Philip Syng Physick
American physician (1768-1837)
Philip Syng Physick (July 7, 1768 – December 15, 1837) was an American medical doctor and professor born in Philadelphia. He was the first professor of surgery and later of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania medical school from 1805 to 1831 during which time he was a highly influential teacher. Physick invented a number of surgical devices and techniques including the stomach tube and absorbable sutures. He has been called the "Father of American Surgery."
Life and career
Physick was born in Philadelphia on July 7, 1768, to Edmund Physick and Abigail Syng. Edmund was a businessman and receiver general of Pennsylvania who was a close friend of the Penn family and Keeper of the Great Seal. Abigail's father, Philip Syng, was a silversmith.
Physick was educated at the Friend's Public School where he studied under Robert Stroud. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1785, then began the study of medicine under Adam Kuhn, and continued it in London under John Hunter, learning anatomy through cadaver dissections, becoming, on January 1, 1790, house surgeon of St. George's hospital. Physick's skill in dissection made him a favorite student of Hunter.
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This entry incorporates text from “Philip Syng Physick” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.