The life and letters of Nathan Smith / by Emily A. Smith ; with an introduction by William H. Welch.

  • Smith, Emily Anna Jones, 1840-
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The life and letters of Nathan Smith / by Emily A. Smith ; with an introduction by William H. Welch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    most delightful, unselfish and kind-hearted man I ever knew, and we children all loved him. Dr. Smith's letters to Shattuck remind one not a little of John Hunter's correspondence with his former pupil, Jenner. How suggestive of Hunter's many com- missions imposed upon Jenner is the letter (on page 47 of this book) beginning, I am continually troubling you about many things! . . . If you have a man in Boston who makes thermometers, and if he can do it, I wish also to have an air thermometer constructed according to Henry's directions in his chapter on Caloric. I presume you can find that book in Boston, and the workman may follow that in his work. The repeated requests to send chemicals, apparatus, instru- ments and books afford some insight into Dr. Smith's scientific interests and activities, as does also the novel task assigned to two of his pupils to read through fifty-two volumes of historical works, recently added to his library, in order to cull out and index everything relating to medicine or medical men. The difference between the mental attitudes toward medical science of Nathan Smith and of his older con- temporary, Benjamin Rush, is made clear in the letter to Dr. Shattuck when a student in Philadelphia. Rush, the greatest historical figure in American medicine, belonged essentially to the group of systematists of the eighteenth century. Dr. Smith writes: Dr. Rush must be a very interesting lecturer. As to his classification of diseases I do not think it very material. However we may class diseases, we must study them in detail. . . . As to the unity of disease, you know it is my opinion