A Dissertation on The Influence of the Nervous System on the Functions of Respiration & Digestion

Overview

This item is a scanned image of the cover page of a medical dissertation titled A Dissertation on The Influence of the Nervous System on the Functions of Respiration & Digestion. The original document was submitted in 1851 by Susanna H. Ellis, a resident of Philadelphia, to the Faculty of the Pennsylvania Medical College of Philadelphia as an inaugural thesis for the degree of M.D. The scanned image is available in JPEG (≈314 kB) and TIFF (≈48 MB) formats, representing a single-page reproduction of the dissertation’s front matter.

Background

Susanna H. Ellis was an early female medical student in the United States. The dissertation was produced during a period when medical education was largely male‑dominated, and the Pennsylvania Medical College was one of the few institutions offering formal medical training in the region. The work was addressed to Dr. J. M. Conforth, M.D., who served as the dissertation’s recipient. Although the metadata lists Drexel University as the institution, Drexel was not founded until 1891; the dissertation’s provenance is correctly tied to the Pennsylvania Medical College in Philadelphia.

Contents

The scanned page displays the dissertation’s title, author, institutional affiliation, and the formal submission statement. It also notes the period of study (three years) and the degree sought (M.D.). The image captures the full text of the cover, including the Latin abbreviation “Med.” for medical and the phrase “inaugural thesis.” No additional pages or substantive content from the dissertation are included in this item.

Scope

The item covers the year 1851, the city of Philadelphia, and the medical field of the mid‑19th century. It focuses on the intersection of the nervous system with respiration and digestion, reflecting contemporary medical interests in physiology and pathology. The item does not contain the dissertation’s main body, case studies, or experimental data; it is limited to the front‑matter cover page. The subject headings include nervous system, respiration, digestion, medicine, and dissertation. The item is in English (en‑US) and is provided by the PINAX digital repository.