Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1443

JACOB BIGELOW (1787-1879) Florula Bostoniensis. Cummings and Hilliard 1814 viii, 268 pp. 20.7 cm.

Considered one of the leading American scientists of his era, Bigelow achieved prominence as a physician, educational reformer, and botanist. A student of Rush (see No. 1065 ff.), an associate of Jackson (see No. 1331), visiting physician to Massachusetts General Hospital, and professor of materia medica at Harvard, he managed an enormous consulting practice. Bigelow also played a prominent role in the great cholera epidemic of 1832, in which he convinced Boston authorities to adopt his stringent sanitary precautions. As a result, Boston's death toll was limited to 100 while 3,000 perished in New York. Botany was one of Bigelow's avocations and he published the present work only a year before being appointed lecturer on materia medica and botany at Harvard. In the book he presents the plants found within a five to ten mile radius of Boston. He describes each plant, gives synonyms for its name, its characteristics, places of growth, and time of flowering. He does not discuss the plant's uses and the majority of the plants have no medicinal value.

See Related Record(s): 1065 1331

Cited references: Cushing B390

Gift of John Martin, M.D.