Background
Bowditch was born on Aug. 9, 1808, in Salem, Massachusetts, United States to Nathaniel Bowditch, a renowned mathematician.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
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Bowditch was born on Aug. 9, 1808, in Salem, Massachusetts, United States to Nathaniel Bowditch, a renowned mathematician.
He graduated from Harvard College in 1828, earned his medical degree there in 1832, and afterwards studied medicine in Paris for 2 years with leading physicians of the day. In addition to his erudition in mathematics, astronomy, and physics, he was apparently one of those who delight in mathematical computations.
After briefly participating in Warren Street Chapel, a charity for impoverished children, Bowditch left the institution because of his conviction that their policy of exclusively serving white children was incompatible with his principles. He also took action in association with the fugitive slave cause. Bowditch became a founding member of the Latimer Committee and an editor of The Latimer Journal. Each was created in response to the plight of George Latimer, an apprehended fugitive slave in danger of deportation back South. Bowditch's efforts led to a massive petitioning of the Massachusetts General Court (legislature) that resulted in legislation forbidding the use of state and municipal jails from detaining fugitive slaves, a blow to slave-hunters. However, Bowditch was also a witness to a vast number of unjust fugitive deportations.
His response was the organization of the Anti-Man-Hunting League. This radical organization trained members to capture and hold slave-hunters in exchange for the ransom of a fugitive slave's freedom. After the Civil War, Bowditch kept ties with the completed movement by contributing to the historical discussion of abolitionism by providing an interpretation of historical abolitionism that was sympathetic to the plight of John Brown.
He introduced inductive reasoning into American medical science, popularized the stethoscope, contributed to the understanding of tuberculosis, and laid the groundwork for public health by chairing the Massachusetts State Board of Health.
Bowditch was a fellow of the American Academy of Public Health and wrote a seminal textbook on the subject.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)