Student notebook of Benjamin Waterhouse: 1776

Volume containing notes taken in 1776 by Benjamin Waterhouse (1754-1846) on medical lectures given in Scotland by University of Edinburgh Professor Andrew Duncan (1744-1828). The lectures focused on pathology, with attention given to secretion, absorption, nutrition, excretion, circulation, and respiration. There are also notes on common medicines and their indications and contraindications, such as emetics, cathartics, diaphoretics, and diuretics.

Title devised by cataloger.

Student notebook of Benjamin Waterhouse, 1776. B MS b122.1. Boston Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Mass.

Benjamin Waterhouse (1754-1846) was the first Hersey Professor of Theory and Practice of Physic at Harvard Medical School. He introduced vaccination against smallpox using cowpox matter in the United States in 1800. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was the head physician at the United States Marine Hospital in Charlestown, Massachusetts from 1807 to 1809. In 1775, Waterhouse traveled to Europe, where he enrolled at the University of Edinburgh, studying medicine with professors such as William Cullen (1710-1790) and Andrew Duncan (1744-1828), and then at the University of Leyden in the Netherlands, from which he earned an M.D. in 1780. After returning to the United States, Waterhouse was hired as one of the founding faculty members of Harvard Medical School, where he taught medicine and natural history. He was dismissed by Harvard Corporation in 1812 following a dispute with his medical school colleagues.