4 WILLIAM BARTRAM 



1764, John Bartram wrote to his English friend, Peter Collin- 

 son: " I had always since ten years old a great inclination to 

 plants, and knew all that I once observed by sight . . . " ^ His 

 son William testified that his father " had a very early inclina- 

 tion to the study of physic and surgery. He even acquired so 

 much knowledge in the practice of the latter science, as to be 

 useful ; and, in many instances, he gave great relief to his poor 

 neighbors. ... It is extremely probable that as most of his 

 medicines were derived from the vegetable kingdom, this cir- 

 cumstance might point out to him the necessity of, and excite a 

 desire for, the study of botany." " This reads like a much more 

 plausible account of John Bartram's turning to natural science. 

 But there is more than mere plausibility to point to John Bar- 

 tram's interest in medicine. His letters to Peter Collinson are 

 full of references to fevers and epidemics in the neighborhood. 

 A selection from these letters was published by Professor Ben- 

 jamin S. Barton in his Philadelphia Medical and Physical 

 fournal^^ under the title " Notices of the Epidemics of Penn- 

 sylvania and New Jersey, in the years 1746, 1747, 1748, and 

 1749." That he even attained considerable eminence in medicine 

 is indicated by his being listed in Dr. Haller's Bibliotheca 

 Botanica as " Johanes Bartram, Medicus Americanus." ^^ 



The scientific accomplishments and influence of John Bartram 

 have been treated by Professors Youmans ^^ and Harshberger,^* 

 by Dr. R. Hingston Fox," and in a recent article by Dr. William 

 Shainline Middleton.^® Here only a few of his many and various 

 labors may be cited. In 1728 he founded on the west bank of 

 the Schuylkill River the Bartram Botanical Garden. Through 



® Darlington, Memorials, p. 263. 



^^ " Some Account of the Late John Bartram, of Pennsylvania." By William 

 Bartram. Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, Vol. I, Part I, Section 11, 

 pp. 115-124. 



'"Vol. I, Part I (1804). 



"Tom. II, p. 323. See Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, I, 117. 



" W. J. Youmans, Pioneers of Science in America. New York, 1896. 



"John W. Harshberger, The Botanists of Philadelphia and Their Work. 

 Philadelphia, 1899. 



^^ Dr. John Fothergill and his Friends. London, 1919. 



""John Bartram, Botanist." The Scientific Monthly, XXI (1925), 191-216. 



