Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1209

BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON (1766-1815) Collections for an essay towards a materia medica of the United States. Printed for Edward Earle 1810 3rd ed. xvi, 67, xv, 53 [2] pp. 21 cm.

Orphaned at the age of fourteen, Barton lived with a brother in Philadelphia and began his medical studies there. He went abroad in 1786 to continue the study of medicine at Edinburgh and London. He eventually received his degree at Göttingen because he was dissatisfied with the treatment he had received at Edinburgh. Barton returned to practice in Philadelphia in 1789 and was appointed professor of natural history and botany at the College of Philadelphia, continuing in that position when the College merged with the University of Pennsylvania in 1791. He later assumed the chair of materia medica as well as that of the theory and practice of medicine. Barton was a prolific author and in 1805 started publishing the Medical and physical journal. His nephew, William Paul (see No. 1427), was also noted for his work in medicine and botany. This work was initially published in two separate parts which are here combined into one volume for the first time. The first part, arranged in nine therapeutic categories, was read before the Philadelphia Medical Society in February, 1798 and covers a number of plants and their medical uses. The second part is a continuation of the first and covers additional plants.

See Related Record(s): 1427

Cited references: Austin 140; Cushing B141 (1801-1804 ed.)