Rare Book Monthly
Every Book has its Story
A Christmas card from the Bensley sisters
In 1817 Dr. Bigelow was appointed professor of medicine and botany at Harvard and he played a major role in the preparation of the first American Pharmacopoeia [1820]. In subsequent years he won distinction for lectures at Harvard and before medical groups in which he argued against the common prescription of ill-chosen drugs and of correct drugs in excessive doses. The theme of one of these lectures – that disorders would sooner disappear by the patient's natural recuperative powers than by over-dosing – was the source of his Nature in Disease [1854], which Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes declared "had more influence on medical practice in America than any similar brief treatise."
Dr. Bigelow, also a mathematician, coined a now familiar word, which appeared in 1829 in his Elements of Technology. He was famous, too, as an educational reformer, and for about sixteen years was President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
D.A.B. says that in his last years this remarkable man's "intellectual faculties became somewhat impaired" but nevertheless at this time he had a Latin translation of the Mother Goose rhymes, which he called Chenodia [chenerotes, a species of small goose]. Kelly's Cyclopedia of American Medical Biography differs with D.A.B. on one point, saying that Dr. Bigelow "was blind at the last for nearly five years; bed-ridden, but with mind undimmed at ninety-two." Kelly also tells a Bigelow story: "He speaks laughingly of his first lesson in botany given when as a little boy he asked a learned gentleman the name of the plant, Star of Bethlehem. "That? Why that's grass, you little fool."
The D.A.B. article on Dr. Bigelow was written by Donald Culross Peattie and John F. Fulton, who say: "Bigelow's most important botanical contribution, the American Medical Botany, in three volumes, began to appear in 1817...This work contained sixty plates colored by a special process of the author's invention." Which at last brings us to the point – we have a fine set of this scarce botanical masterpiece.
AMERICAN MEDICAL BOTANY...By Jacob Bigelow, M.D....60 colored plates [some foxing on protective tissues]. 3 vols., quarto, half green morocco, fore and lower edges uncut. Boston, 1817, 1818, and 1820. $350
Many people contributed to this article. I had the chance to speak with Lincoln Igou several times. He taught at the college for many decades. At 98 he's remarkably clear and precise. Marion Pine of New Paltz is approaching three digits and retains clear memories of a half century ago. She provided insights and suggestions. Millie Radley Hague at 88 provided very clear detail as did Dorothy Harkness who graduated in 1939 and now lives in Canandaigua. Marion Ryan and Carol Johnson researched records at the Elting Library's Haviland-Heidgerd Collection, Donald Allen, who taught at New Paltz in the 1940s and '50s, offered advice and perspective. Morgan Grenwald of the Sojourner Truth Library was too short handed to provide direct resources but offered access to their records. Finally I need to mention T. Craig McKinney, my brother. He provided the clues and connections to make this a complete story.
There are errors and omissions and they are mine. Where two memories confirmed a fact I have treated such recollections as fact. Where there is a printed record I have relied upon that as well. Where there is a single memory I have relied up on it when other recollections by that person are consistent with the facts I've uncovered.
Should you have information, perspective or opinions I'm happy to hear from you.
Email me at bmckinney@americanaexchange.com or call 415 823-6678.
Bruce McKinney
for AE
