Dr. John Syng Dorsey (1783-1818)

He was educated at the Friends' Academy, Philadelphia, and graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1802. He spent a year or more abroad, at the medical schools of London and Paris, during which time he attended the lectures of the distinguished chemist, Humphry Davy. Returning to America, he became adjunct professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania.  He was subsequently transferred to the chair of Materia Medica, Dr. Caspar Wistar. However, on the evening on which he was due to give his introductory lecture, he was attacked by a fever and was dead by the end of the week. He is recognized as one of the first surgeons of America and contributed papers to the Portfolio and other medical journals. He published an edition of Cooper's Surgery and Elements of Surgery which was adopted as a text-book by the University of Edinburgh. He had five children, three survived infancy (listed).