770 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 359. 



rather the r61e of a series of essays and com- 

 pilations than of a continuous historical work. 

 The thirteen original colonies were so scattered, 

 so remote from and so independent of each 

 other, that each formed a community to itself, 

 and any attempt at a general history must deal 

 largely and directly with these separate centers. 

 A vast amount of research must therefore be 

 made into records, many still in manuscript, 

 from New Hampshire to Georgia, and this 

 would take more time and means than medical 

 historians — whose work must always be largely, 

 as Dr. Packard says, a labor of love — can give. 

 It is an encouraging circumstance that these 

 records are gradually being made known 

 through individual research, as evidenced by 

 papers appearing from time to time in the jour- 

 nals and even by more pretentious works ; and 

 the time is probably not far distant when suffi- 

 cient material will be at hand for a comprehen- 

 sive historical work. But even now we can 

 hardly feel that Dr. Packard has exhausted all 

 readily available sources of information. In 

 the writer's own community for example he 

 has entirely overlooked such sources that are at 

 his very elbow in the library of the College of 

 Physicians and Surgeons of Philadelphia. And 

 it is in no invidious spirit that we are led to 

 remark that whilst Philadelphia was the chief 

 medical metropolis of the colonies, there were 

 other medical centers even then, and even in 

 rural sections there were physicians of wide re- 

 pute and influence whose names and records can- 

 not be omitted from such a work. The South 

 particularly furnished many such men educated 

 abroad and endowed with all the learning of 

 their day. An item of page 156 of Dr. Pep- 

 per's work would seem indeed to indicate that 

 the physicians of the Middle and Southern 

 States had better training than those of New 

 England. It is there stated that of the 63 

 Americans who graduated in medicine at the 

 University of Edinburgh between the years 

 1758 and 1788, hut one came from the New 

 England colonies. When we recall that Edin- 

 burgh was the chief place of resort for medical 

 students going abroad, and that a large propor- 

 tion of the 63 came from Southern States, it 

 seems strange that this section should be com- 

 paratively so ignored by Dr. Packard. Take 



the state of Maryland, for example, one of the 

 oldest and most important of the thirteen colo- 

 nies. I find in the list of authorities ' chiefly 

 consulted' by Dr. P., 67 in number, but one 

 from Maryland, viz., * McSherry's History of 

 Maryland.' And in the 16 pages of index 

 there are hat 13 references bearing in any way 

 upon this state and its doctors. It would be 

 easy to show that Maryland does not deserve 

 this slight. 



There are several error.^ and omissions to be 

 noted, but we have only space for the following : 

 At pages 11 and 12 Mr. Pratt is appointed sur- 

 geon to the plantation in 1682 and perishes in 

 a shipwreck in 1645 (!). At page 90 vaccina- 

 tion is said to have been announced by Jenner 

 in 1779. At page 432 inoculation is said to 

 have been ' introduced ' in 1712. In the copy of 

 Dr. John Archer's diploma, the first conferred 

 in America, page 161, there are several in- 

 excusable errors, in one place nearly a whole 

 line being omitted. At page 62 it is stated that 

 the first recorded autopsy in America occurred 

 in 1674, whereas several recorded in Maryland 

 preceded this by about thirty years. We also 

 know of at least two medical societies not in- 

 cluded in the 17 stated to have existed prior to 

 1800. These facts could have easily been as- 

 certained by Dr. Packard. At page 36, it is 

 said the degree of M.D. was conferred at the 

 University of Aberdeen in 1650, which we feel 

 sure is a mistake. The omissions, as we have 

 noted, are many, but surely the author should 

 have referred to Drs. Henry Stevenson, James 

 Smith and Gustavus Brown, of Maryland, the 

 first maintaining for many years the only in- 

 oculating hospital in America, the second doing 

 more perhaps for the introduction of vaccina- 

 tion over the United States than any other 

 person whomsoever, the third, besides emi- 

 nence in other respects, having the distinction 

 of being called in consultation in the last illness 

 of George Washington. 



Dr. Packard has given full and graphic de- 

 scriptions of the yellow fever epidemics in 

 Philadelphia and has thrown much light on the 

 medical development of the continental army 

 during the Revolution. In an interesting ac- 

 count of the introduction of anaesthesia, he 

 gives due credit for the discovery to Dr. Craw- 



