Its founding by Nathaniel Potter and John Beale Davidge was part of an influx of professionals to Baltimore and the rapid urban development that immediately followed the American Revolution. By the late 1780s, there was public discussion about the need for "medical reform and suppression of quackery". A group of physicians made several short-lived attempts at starting medical schools around the turn of the 19th century, and were finally successful in 1807 when the Maryland state legislature passed the Medical College Bill, authorizing the formation the College of Medicine of Maryland. In 1812 it was rechartered as the University of Maryland School of Medicine.