Thomas Bond Sr. (4)

Thomas Bond, Sr. (2 May 1713–26 March 1784) was a physician, surgeon, and philanthropist, and a founding member of the American Philosophical Society, both in its original and revived forms. Born into a Quaker family in Calvert County, Maryland, he began his studies there but completed his education in Europe, studying anatomy, medicine, and botany at the Hôtel-Dieu and the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. He then settled in Philadelphia, earning a reputation as a surgeon that brought him elite patients from as far afield as Boston. He was an elected member of the Philadelphia Common Council, a subscriber to the Library Company, and an original trustee of the Academy of Philadelphia. With Benjamin Franklin, Bond co-founded the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1751 and volunteered his services there until his death. In 1766, Bond inaugurated the first course of clinical lectures delivered in the colonies. His novel emphasis on hands-on training made Philadelphia a major center for medical study in North America and earned him the title "the Father of Clinical Medicine." During the American Revolution, Bond treated soldiers in the first American field hospitals and evaluated the candidacy of military surgeons. In the 1770s he was also active in promoting smallpox inoculation, serving as a physician with the Society for the Inoculation of the Poor Gratis and writing a paper in support of inoculation that was read to the APS and then published in translation in France and Germany. His brother Phineas Bond, his son Thomas Bond, Jr., and his brother-in-law Hugh Roberts were APS members. (PI, ANB, DAB)