Physicians And Medical Societies.

The late Dr. Charles J. Morton² wrote, at the request of the Delaware County Medical Society, an interesting biographical notice of the centenarian physician, Bernhard Van Leer, which Dr. Smith has most admirably abridged for insertion in his "History of Delaware County." In the following account of the venerable physician I have largely used the exact words of Dr. Smith's sketch:

² The Medical Reporter, No. vii., April, 1856.

Bernhard Van Leer, the son of John George Van Leer, was born near Isenberg, in the electorate of Hesse, in 1686, and emigrated to the province of Pennsylvania when eleven years of age. The family located in Marple, and Bernhard, or Bernhardus, as he was then called, remained a few years with his father, and then returned to Germany for the purpose of studying medicine in his native land. It is said that he was accompanied by a neighboring youth, John Worrell, who had the same object in view. Young Van Leer remained in Europe seven years, and not only studied medicine but also the classics and French. Sometime after his return to this country, and shortly after he commenced the practice of his profession, he was married to Mary Branson, the daughter of a wealthy merchant of Philadelphia, who died many years before her husband, after having given birth to five children, two of whom, Branson and Benjamin, became physicians. Dr. Bernhard Van Leer married again, and by the latter marriage there were nine children, one of whom was Dr. Bernard Van Leer, of Marple. The elder Dr. Van Leer was a man of great physical vigor. In his one hundredth year he rode on horseback from Marple to his Chester County farm, a distance of thirty miles, in one day. In his one hundred and second year he was cruelly maltreated by burglars who entered his house because he refused to disclose his hidden treasure. He did not fully recover from his injuries then received. He died on the 26th of January, 1790, aged one hundred and four years.

His practice was chiefly conducted in his office. It is said that in the diagnosis of disease he relied very much upon the appearance of some of the secretions that were brought to him for inspection. His remedies for the most part were from the vegetable kingdom, and generally of the mildest form.

This system was certainly not adhered to by his son, Branson, who seems to have located in the borough of Chester, where he acted as the county physician, for the following bill shows that at least one of his patients had her full share of medication:

Of Dr. Richard Van Leer I have learned nothing other than that he was a physician, while of Dr. Bernard Van Leer, he practiced in this county, living on the old homestead in Marple, where he died in February, 1814.

Dr. Benjamin Van Leer settled in New Castle County, Del., for in 1762, in the advertisement of the lottery for St. Paul's Church, Chester, it is stated that tickets can be had of him and several other gentlemen in that locality.³

John Worrall, the lad who accompanied Bernhard Van Leer to Europe, is said to have been a son of Peter Worrall, of Marple, and that he graduated in Germany as a physician, returned to Delaware County, and settled in Upper Providence. In 1724 he married Hannah Taylor, and died while still a young man. His son, Dr. Thomas Worrall, was born in Upper Providence in 1732, and married Lydia Vernon, an aunt of Maj. Frederick and Capt. Job Vernon, who rendered good service to the American arms in the Revolution, and a sister of Gideon Vernon, who was conspicuous during that struggle for his loyalty to the English crown, and whose estates were confiscated by the authorities of Pennsylvania because of his warm espousal of the British cause. Dr. Thomas Worrall in his practice made use largely of our native herbs, as did many of the physicians in