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JOSIAH BARTLETT.

THE Delegates whose signatures are affixed to the Declaration of Independence, on behalf of the state of New-Hampshire, were Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, and Matthew Thornton, of whom the first is the subject of the present memoir.

The ancestors of JOSIAH BARTLETT were of Norman origin, and settled in the south of England at the time of the conquest. During the seventeenth century, a branch of this family emigrated to America, and established itself at Beverly in Massachusetts. His great-grand-father, whose name was John, lived in that town, and had several sons, one of whom, named Richard, removed to Newbury: he had eight sons and two daughters. His fifth son, Stephen, married a lady named Webster, and settled in Amesbury, Massachusetts. The subject of the present memoir was his fourth son, who was born at Amesbury in November, 1729. The family of Stephen Bartlett consisted of five sons and one daughter, who were all distinguished for good sense, for their regular and moral deportment, and quick perception.

JOSIAH BARTLETT was instructed, at an early age, in the rudiments of the Greck and Latin languages, which, from his natural capacity and tenacious memory, he rapidly acquired. At the age of sixteen he commenced the study of physic under VOL. I.--K k

the superintendence of Dr. Ordway of Amesbury, who was a distant relation. It was necessary that students of medicine should prosecute their studies under the care of a physician, from five to seven years before they were considered qualified to practise for themselves. The indefatigable application of Mr. Bartlett soon exhausted the scanty library of Dr. Ordway, and he was compelled to have recourse to the libraries of neighbouring gentlemen, among whom was the Reverend Dr. Webster, an able and learned divine, who lived in Salisbury, a few miles distant from the residence of his father. Dr. Webster, who was a distant maternal relation, was a gentleman of good understanding and a liberal mind, and possessed what was then considered an extensive library of choice books. He became strongly attached to Mr. Bartlett, gave him the free use of his library, together with much valuable information on literary subjects, and formed a friendship which ceased only with his life.

The Bartlett family were Calvinistic in their religious creeds, which was the prevailing doctrine among the dissenters both in England and America. Mr. Bartlett, however, entertained, in early youth, strong doubts of the correctness of these principles, and during the greater part of his life was a believer in the free agency and moral accountability of man.

He completed his medical education in the year 1750, and, at the age of twenty-one, commenced the practice of his profession at Kingston. He resided in the family of the Reverend Joseph Secombe, a pious and well informed minister, to whose collection of valuable books he had free access. In 1752, he was attacked with an alarming fever, which had nearly proved fatal. Exhausted by the violence of the medicines administered, and by the exclusion of air from his chamber, his life appeared to be rapidly drawing to a close, and his physician pronounced his case to be hopeless, when

Dr. Bartlett, whether actuated by a belief in its efficacy, or by one of those inexplicable longings which often sway the mind of the invalid, prevailed upon two young men, who attended him during the night, to procure him a quantity of cider, and give it to him as he should direct. They, at first, peremptorily declined acceding to a wish, the gratification of which was contrary to medical orders, and might even make them accessary to his death. His arguments and importunities, however, prevailed, and the cider being procured, he swallowed a small quantity at intervals during the night. Each draught cooled the fever, invigorated his body, and was followed by evident amendment. In the morning the powers of nature became so much revived, that a copious perspiration took place, which immediately checked the disease. Ever after this event, Dr. Bartlett cautiously observed the operation of nature in all diseases, and never submitted to dogmatical rules, in prescribing for his patients. This practical experiment having emancipated his mind from the trammels of an arbitary system, he founded his practice upon the details of nature and experience. With these principles, he commenced his career of public usefulness, and speedily became popular as a physician, obtaining a large portion of practice, both lucrative and honourable to himself, and highly useful to the people. He first discovered the utility of the Peruvian bark in remedying the canker, or angina maligna tonsillaris, which then raged at Kingston, and which he proved to be a highly putrid, instead of inflammatory disease: the physicians had previously believed it to be, and had unsuccessfully treated it, as the latter.

Early in the spring of 1735, a distemper originated in Kingston, which all the powers of the physicians of that period were unable to remedy. It was called the throat distemper, and is said to have first appeared in the case of a man named

Clough, who had skinned and opened a hog which had been seized with a complaint in the throat and died. Soon after, Clough became diseased in the throat, and died suddenly in the month of April. Early in May, two children of deacon Elkins were taken ill with the cynanche maligna, and also died suddenly they were soon followed by some children of a Mr. Webster. From these points it rapidly extended in every direction; few families escaped, and it was observed that it was equally felt in situations esteemed the most healthy, and in those which had before been the most subject to diseases. It raged until the greater part of the inhabitants lost nearly all their children under ten years of age. The disease was so suddenly mortal that death often took place in twelve hours from its first appearance. It is related that children, while sitting up at play, would fall and expire with their toys in their hands. A family, by the name of Abbott, had three children buried in one grave; many others had two, and some, with four or five children, lost them all. This disease was as fatal as the plague in warm climates; but although a similar disease has been mentioned by some ancient authors, it appears to have been entirely unknown to the physicians, who pursued the depleting and antiphlogistic course of practice, which almost invariably terminated in death. No successful method of cure could be discovered, and they were at a loss what course to pursue. In 1754 and 1755, subsequent to the removal of Dr. Bartlett to Kingston, the disease again made its appearance, but with less malignity. He, at first, pursued the usual antiphlogistic course with like il success. Being induced by this failure to devote his particular attention to the nature of the complaint, he became convinced that antiseptics would be useful; and one of his own children being soon after affected by it, he prescribed the use of the Peruvian bark, which was attended with a successful result: he after

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