Benjamin Waterhouse

author

Benjamin Waterhouse

1754–1846

A pioneering American physician, he helped bring smallpox vaccination to the United States at a time when the idea was still new and controversial. He also helped found Harvard Medical School and spent much of his career pushing medicine toward a more scientific footing.

1 Audiobook

A journal, of a young man of Massachusetts, late a surgeon on board an American privateer, who was captured at sea by the British in May, eighteen hundred and thirteen and was confined first, at Melville Island, Halifax, then at Chatham, in England, and last at Dartmoor prison : Interspersed with observations, anecdotes and remarks, tending to illustrate the moral and political characters of three nations. To which is added, a correct engraving of Dartmoor prison, representing the massacre of American prisoners.

A journal, of a young man of Massachusetts, late a surgeon on board an American privateer, who was captured at sea by the British in May, eighteen hundred and thirteen and was confined first, at Melville Island, Halifax, then at Chatham, in England, and last at Dartmoor prison : Interspersed with observations, anecdotes and remarks, tending to illustrate the moral and political characters of three nations. To which is added, a correct engraving of Dartmoor prison, representing the massacre of American prisoners.

by Benjamin Waterhouse

About the author

Born in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1754, Benjamin Waterhouse studied medicine in Europe before returning to the young United States. He became one of the co-founders of Harvard Medical School and served there as a professor, building a reputation as an energetic and sometimes combative medical thinker.

Waterhouse is best remembered for introducing smallpox vaccination to the United States after learning of Edward Jenner’s work. In 1800, he tested the vaccine on members of his own family and then worked to persuade doctors, political leaders, and the public that vaccination could save lives. His efforts made him an important early figure in American public health.

He wrote widely on medicine and natural history, and his career connected him with many of the leading scientific and political figures of his day. Though not without controversy, his role in promoting vaccination and shaping early American medical education gives him a lasting place in the history of medicine.