https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/CPP_MSS2150
Charles P. Mercer notes on lectures from the University of Pennsylvania
- Creator
- Mercer, Charles P.
- Date
- 1887-1890 (inclusive)
- Extent
- 2 volumes (2 volumes and 4 folders)
- Call Number
- MSS 2/150
Description
Where the collection came from, what's inside, and how you can use it.
Biography/History
Charles Price Mercer was born in Philadelphia on 2 October 1864. He married in 1894 and had one daughter, Ernestine. Mercer died at Episcopal Hospital of bronchopneumonia and heart disease on 19 September 1945.
Mercer attended the University of Pennsylvania and received his Ph.B in 1886 and M.D. in 1891. On 4 December 1891, he opened his private practice and spent most of his career in North Philadelphia. In 1891, he was also appointed vaccinating physician for Philadelphia's Board of Health; Mercer became a medical inspector for the Board of Health in 1893 and held that position until 1931.
Scope and Content
The three Charles P. Mercer notebooks contain a record of his education in the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Medicine, 1887-1890.
Mercer describes cases presented at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania during the clinical instruction of Francis X. Dercum, William Osler, William Pepper, and Horatio C. Wood. Several of Osler's cases were presented at Philadelphia Hospital and the Philadelphia Orthopaedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases. Many of the cases, particularly those of Wood and Dercum, concern nervous diseases. Each individual presentation contains the patient's case history, description of symptoms, and prescribed treatment.
Some review questions from Mercer's course of therapeutics in 1889 and a few recipes are also included.
Custodial History
The Charles P. Mercer clinical notes were donated to the Historical Collection of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia as part of a larger gift by Samuel X Radbill, circa April 1984. The collection was catalogued in 1990.
Dr. Radbill received the notebooks from Ernestine Mercer, daughter of Charles P. Mercer, circa 1960. He described the volume of notes on Osler's clinics in an article, "A student's note book from William Osler's clinics injPhiladelphia", published in Transactions and studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, ser. 4, vol. 29, no. 2, October 1961. The present location of this original notebook in unknown; a typed transcription only is included in the collection.
Rights and citation
- Publisher
- Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Subjects and headings
- Creator
- Mercer, Charles P.
- Subject
- Peripheral Nervous System Diseases
- Organization
- University of Pennsylvania
- Language
- English
- Form
- Lecture notes
- Case studies
Inventory
Everything in this collection, in the order the archivist chose to help you understand it.
Notes on clinics of nervous diseases conducted by Horatio C. Wood and Francis X. Dercum at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 1887-1889
Notes on clinics conducted by William Pepper at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 1887-1890
Notes on lectures and clinics conducted by William Osler at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Hospital, and the Philadelphia Orthopaedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases, 1888-1889
Contact
These materials are held by Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Contact them to schedule a visit or ask about your research.
- Address
- 19 S. 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
- library@collphyphil.org
- Website
- http://cpparchives.org/repositories/2/resources/155