Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1406

DANIEL DRAKE (1785-1852) Natural and statistical view, or picture of Cincinnati and the Miami country, illustrated by maps. Printed by Looker and Wallace 1815 251 [4] pp., fold. plan, fold. map. 17.2 cm.

The greatest physician of the west, and one of the most picturesque figures in American medicine, was Daniel Drake, who was the first after Hippocrates and Sydenham to do much for medical geography. . . . He was born in New Jersey in abject poverty and was reared in a log cabin among the Kentucky pioneers. . . . He was one of Osler's 'peripatetic physicians,' constantly moving from place to place in aid of the cause of medical education (Fielding H. Garrison, An introduction to the history of medicine. 4th ed. Philadelphia, 1929. p. 441). Although ever on the move, Drake's center of activity was Cincinnati, where he founded a medical school as well as the important Western journal of the medical and physical sciences. The present work on the city of Cincinnati and the Miami country provides ample evidence that Drake was more than a practicing physician. He describes the area from virtually every possible perspective, including its natural history, topography, political and demographic makeup, and weather. The appendix describing the 1811 earthquake is especially interesting.

Cited references: Cushing D252; Osler 2500

Gift of John Martin, M.D.