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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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(seq. 21)
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(seq. 21)

life; and so we commenced our diquisitions on

BOTANY

where vegetation was traced from the sowing of the seed, to the formation of the root, the trunk or stem, to the branch, the buds, the flower, and last of all, to the seed again, in the following order:

1st. a seed; which was represented as an organized body, endowed with vessels, and, containing under several membrances, the plant in miniature. Such a body was exhibited to the naked eye, and to the eye armed with a microscope.

2d. The changes, which follow after such is placed in a due degree of heat and moisture. Analogy between the seed of a plant and the egg of a bird. The unfolding of an embryo plant after its taking root to its appearance above ground. On the effects of light.

3d. On the food of plants. A plant will grow in clean sand, with the addition of water purified by distillation; in pure clay, with

Last edit almost 3 years ago by blackletterkate
(seq. 22)
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(seq. 22)

the same addition, and when taken out of the sand and clay, these substances will weigh exactly the same as before. Does the food of plants reside in the atmospheric air alone?

4th. Certain putrifying substances added to sand or clay, will cause a plant to grow more luxuriently. Is the food of plants animal substances, in a state of putrefaction? The true doctrine of manures explained.

The Anatomy of a fully grow Plant.

1st. Definition of a plant. Wherein it differs from a lump of clay, or dough, or from a stone. In every part of a plant there is an internal adjustment, disposition or arrangement of its matter into tubes and vessels, called for that reason organization, or rather vascular system.

2d. The section of the root of a plant. The appearance of several through the microscope. The lacteals in the root of a plant?

Last edit almost 3 years ago by blackletterkate
(seq. 23)
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(seq. 23)

A section of the trunk, and its appearance through the microscope.

3d. The constituent parts of the trunk examined. 1. The epidermis; 2. the cuticle; 3. the blea; 4. the vascular series; 5. ligneous substance 6. the pyramidal vessels; 7. the pith. These 7 essential parts of a plant discoverable in its flower. Examples.--

4th. The bud and the flower described.

5th. The leaves or lungs of the plant. On oxygenating process in growing vegetables. Exhibition of an hortus siccus, with directions how to form one.

The Linnaean System of Botany, Briefly explained. The sexual system of Botany founded on the discovery that there is vegetables, as well as animals, a distinction of sexes. Sir Thomas Middleton led the way to this discovery. Biographical acct of Linnaeus. The Linnaean theory founded on the fructification of the vegetable, which is a combination of the flower and fruit, and

Last edit almost 3 years ago by blackletterkate
(seq. 24)
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(seq. 24)

which consists in seven parts, offsprings of the seven essential parts, before described: viz.1. the calyx; 2. the corolla; 3. the stamina (and the anthera) 4. the pistillum; 5. the pericarpium; 6. the seeds, and 7. the receptacle.

The essence of the vegetable consists in the fructification, and the fructification in the flower and fruit. That of the flower in the stigma and antherae, and the essence of the fruit in the seeds, and the essence of these in the corculume and plumula; the plumula containing the life, or vital flame spark of the plant.

The strict analogy bewteen plants and animals. 1. As it regards their anatomy. 2. As it regards their physiology. On the reciporcal influence of animals and vegetables. The application of teh doctrine of change or mutation. Substances of every kind either immediately or mediately pass one into another, so that reciprocal deaths, dissolutions and digestions support by turns

Last edit almost 3 years ago by blackletterkate
(seq. 25)
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(seq. 25)

all substances out of each other. Application of the text "all flesh is grass. Putrefaction the first link in the long chain, the end of which is generation, or that power, which enables the acorn to become an oak. On the Zoophytae. The polypus produced by cutting like a willow. Conjectures respecting the degrees of perfection in the vegetable Kingdom, and in the animal. The polypus one degree above a vegetable: That being, which is produced by an egg, is one step higher; that class of animals, which is brought forth alive, still more exalted; of these such as bring forth one at a time, the most complete.

Do the two tribes of organized being, viz. animals and vegetables, for, instead of two distinct kingdoms, one immense family? Of the great importance of agriculture to this country. Without a knowledge of the laws of vegetable economy, this useful, important and honorable profession must remain a vague and uncertain pursuit. Why the wise ancients adopted the phrase "Mother

Last edit almost 3 years ago by blackletterkate
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