Some American medical botanists / Howard A. Kelly.

  • Howard Atwood Kelly
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Some American medical botanists / Howard A. Kelly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    He was the son, as I have said, of James and Sarah Marshall, and the grandson of Abram Marshall, who came to Delaware in 1697 from Gratton, Derbyshire, England. He studied medicine under Dr. Nicholas IVay of Wilmington, but never held a medical degree, none being required at that time for practicing in Penn- sylvania; but, as it was customary to attend a course of lectures, he went to those by Shippen and Push in Philadelphia. His diary at this time shows that medicine did not wholly absorb his attention, for frequent mention is made of a certain Polly Howell and a Sally Samson, the latter ^d^ehaving for three evenings, especially the last, in a most engaging manner.^^ Then followed a year or two employed in desultory medical work, including inoculations round about Lon- dongrove, Pennsylvania, and in keeping an apothecary’s shop ^%hich came to nothing and less.” The truth was that he had not found his true vocation—botanizing. His uncle writes to Franklin in 1785, and Moses him- self to Dr. Lettsom in London, suggesting a govern- ment-supported exploration of the Western States. In 1786, Sir Joseph Banks wrote to Humphrey Marshall asking for one hundredweight of fresh ginseng roots. Moses spent twenty days in the Alleghanies getting these and charged Lettsom $1.25 a pound. Lettsom and he seem to have carried on a brisk correspondence, espe- cially concerning the Talmum teretifolium, hitherto nndescribed by botanists. He sends Lettsom three tor- toises and some plants, one of which, a polygala, is thus mentioned in a letter. “Should this prove to be a new genus, I have designed the appellation of Lettsomia, with this provision, that it miglix not be unpleasing to thee, and that in the interim I should not be able to discover a plant more exalted, conspicuous and worthy.” He also asks for ^^a surgeon’s pouch of instruments” to be sent him, and Lettsom hastens to acknowledge the compliment of a floral godchild and encloses 10 pounds in case Moses should be out of pocket for seeds asked for. A plant was also named Marshallia after Moses, which many authorities have claimed for his uncle. Two letters of 1792 have recently come to light which settle the question. Muhlenberg, the correspondent, was himself a leading Philadelphia botanist.
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