405 



unequal to the new demand upon his mental exertions; and the 

 hereditary gout, to which he had long been a martyr, aggravated into 

 hydrothorax, in less than three years terminated his life. 



During the brief period in which Chapman occupied the chair of 

 Materia Medica, his courses were eminently satisfactory to his 

 classes. Dr. Jackson considers them ''an advance on those of his 

 predecessor," and Caldwell bears strong testimony to his success. 



His lectures were afterwards embodied in his "Elements of The- 

 rapeutics and Materia Medica/' a work justly pronounced by Dr. 

 Jackson to have been " the best treatise in the English language on 

 those subjects at the time of its publication, '^ 



In this work, the articles of the Materia Medica are treated in 

 their character as remedial agents, and with chief reference to their 

 employment in the treatment of diseases, — a method afterwards 

 adopted by many of the French writers, especially by Trousseau and 

 Pidoux, in their brilliant Treatise on Therapeutics. 



Chapman's Therapeutics is an original work — original in its plan, 

 original in its execution. As a text-book, it is of course superseded 

 by later publications ; but the American student will do well not to 

 ^' lay it on the shelf.'' The chapter on Emetics will never be obsolete. 



The solidist doctrines of the day were adopted by Chapman in 

 explanation of the modus operandi of medicines. Their absorption 

 into the blood had scarcely yet been demonstrated by physiology; 

 and the principle of sympathy, which he employed to account for 

 morbid action, he applied also to the explanation of medicinal im- 

 pressions. But, with singular candor, when Magendie's experiments 

 on the absorption of medicines were announced. Chapman " engaged 

 Drs. Coates, Lawrence, and Harlan, to repeat them at his expense;'' 

 and, upon their confirmation, although he made no public recantation 

 of his views, he would never permit the publication of another edition 

 of his work. 



It had already gone through seven editions, one of them surrep- 

 titious; and "when still in great demand, the author refused to 

 have it reprinted, because he thought it required a thorough re- 

 vision."* 



The great event of Chapman's life was his appointment, in 1816, 

 to the Chair of the Theory and Practice of Medicine and Clinical 

 Medicine, in the University of Pennsylvania. He filled it for more 



* Manuscript letter of Dr. Chapman. 



