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Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846. Place book of Benjamin Waterhouse, circa 1790-1803 (inclusive). H MS b16.4, Countway Library of Medicine.

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Contains autobiographical information and copies of correspondence written by Benjamin Waterhouse (1754-1846) from the 1790s to the early 1800s. Passages include notes on Waterhouse’s tenure as Professor of Natural History at Harvard, and notes on botany, in addition to correspondence regarding smallpox vaccination. The final page of writing includes a quotation from Waterhouse, of which there is a typed transcription tipped into the volume: "I consider myself the father of natural history in general, and mineralogy and botany in particular in Harvard College. If I was not who was?"

Biographical Notes

Benjamin Waterhouse (1754-1846) was the first Hersey Professor of Theory and Practice of Physic at Harvard Medical School. He introduced vaccination against smallpox using cowpox matter in the United States in 1800. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was the head physician at the United States Marine Hospital in Charlestown, Massachusetts from 1807 to 1809. 1775, Waterhouse traveled to Europe, where under the guidance of his mother's cousin, physician John Fothergill, he enrolled at the University of Edinburgh, studying medicine with professors such as William Cullen, and then at the University of Leyden in the Netherlands, from which he earned an M.D. in 1780. While attending Leyden, Waterhouse stayed in the home of John Adams, then American minister to the Netherlands. After returning to the United States, he became the first professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (1782) and was one of the three original members of the Harvard Medical School faculty, alongside John Warren (1753-1815) and Aaron Dexter (1750-1829). In addition to his position as professor of medicine, Waterhouse was a lecturer in natural history from 1788 until 1809, when his course was abolished by Harvard.

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Cambridge May 20 1790 To Dr. Lettsom London.

Having spoken in my last on the subject of Mineralogy, and informed you of the arrangements I had made of the specimens you sent us, and having described the cabinet, which contains them, and the elegant room, in which it is placed, I only add here that by direction of the corporation (as the immediate legislators of the University are called) I have distributed a printed description of them, and sent a copy to every scientific man within my knowledge, in these United States, as well as in Canada and Nova Scotia; and have thereby excited an attention to this branch of science beyond my most sanguine expectations: So that I feel great satisfaction in communicating to you, the primary agent in this business, the pleasing intelligence

[Printed Along Inner Margin]

Pt. of Kings Chap. XX1. ver. 2d

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of the success of our united labors. Dr. Lettsom will be honored as the father of the science of fossils in this country, after the feeble agent of his liberality here, lies forgotten in the regions, whence they were dug.

But there is another branch of Natural History, or rather Kingdom of Nature, still unexplored among us, the knowledge of which, though of less National importance, than Mineralogy, is nevertheless sufficiently so, as to excite a pretty general wish for its diffusion in our land; I mean Botany. The cultivating a knowledge of this branch of Natural History I have had much at heart, and have taken unremitting pains to sow the seeds of it in this University, with what succcess you shall judge by the history I mean to give of my efforts. My means were small, compared with those in Mineralogy. In that

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I had liberal assistance; in this I labored like Robinson Crusoe, insulated and alone. Eleven years ago, in consequence of the College of Rhode Island conferring on me the (honorary) title of Professor of Natural History in that seminary, I drew up in a hasty manner a dozen lectures, and delivered them in the Town-Hall to the trustees, officers and students of the College, as well as to a considerable number of Citizens of both sexes. This novelty was well received, and more spoken of than it merited.

The following year, (viz. 1788,) the corporation of this University of Cambridge, requested I would give the same course to the students here, provided I would venture to take for my compensation the fees each youth would pay, wh attended them, that being the condition, on which I had accepted the Professorship of the Theory and Practice of Physic. Accordingly I

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commenced by giving my first course gratis. The second year I opened my course with five pupils, at a guinea a piece. The third year, I had seven. The fourth year, I allowed each to subscribe whatever he, chose, then I had more than thirty, some subscribed three guineas, some two, some one, and some half a guinea; others clubbed together and divided the half guinea and the lectures among them! Am I wrong in recording this diminutive beginnings of a business, which, I will venture to predict, will one day grow into an important and valuable establishment, if not in my day, in the days of my children? The fifth year on the former establishment the number sunk to ten, the sixth, the same number. In the seventh there were thirteen; the eighth, nineteen; in the ninth year,

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