Thomas Cadwalader (76)
Election date: 1768 (Elected to the revived American Philosophical Society in 1768. Elected to the American Society in 1768. Also a member of the Medical Society.)APS Office(s): Vice-president of the APS (1769-1770)
Thomas Cadwalader (1708–14 November 1779) was a physician and public official, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768. Born in Philadelphia, he studied medicine with his uncle Dr. Evan Jones before establishing his own practice. As a member of Benjamin Franklin’s circle, he was a founder and early director of the Library Company of Philadelphia. In 1731 he traveled to Europe, attending medical lectures by William Cheselden in London and earning an M.D. degree from the University of Rheims. Back in Philadelphia, he promoted smallpox inoculation and treated patients during the epidemic of 1737-1738. He also performed autopsies and anatomical dissections and published An Essay on the West-India Dry-Gripes (1745), a treatise on lead poisoning which he traced to the distillation of Jamaican rum in lead pipes. Relocating to Trenton, New Jersey, following his marriage, Cadwalader became the town’s chief burgess in 1745. When he returned to Philadelphia five years later, he left Trenton £500 to establish a public library modeled on the Library Company. Thereafter, he served on the Philadelphia Common Council and Provincial Council, as a trustee of the Academy and College of Philadelphia, and on the staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital. A lapsed Quaker, he broke with the pacifism of the Quaker-dominated assembly in supporting military defense spending during the French and Indian War. He spoke out against the Stamp Act, signed the Non-Importation Agreement of 1765, and presided over the 1773 “Great Tea Meeting” held at the Pennsylvania State House. During the American Revolution, Cadwalader inspected the health of prisoners, assessed the skill of military surgeon candidates, and aided APS member John Morgan in overseeing American military hospitals. (PI, ANB, DAB)