MEMOIR OF DAMEL TREADWELL. 331 



slight acquaintance with Dr. John Ware, of Boston, tlicn jnst commencing the practice in 

 Hanover Street, and, although he was my junior by four years, I began as a student under his 

 direction. This was the commencement of a friendship, whicii has continued without inter- 

 ruption for thirty-six years, and from which I have derived many very great benefits. Dr. Ware 

 had received the discipline of a regular college education, while my mind had been pursuing 

 knowledge with great ardor, but wholly undirected. He at once received me upon something 

 like terms of equality, considering my age as nearly an equivalent for his rank as master ; and 

 in the free discussions whicli have been maintained between us during our long intimacy I 

 have received a constant advantage from the check of his organized learning, and, with the 

 exception- of two or three subjects, admirably proportioned mind ; while I hope he has now 

 and then received some benefit from the more free and unfettered, not to say original views, 

 that the mind without early discipline is likely to take of the great subjects of thought. 



While studying with Dr. Ware, Mr. Treadwell made the acquaintance of several 

 young men, who were either students, or who had just commenced the practice 

 of medicine; among them Dr. Jacob Bigelow, and Dr. William Sweetser, after- 

 wards Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in Bowdoin College and 

 at Castleton, Vermont. " His fellow students," says Dr. Sweetser, " held him in 

 much esteem and respect for his great scientific knowledge, and his intellectual 

 supei'iority, which we, his friends, did not hesitate to acknowledge. I became 

 greatly attached to him at that time, and that attachment has never met with any 

 interruption." 



To an acute observer like Mr. Treadwell, trained in the practice of the me- 

 chanic and hydraulic arts, anatomy and physiology — the animal at rest and in 

 motion — must have been peculiarly attractive. He must have found in the animal 

 economy many illustrations of his favorite pursuits, — illustrations little noticed or 

 entirely overlooked by those who had acquired only the ordinary preparation for a 

 medical student. At this time, as appears from a rough draft among his papers, 

 he undertook tlie solution of that difficult problem, the work done by the heart. 

 Taking for his data the height of a jet of blood from a severed carotid artery, and 

 the diameter of the aorta, he compared them with what is known by mechanics as a 

 " horse-power." His conclusion, it is safe to say, was nearer that now accepted by 

 most physiologists than that of many who had preceded him in similar inquiries. 

 Besides such investigations, he carefully considered the method by which the forces 

 of the human body can best be applied to the movement of machines, and soon 

 put his views in practice. Nor was his interest confined to the mechanical relations 

 alone ; as we shall see further on, he made investigations and experiments not 

 without interest to the physiologist. 



