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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. 26)
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(seq. 26)

Earth." The advantages of labour, a task kindly imposed on us by an indulgent Creator, as the best means of preserving our health our safety and our Innocence.

My intention in these lectures was not to expatiate largerly on the nomenclature of Botany, lest I should draw the attention of our Students too much from their stated exercises; but to teach them the anatomy of a plant, and to inculcate the laws of vegetable economy. Should we ever attain a Botanic Garden, it will then be time enough to exhibit the Linnaean System in all its techincal garb. When I communicated my ideas on this subject to Sir Joseph Banks 3 or 4 years ago he mistook my meaning, conceiving that I wish to discard the nomenclatureship of the Science entirely, and wrote me the following judicious sentiments. "I rejoice to hear that Botany is rising in a country, where Nature has been hitherto so little invesigated

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(seq. 27)
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as to afford reasonable hopes that she will reward her votaries, by allowing them the honor of discovering links of the chain, hitherto unobserved; and will consequently fill up apparent breaches. But I am sorry to hear you speak of the Linnaean System, as a study composed more of names, than of nature. Pray, Sir, how can you and I correspond about a plant, which you have found in America, and, I, in Europe, and is known but to one of us, unless we have agreed upon a technical language, by which we can describe to each other, the constituent parts, and by that means agree to what plant it bears the greatest resemblance? The Linnean system is not certainly to be considered, as free from faults; all human contrivances will abound with them, but still I cannot help allowing that it is, as far as I know it, best hitherto invented by a large interval."

The subject

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(seq. 28)
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The subject of a Botanic Garden has frequently occupied my thoughts. We have convenient spots of land for the purpose; but to begin requires a concurrence of circumstances, that I dispair of evever seeing all together. I can discern but one faint prospect of attaining so desirable a thing, but a mournful idea hangs like a dark cloud over even that view of it. I have however, written to our friend Curtis, on the subject, and put many questions to him on the best made of arranging and conucting a nursery, (for that I suspect we must begin with,) as well as of guarding tender exotics from the effects of our very sudden transitions from heat to cold &c. &c. but I never received an answer. Have you any thing of the kind in print? as I should like to collect such things against the time we need them. I have already informed you that I had disseminated a por

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(seq. 29)
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(seq. 29)

tion of your ample present of seeds in the best gardens of our state, and by this opportunity I return some of their progeny, reared in our soil.

As to the animal kingdom, I said but little about it, in my lectures, referring my hearers chiefly to Buffon. I could not however resist entering into "the curious structure & wonderfull economy of insects, and relating some instances of that wonderful sagacity, which we call by the unmeaning name of instinct. But I durst not open the door too wide, that led to this enchanting department of Natural History, because I knew it would divert them from other studies, and perhaps absord all their attention. In truth I fear to indulge myself in wandering in these enchanting outskirts of Nature, which has in it more of pleasure than of utility.

Thus have I given you a sketch of my first effort to sow the seeds of a science,

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(seq. 30)
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(seq. 30)

scarcely known among the young gentle- of this University, and which is confined in about twenty lectures. They may grow up, flourish and bear fruit; if not in my day in the days of my children, provided no revolutionizing Goth roots them up and gives them to the wind.

My venerable relation Dr. Fothergill first inspired me with this love for natural History, and I have had its cultivation so much at heart, that nothing but a belief in the prophecy of my reverend friend Dr. Wigglesworth, that it would one day become a public blessing to our country could have sustained me through during the six or seven years I was breaking the road through it.

You will probably inquire how I could pursue these things, and do justice to my medical professorship, and to my self as a practitioner. The two first were easily reconciled: they even assisted each other; (for every professor

Last edit almost 3 years ago by blackletterkate
Displaying pages 26 - 30 of 62 in total