students. These formal lectures supplemented the bedside clinical instruction he conducted in the hospital. For his learning and pedagogy, he earned the title, "Father of Clinical Medicine." The alumni association of the Pennsylvania Hospital is today known as the Thomas Bond Society. Service during the Revolutionary War When the American Revolutionary War broke out, the sixty-three-year-old doctor along with his son, helped to organize the medical department of the Continental Army. He established the first American field hospitals during the conflict. He was also a member of the local Committee of Safety during the war. He served as personal physician to Deborah Read, Benjamin Franklin's wife, and attended her during her final illness while Franklin was in France. Personal life Thomas Bond was a Quaker. His first wife, Susannah Roberts, was the daughter of Edward Roberts, the mayor of Philadelphia. They married in 1735, and with her he had two children. He remarried after her early death and had seven children by Sarah Weyman, among whom was another Dr. Thomas Bond. He is buried in Christ Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia. His epitaph reads: "In Memory of Thomas Bond, MD who practiced Physic and Surgery with signal reputation and success nearly half a century. Lamented and beloved by many, respected and esteemed by all, and adorned by literary honors sustained by him with dignity." Trivia His home at 129 South 2nd Street in Philadelphia is now a bed & breakfast, called simply Thomas Bond House. A letter written on August 24, 1781 by Dr. Bond provides an early (and possibly the earliest) reference to the production of morphine in the United States. He wrote to a Pennsylvania farmer, "The opium you sent is pure and of good quality. I hope you will take care of the seed." References External links Thomas Bond and the History of Pennsylvania Hospital Biography and portrait at the University of Pennsylvania Thomas Bond House, Philadelphia, PA, Web site 1712 births 1784 deaths People from Calvert County, Maryland People of colonial Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania people Continental Army officers from Pennsylvania 18th-century American physicians American surgeons People of colonial Maryland Continental Army staff officers Quakers from Pennsylvania Burials at Christ Church, Philadelphia Members of the American Philosophical Society Leiden University alumni