HENRY INGERSOLL BOWDITCH. 311 



He attended the Salem schools until the age of fifteen, and then the 

 Latin School in Boston, his father having removed to that city in 1823 

 to become Actuary of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Com- 

 pany. No especial interest was awakened in Dr. Bowditch at school, 

 and there is nothing noteworthy to be said of him there, except that he 

 showed the faithfulness to his duties inculcated by his parents' precepts 

 and example. He used to say that he was not then fond of books, 

 but he gained more than respectable rank. At the exercises of the 

 Green Street School in Salem, in 1822, he was assigned a Latin dia- 

 logue. He was generous, sympathetic, truthful, manly, thoroughly a 

 boy, and always ready for fun or for the front of one of the fights then 

 not uncommon between the boys of the opposing sections of the town. 



In view of some supposed family tendencies to pulmonary disease, 

 his father, with a knowledge of Nature's laws unusual at that time, 

 and with a practical sagacity which marked his whole career, insisted 

 upon an open-air life, from which he and his children gained sound 

 minds in healthy bodies! The simple living, the early love of nature, 

 the habits of industry and self-denial, so common to the New England 

 life of that time, developed in Dr. Bowditch a thoughtfulness, self-reli- 

 ance, independence of mind, and vigor of action, which have become 

 more rare with the increase of wealth and luxury. 



He entered Harvard as a Sophomore, and graduated in 1828, taking 

 the degree of A. M. later. He had an alert, receptive mind, and was 

 a faithful student, but there was little in his college life to arouse his 

 enthusiasm. He took part in a Latin dialogue at the Junior Exhibi- 

 tion, and had a Conference at Commencement. He was known as 

 being of a rather retiring disposition, a warm-hearted good fellow, in- 

 dustrious, straightforward, impulsive, jDUgnacious if his ideas of truth 

 or right were assailed, but not obstinate. He was ardent, of quick 

 sensibilities, respected, and always to be dejiended upon. He had not 

 then the spirit of the reformer. 



The years of study for his degree in the profession of his deliberate 

 choice, including a service as house physician at the Massachusetts 

 General Hospital from 1830 to 1831, proved an incentive to his best 

 efforts, and he worked with persistence and devotion. He thought 

 himself favored in having been under the influence of the brilliant 

 intellect of Jacob Bigelow, and the painstaking practical wisdom of 

 James Jackson. The scientific exactness of the one attracted him, 

 as did the conscientious sense of duty of the other. John Ware's 

 quiet, judicial mind made less impression upon him. These three 

 men did much to shape his medical character, so to speak. He pre- 



