Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1771

JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER (1811-1882) Human physiology. Harper & Brothers 1856 xvi, 649 [1] 4, 2 pp., illus. 23.4 cm.

Draper, first president of the American Chemical Society, was born in England and emigrated to the United States in 1832. He completed premedical studies at London's University College and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1836. Chiefly a chemist, he served as professor of chemistry and natural philosophy at Hampden-Sidney College in Virginia and, for the greater part of his career, was professor of chemistry at New York University. He was one of the founders of the New York University School of Medicine and served as its president for a number of years. Draper was a major contributor to research in photochemistry. Among his achievements are his principle that only absorbed rays produce chemical change and his proof that all solid substances become incandescent at the same temperature and produce a continuous spectrum. He was a pioneer in photography and took one of the earliest complete portraits by natural light as well as the first picture of the moon. This treatise became the leading textbook on physiology and was much used in its time. It contains the first photomicrographs ever published and attempts to relate human physiology to the moral nature of man. As a result, Draper frequently digresses from what we would now consider a straightforward presentation of the science of physiology to discuss natural philosophy.

Gift of John Martin, M.D.