JACOB BIGELOW 1 25 



from the difficulty was to invent some new mode 

 of printing the impressions at once in colors from 

 the copperplates. After many trials and experi- 

 ments a tolerably successful mode was discov- 

 ered, which consisted in engraving the plates in 

 aqua tinta, thus producing a continuous surface, 

 to the parts of which separate colors could be 

 applied, and the surface wiped off in different 

 directions so as not to interfere with each other." 



The title of the book is American Medical Bot- 

 any, being a collection of the Native Medicinal 

 Plants of the United States, etc. The third vol- 

 ume came out in 1820; the finish both of the pic- 

 tures and of the text is such that it would be 

 creditable even to-day. It is a prize eagerly cov- 

 eted by collectors, but diligent search has as yet 

 given me only two parts of the three volumes. 



When the great cholera epidemic of 1832 in 

 New York carried off some 3,000 victims, Bos- 

 ton's death-roll numbered only one hundred, 

 owing to the authorities being wise enough to 

 adopt the stringent sanitary precautions urged by 

 Bigelow, who, with Ware and Flint, offered his 

 services as investigator of the conditions in New 

 York. 



Those who used the new Pharmacopoeia of the 

 United States in 1 820 must have been grateful to 

 Bigelow for his wisdom in dealing with his 

 assignment — the list and nomenclature of the 



