Edward Miller

Background

Edward Miller was a brother of Samuel Miller, 1769-1850, the son of Rev. John and Margaret (Millington) Miller, and grandson of John Miller, a Scotchman, who emigrated to Boston in 1710, and married Mary Bass of Mayflower ancestry. He was born on May 9, 1760, near Dover, Delaware, where his father was pastor of the Presbyterian church.

Education

Edward received a good academic education and began the study of medicine with a local practitioner, Dr. Charles Ridgely. In 1785, he received the degree of bachelor of medicine, and in 1789, that of a doctor from the University of Pennsylvania.

Career

In 1780, dissatisfied with his lack of clinical opportunities, Miller began to serve as surgeon's mate in the colonial military hospitals, being stationed chiefly at Basking Ridge, New Jersey. In 1781, he became a surgeon on an armed ship sailing for France, and during 1782-83, pursued his medical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. At the close of the Revolutionary period, he settled at Frederica, Delaware, removing later to Somerset County, Maryland, and in 1786 to Dover, Delaware. He appears to have studied the epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1793, and about this time he wrote a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, with whom he had formed a friendship, in which he endorsed the latter's belief that the disease was not imported and not contagious from person to person. In 1796, he removed to New York City and at once began to identify himself with the life of the future metropolis. He was active in connection with the yellow-fever epidemic of 1798, and on account of his familiarity with the disease was made physician to the Port of New York in 1803. In 1805, there was a new outbreak of yellow fever and Miller made a report on it to the governor of the state, which was reprinted in England and translated into French and German. His death took place in the midst of an active career, due to an acute respiratory affection. He wrote no major work but his articles and pamphlets were collected by his brother, Rev. Samuel Miller, and published in a volume of more than 300 pages, entitled, The Medical Works of Dr. Edward Miller (1814). At the time of his death, he was a member of the American Mineralogical and Philosophical societies and of the Friendly Club, limited to a dozen members.

Achievements

• With Drs. Samuel L. Mitchill and Elihu H. Smith, Miller founded what is classed by some authorities as the earliest medical periodical of the United States the Medical Repository, the first number of which appeared in August 1797. He rendered valuable aid in the establishment of the College of Physicians and Surgeons (1807), "joining with Dr. Romayne in extending his credit for the procurement of the funds needed". He became its first professor of the practice of physic, and in 1809 was made one of the physicians to the New York Hospitals, where he inaugurated the custom of holding clinical lectures. He correctly recognized an enlarged spleen as the best evidence of chronic malaria and was the first to prescribe small doses of calomel for the summer complaints of early childhood.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Medical Works Of Edward Miller

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • A Letter To John Haygarth, M.d. F.r.s., London And Edinburgh, &c.

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Views

Miller advocated lengthening the period of undergraduate studies, clinical advantages, and the study of pathology.

Membership

a member of the American Mineralogical and Philosophical societies, a member of the Friendly Club

Personality

Miller was evidently a man with unusual vision or intuition.

Connections

Miller never married.

Father:

John Miller

Mother:

Margaret (Millington) Miller

Grandfather:

John Miller