370 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



estate of his father who died in that year. This business 

 disposed of, he returned to Philadelphia, bringing with him 

 two brothers and a sister. 



The next five years of effort did not bring him a satisfactory 

 income and he removed to Baltimore, where he was more pros- 

 perous until he became involved in a controversy on methods 

 of vaccination, which injured his practice. When Dr. Robert 

 Hare resigned the professorship of Natural Philosophy and 

 Mathematics in the ancient College of William and Mary, at 

 Williamsburg, Va., Dr. Rogers was elected to succeed him. 

 In this congenial position he remained, a competent and force- 

 ful instructor, until he died of malarial fever in 1828. His 

 wife had succumbed to the same disease eight years before. 



James B. Rogers received his elementary education in 

 Baltimore during the residence of his parents in that city, and, 

 after attending the college of William and Mary, took up the 

 study of medicine in the office of Dr. Thomas E. Bond. In 

 1822 he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the 

 University of Maryland. It is said that while a student he 

 assisted his brothers William and Henry in teaching their 

 school at Baltimore. After graduating he taught for a time 

 a class of girls in conjunction with a Dr. McClellan, of Balti- 

 more. This enterprise proving unsatisfactory, was given up. 

 Being now in need of employment, he thought of seeking the 

 post of surgeon to a colony of free negroes which it was pro- 

 posed to establish at Cape Mesurado. He consulted his 

 father on this matter, and must have written a rather queru- 

 lous letter, for he got this chunk of paternal hard sense in 

 reply : " What is the use of your complaining of mankind ? 

 The world as yet owes you nothing. Up to this time you 

 have been simply a recipient of its benefits. Make yourself 

 worthy of a place here and you will find one." The project of 

 going to Africa was abandoned. 



Dr. Rogers now joined an intimate friend and fellow- 

 student, Dr. Henry Webster, in a partnership to practise 

 medicine at Little Britain, Pa., about two miles north of the 

 Maryland line. But after a few years' experience he aban- 

 doned the profession, having found it repugnant to his mental 

 habits and sensitive nature. He returned to Baltimore, and 

 was soon appointed superintendent of the extensive chemical 

 manufactory of Messrs. Tyson and Ellicott. 



