; and foods, as barley water and gruels, the Remedies in one Case being di­ were the first dietary suggestions. Later rectly opposite and destructive in an­ “new-laid Eggs, Jellies, Chicken, Lamb, other.” Vipor-Broth” may be added and the By way of prophylaxis Cadwalader food was recommended in smaller urged abstinence from “Drams and quantities more frequently. “All sub­ strong Punch; salted and high seasoned acid Liquors are best, as Rhenish Meats; immoderate Exercise which Wine, Madera Wine, in which Rattle- raises Sweat; and profuse Venery; To Snakes are infused; sour and weak rise early in a Morning; to take Choco­ Punch, made with old Spirit.” late for Breakfast and Supper, make The Stomach may be called the Kitchen frequent use of Broths and boiled of the Body, whose Office is to digest and Meats, emollient and acid Herbs and convert the Aliments into a laudable Fruits; dilute plentifully with tepid, Chyle; the more, therefore, the Food is small, and subacid Liquors; and when attenuated and divided by Mastication, so costive, to take a small saponaceous much the easier il is for the Stomach to perform its Office. Temperance is. indeed, this, but in almost every Chronical Dis­ the greatest Preservative of Health; for it ease, by driving the noxious Humours prevents all Superfluities, and neither from the Center to the Circumference, overloading nor straining the Vessels, and expelling them through the Ducts of enables Nature to exert herself with the the Milliary Glands. Riding only, has, in­ greatest Force and Vigour. Cupping, deed restored many, on whom the most Bleeding, Blistering. Purges, Clysters, Etc., operose Medicines have not had the least are seldom of Use, but to the Slothfid and good Effect. Let then the Patient enjoy Intemperate; and are, for the most part, Health by Riding, and daily acquire only Expedients to make Luxury consist­ Strength by this noble Exercise. The use ent with Health. of the Flesh Brush, and other Frictions, He, therefore, that is desirous of pre­ are likewise necessary, especially about the serving his Senses and rational Faculties joints and Limbs, which will promote a in the greatest Perfection and of being brisker circulation of the Fluids in those able to act with a sprightly Vigour and Parts. In fine, every Thing is to be used lively Apprehension, must beware of which will increase the Elasticity of the spurring Nature on beyond her Craving. Fibres, attenuate the Fluids, and promote To complete the Cure, let the Patient a good Digestion. as soon as able, use constant and moderate Cadwalader’s analysis of the resource­ Exercise 011 Horseback, than which there fulness of the prepared and the unpre­ is not a better Thing to strengthen the pared physician reflects the empiricism Viscera and Intestines; for the Fibres of the Mesentery and Intestines having been of the period. with the long pains much weakened and It is impossible for any Man to judge relaxed, are by this Means brought to re­ from such and such Symptoms, what the cover their proper Tone and reassume Method of Cure ought to be in this or that their former Oscillations, so as to shake Disease, unless he has an Idea of the off and expel the Morbific Impurities. Causes and Manner of their Production. For riding on Horseback, by the very A true Physician, therefore, goes always frequent Jogging of the Body, gently warily to Work, and proceeds upon a just shakes the whole Abdomen; and, there­ and solid Foundation; for he first gets a fore, by a continual Pressure and Agita­ Knowledge of the Scat and Cause of a tion, it throws off whatever adheres to the Disorder, and at these he levels his Pre­ Intestines, overcomes any Lentor remain­ scription. If the Case proves obstinate he ing in the small Vessels, and very much augments the Force of his Medicines, and promotes the Circulation of the Blood varies them as Circumstances alter, with­ thro’ the Mesenteric Vessels, and little out acknowledging an End to his Art, Branches of the Vena Porta, where the where the Disease is curable: For he has circulating Fluids move the slowest. Hence always some promising Remedy in Re­ this Exercise, by its almost continual jolt­ serve, and can from Rules of Analogy, ing of the Body, dissolves the Blood, con­ directly attempt the Removal of Diseases creted partly by the Force of the Disease, unseen before. A Person, on the contrary, and partly by its sluggish Motion in those who is ignorant of the Animal Economy, Parts; opens the Obstructions formed in and the many other Requisites in Physic, the Hepatic, Pancreatic, Mesenteric, and is puzzled and confounded at every Acci­ Intestinal Glands; and greatly contributes dent which turns up, and a new Case to the Action of the Spleen, which is assist­ throws him quite out of his Bias; for ing to that of the Liver. Lastly, as it is having but few Remedies to trust to, he evident, from many experiments, that directs them at all Adventures, without Perspiration is very much increased by pursuing any formed Designs, or without Riding, it is of vast advantage not only in regarding the Seat, the Cause, or Stage of the Disease, and the Circumstances of the and consequently they run into preter­ Patient. If happily his Medicines succeed, natural Cohesions. The giving, therefore, it is well; but if they fail, he is at the Ex­ a greater Degree of Fluidity to the Blood, tent of his Cord, he has done his utmost, and a proper Tensity or Springiness to and your Case is desperate; But thrice the Fibres, is absolutely necessary to make happy is the patient, if he escapes without all the regular Secretions and Excretions, having either his Constitution or Life for otherwise some Parts of the Body will destroyed, through the Pretender’s Ig­ want a suitable Supply of Nutritious norance and Rashness. Juices, while others are overloaded with a viscous Fluid. Ehe case citations lack detail but af­ ford a clear picture of lead poisoning Sound hygienic advice completes the in all of its manifestations including dissertation. Particular note should be encephalopathy. A reference is made to taken of Cadwalader’s suggestion of the the inordinate doses of metallic mer­ benefit of music in inducing mental cury in vogue at that period. One pa­ serenity. The Essay was well received in tient in a London hospital had received this country and abroad. In his later three doses of quicksilver of six ounces lectures Benjamin Rush referred in a each. Upon death, fourteen of these laudatory manner to Cadwalader’s ther­ eighteen ounces were recovered from apeutic suggestions in the treatment of the stomach. And then follows an inter­ lead poisoning. The admonition for esting comment: “Hence we learn, how more moderate measures was generally long Quicksilver may remain in the accepted in Great Britain. Stomach; especially when the Fibres Unusual historical interest attaches have lost their proper Tone; since in to the appended clinicopathological re­ this Case the contractile Power of the port, “An Extraordinary Case in Phys- Stomach must have been exerted with ick.” In several details it outweighs the prodigious Force, in order to have Essay in importance. The patient who thrown such a Weight from the Bottom had suffered from diabetes and general of the Stomach over such an Ascent as pains, experienced an intermittent the Pylorus.’’ fever. Thereafter the polyuria gradu­ Cadwalader’s grasp of the significance ally decreased but there was a continu­ of the neurologic phases of the “Dry ance of the pains in the legs. About two Gripes’’ was faulty, but it reflected the years after the onset, weakness and contemporary viewpoint. pains in the legs led to bedfastness. We frequently observe Persons in the Shortly the bones in her extremities be­ Dry-Gripes to lose the use of their Limbs came quite pliable to touch. “Nay, for (the Ancles and wrists becoming exceed­ several months before her Death, they ing weak, and the Balls of their Thumbs ■were as limber as a Rag, and would sinking) either by the Acrimony of the bend any way with less Difficulty than Humours, or the Use of strong Stimulants; the muscular parts of a healthy Person’s by which means the fine nervous System Leg, without the Interposition of the being wounded and debilitated, the Equi­ librium between the Solids and Fluids is Bones.’’ destroyed. There followed a brief protocol of In such a relaxed State of the Solids, the the necropsy, which was the first to be Blood must necessarily become Viscid; for performed for scientific purposes in the the Fibres having lost their elastic Force, Colonies (April 12, 1742). The descrip­ the circulation of the Fluids is diminished, tion of the universal softening of the bones with a reduction of the height later donated to the Hospital by the from five feet to three feet seven inches Penns. Plans for the hospital were ap­ constitutes the first clinicopathological proved by the Board of Managers in account of osteomalacia. It is idle to March 1755. On May 28, 1755 they conjecture, but the diabetic episode were joined by a body of representa­ might have arisen from an involvement tive citizens and marched from the of the cranial bones adjacent to the hy­ temporary building in Market Street pophysis or the hypothalamus. Of a to the new site. Here the corner stone philosophical turn of mind Thomas was laid with Masonic rites. Its inscrip­ Cadwalader reasoned that “a corrosive tion was written by Benjamin Franklin acid State of the Fluids” might have whose interest in the project never caused "this uncommon Dissolution of lagged. the Bones.” O11 this thesis he postulated In the year of Christ that "an alcaline Regimen" would have been the logical therapeutic approach. MDCCLV CadwTalader’s interest in the Pennsyl­ George the second happily reigning vania Hospital was early and continued. (For he sought the happiness of his In 1751 he contributed £25 to the capi­ people) tal stock of the hospital that his friend, Philadelphia flourishing Benjamin Franklin, was proposing. On (For its inhabitants were public October 12, 1751 the Committee acted spirited) to lease Judge Kinsey’s house for tem­ This Building porary quarters. Eleven days later the By the bounty of the Government first staff was formed by the appoint­ And of many private persons ment of Drs. Lloyd Zachary, Thomas Was piously founded and Phineas Bond to active duty and by for the relief of the sick and miserable; the request for "Drs. Graeme, Cadwal­ May the God of mercies ader, Moore and Redman to assist in Bless the Undertaking. consultations on extraordinary Cases." After due preparation and advertise­ 1 he new building was ready for occu­ ment in the Gazette a special meeting pancy and the patients moved from of the managers and the staff was called Market Street, December 17, 1756. This 011 February 10, 1752 to discuss appli­ structure has sheltered suffering hu­ cations for admittance with the Over­ manity for over one hundred and eighty seer of the Poor. Margaret Sherlock years. Additions have served to keep was the first patient selected and it is this venerable institution abreast of interesting to note that she was likewise the changing tides of medical progress the first dismissed as cured. Thereafter and human needs down to the present it was proposed that a committee of the time. 'Thomas Cadwalader continued to managers meet with the medical staff serve on the medical staff until 1779. twice weekly to arrange the admit­ The foresight of Cadwalader and his tances. fellow staff men at the Pennsylvania A permanent site, bounded by Hospital is reflected in the following Spruce, Pine, Eighth, and Ninth characteristic action: Streets, with the exception of a narrow When the managers resolved to demand strip on Spruce Street was purchased a fee for the privilege of attending the for £500. This small parcel of land was wards of the hospital, and consulted with the physicians in regard to the destination tion amalgamated with the American of the sum raised, these gentlemen, Society for Promoting Useful Knowl­ Thomas Bond, Phineas Bond, Cadwalader edge he took an active part in its pro­ Evans and Thomas Cadwalader, although ceedings. The Medical Society’s mem­ having claims upon such gratuities, ac­ bership at this time included Graeme, cording to the custom of the British hos­ Redman, Morgan, Kearsley, Clarkson, pitals, full of scientific zeal, proposed to apply the money to the foundation of a Bayard, Harris, Rush, Souman, Glent- medical library for the advantage of the worth, Potts and Cadwalader. They pupils of the institution. ■were constituted a committee on physic. Upon the union of the American This magnanimous position raises Philosophical Society and the Ameri­ the question of Cadwalader’s teaching can Society held at Philadelphia for relationship to the new Medical School Promoting Useful Knowledge (January of the College of Philadelphia (1765). 2, 1769) he became one of the three He was a trustee of the College at the vice-presidents. Since the president, time of the foundation of the medical Benjamin Franklin, was then abroad, course, but Thomas Bond alone is listed Thomas Cadwalader actually served as as a clinical professor, -with the re­ the first presiding officer. sponsibility for lectures at the Pennsyl­ The early existence of the American vania Hospital. Yet the cited action Philosophical Society was marred by leaves little doubt but that the Brothers the political strife of the times. Bishop Bond, Cadwalader Evans and Thomas White had been delegated to approach Cadwalader were mutually interested Governor with the request in ward instruction in this venerable that he honor the organization as its institution. patron. The Governor answered, “No, Among Cadwalader’s important edu­ gentlemen, I cannot be the patron of cational activities was his interest in a Society -whose first president is the the Academy and College of Philadel­ greatest enemy of my family.” His phia. He was elected a trustee Novem­ kinsman, Governor , ap­ ber 12, 1751. He was one of the trus­ parently saw matters in a different light, tees 'who waited upon Governor James for two years later he responded, ‘‘I Hamilton for the charter of the Acad­ beg leave to assure you, that I shall emy July 13, 1753. From Governor not consider the patronage of the Robert Hunter (June 10, 1755) he was Philosophical Society, begun and flour­ one of the committee to receive the ishing in this province, as the least charter of the College. In his resigna­ honourable appendage of my present tion five months before his death he appointment.” wrote, “I am sorry that the declining After the affairs of organization had State of my Health, and my Intention been settled, the first matter of scientific of removing for my future Habitation interest related to the plans for the ob­ to a Distance from the City, render it servation of the transit of Venus. Three inconvenient for me and injurious for points, State House Square, Philadel­ the Institution to serve longer as a phia, the Rittenhouse farm in Norriton Trustee.” Township, Montgomery County and Cadwalader participated in the Cape Henlopen in Delaware Bay, -were foundation of the Philadelphia Medi­ selected and temporary towers were cal Society in 1765. When this organiza­ erected with some financial subsidy from the Legislature. In Volume 1 of was destroyed by the British (Decem­ The Transactions of the American ber 1776). Philosophical Society the very success­ The civic interests of Cadwalader ful observations of this astronomical found expression in other directions. phenomenon were reported by Rev. From 1751 to 1776 he served as a mem­ John Ewing. Rev. William Smith, and ber of the City Council of Philadel­ Owen Biddle. phia. From 1755 to 1774 he worked Joining Benjamin Franklin in his with the changing Provincial Councils noteworthy effort to provide good lit­ for military defense. The panic follow­ erature for fellow Philadelphians ing the defeat of Braddock (July 3, Thomas Cadwalader was among the 1755) consolidated the divergent forces citizens called by the following notice: in the Colony. A fund of £50,000 was voted for defense. Cadwalader was Novr 1731. The Minutes of one Joseph among the citizens who subscribed Breintnall, Secretary to the Directors of £500 each for the purpose. He served the Library Company of Philadelphia, as a lieutenant colonel in one of the with such of the Minutes of the same Di­ rectors as they order me to make. Begun companies formed in Philadelphia to the 8th day of November 1731. By virtue repel the threatened invasions of the of the Deed or Instrument of the said French and Indians. The Seven Years’ Company dated the first Day of July last. War, the Pontiac War, and the insur­ The said Instrument being completed by rection of the Paxtang boys in turn fifty Subscriptions I subscribed my name agitated the calm of the Quaker me­ on the following Summons or Notice, tropolis. which Benjamin Franklin sent by a mes­ Thomas Cadwalader and his sons senger. Viz John and Lambert were among the signers of the “Non importation Ar­ To ticles.’’ He was a man of strong con­ Benjamin Franklin Thomas Hopkinson victions, yet he was incapable of Williams Parsons Philip Syng Junr bitterness. As affairs of state between Thomas Godfrey Anthony Nicholas the Colonies and Britain became more Thomas Cadwalader John Jones Junr Robert Grace and Isaac Pennington strained, public demonstrations against the motherland were frequent and on Gentlemen October 8. 1773 Cadwalader presided at the “Great Tea Meeting’’ in the The subscription to the Library being completed, You the Directors in the In­ State House Yard. Public feeling ran strument are desired to meet this Evening so high that Cadwalader thereafter at­ at 5 o’clock at the House of Nicholas tended only one meeting of the Provin­ Scull. Philad” 8 Novr 1731. cial Council. When hostilities were actually de­ Thomas Cadwalader was a director clared, Thomas Cadwalader was an ar­ of this organization from 1731 to 1732, dent patriot. A close friend and adviser 1733 to ‘739’ 1752 to J7^9’ an(l !773 of John Morgan, he doubtless assisted to 1774. The Library Company thrived. him in the ill-fated plans of organiza­ Furthermore Cadwalader contributed tion of the Hospital Department of £500 toward the establishment of a the Continental Army. No record of free library in Trenton. It flourished his active service is available. His two until the Revolutionary War, when it sons were officers of high rank in the Army. At the request of Congress, ket Streets. A fire destroyed the home­ January 30, 1775, Thomas Cadwalader stead, “The Greenwoods,” in New visited and examined General Prescott, Jersey on February 1, 1873. With it a prisoner of war. His courteous and went all of the old furniture and the efficient service made a friend of the valuable family records. The frame British officer who was paroled on April mansion was rebuilt on the old plan. 9> 1775- When Cadwalader’s son, Colo­ Thomas Cadwalader became a mem­ nel Lambert Cadwalader, was taken ber of the Masonic order in 1737. The prisoner at Fort Washington in Novem­ St. John’s Lodge with which he was ber 1775, General Prescott effected his affiliated, is one of the oldest in Amer­ prompt exchange. Another son, General ica. Its meetings were held in Sun John Cadwalader, was a warm personal Tavern in Water Street. In 1738 he friend of General Washington. Taking was made Grand Warden. umbrage at General Conway’s machina­ Cadwalader owed his life on one oc­ tions, General Cadwalader challenged casion to his prepossessing presence and and wounded him in a duel. graciousness. At his trial for the mur­ Thomas Cadwalader had married der of a Mr. Scull in 1760, Lieutenant Hannah, the daughter of Thomas Lam­ Bruluman, a Philadelphian serving in bert, Jr., of Lamberton, , the British , told of his obses­ on April 15, 1738. Four daughters and sion for death that was strangely linked two sons were born to this union and with an unwillingness to commit sui­ their illustrious careers bespeak the cide. Armed with a shot-gun he set soundness of the stock. The Lamberts forth with a determination to kill the held large tracts of land near the pres­ first person whom he should encounter. ent site of Trenton. Shortly after their His resolution failed him when the first marriage, Cadwalader gave up the prac­ person was a girl. Then he met Doctor tice of medicine and settled in Hunter­ Cadwalader who greeted him, “Good don County, New Jersey. From 1739 morning, sir! What sport?” So disarm­ to 1744 he served as Commissioner ing was the cordiality that the Lieu­ of Pleas and Peace and in 1746 he be­ tenant spared the prospective victim. came the first Burgess of the “Borough On the bowling green at Center Square and town of Trenton,” a post that he he saw a group of men who proposed held until Governor Belcher accepted a billiard game. As they left the green, the surrender of the charter. A por­ Bruluman followed and shot Scull. He tion of each year was spent in a man­ paid the death penalty. sion on the north bank of the Schuyl­ Probably the best contemporary kill below Philadelphia. In 1742 and tribute to Thomas Cadwalader was 1754 he advertised the sale of extensive paid by John Redman in his Inaugural holdings in Hunterdon County. His Address upon assuming the presidency professional activities were not com­ of The College of Physicians of Phila­ pletely eclipsed in Trenton. Among his delphia. He expressed his regret that more prominent patients was Governor Cadwalader had not lived to become Belcher. One house pupil in Trenton, the first presiding officer of the new John Rockhill, began practicing in body in these words: 1748. In 1749 the Cadwaladers returned to Philadelphia and took a house on One whose age, character, and repu­ the southeast corner of Fifth and Mar­ tation for medical ability and respectable •deportment to and among ns, as well as and East Hanover Street. Trenton. A his generous, just, and benevolent temper brief notice of his passing appeared in of mind and great acquaintance with the current newspaper: books and men and things, and proper at­ tention to times and seasons, would. I am On Sunday evening last died in the persuaded, have pointed him out as our neighborhood of this place Trenton. first object. Nor need I mention it but Thomas Cadwalader. Esquire, late an emi­ that I naturally recollect with pleasure nent Physician of Philadelphia in the 72nd the name of our worthy and well-respected year of his age, universally regretted by brother, and my much esteemed friend, his acquaintances and friends. Thomas Cadwalader. Cadwalader died while on a visit to The photostatic reproductions were ob­ tained from the Library of the College of his son Lambert at the county seat, Physicians of Philadelphia through the co­ “The Greenwoods,” November 14, operation of l)r. W. B. McDaniel hi to whom 1779 and was buried in Friends Meet­ my sincere appreciation is herewith ex­ ing House Graveyard at Montgomery pressed.

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