Background
James McClurg was born in 1746 near Hampton in Elizabeth City County, Va. His father, Dr. Walter McClurg, was superintendent of the Hampton Small Pox Hospital, which was probably one of the first hospitals of its kind in America.
(The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration a...)
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Medical theory and practice of the 1700s developed rapidly, as is evidenced by the extensive collection, which includes descriptions of diseases, their conditions, and treatments. Books on science and technology, agriculture, military technology, natural philosophy, even cookbooks, are all contained here. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library T008590 Edinburgi : apud Balfour, Auld, et Smellie, 1770. 4,52p. ; 8°
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James McClurg was born in 1746 near Hampton in Elizabeth City County, Va. His father, Dr. Walter McClurg, was superintendent of the Hampton Small Pox Hospital, which was probably one of the first hospitals of its kind in America.
After thorough preparation James was sent to the College of William and Mary and graduated in 1762 with an unusually excellent scholastic record. He then studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating M. D. in 1770. His inaugural essay at Edinburgh, "De Calore, " gave him an admirable reputation among his scientific friends. He devoted several years to post-graduate medical studies in Paris and London and while in London published his Experiments upon the Human Bile and Reflections on the Biliary Secretions (1772), which aroused for its author considerable notice and was reckoned a valuable contribution to the science of medicine, being translated into several languages.
He returned to Virginia in 1773 but seems to have had no prominent part in the preliminary controversies of the Revolution. During the war he was active as a surgeon in the Virginia militia and is referred to frequently in the official records as physician-general and director of hospitals for the state. In 1779 he was appointed professor of anatomy and medicine at the College of William and Mary but in 1783 the chair was discontinued and it is uncertain whether he did any teaching. By the latter year he had probably removed to Richmond, where he made his home for the rest of his life.
(The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration a...)
McClurg's political career may be said to have begun in 1782-83 when Madison advocated, but did not bring about, his appointment to succeed Livingston as secretary of foreign affairs for the United States. In 1787, after Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee had declined to serve in the Philadelphia Convention, McClurg was selected to complete the Virginia delegation. His activities in the Convention centered in the advocacy of a life tenure for the executive and a federal negative on state laws. The McClurg motion for life tenure for the executive received the votes of four of the ten states then represented, though part of its support was probably due to the hope that provision for a stronger executive might be made through the medium of compromise. McClurg insisted that the executive be kept as far from legislative control as possible and his efforts to make the executive independent of its rival branch undoubtedly were rewarded in the provisions for the administrative branch in the completed constitution. His only political services of consequence after the federal convention were rendered as a member of the executive council for Virginia during the early years of Washington's administration.
According to Madison McClurg's talents were of the highest order but he was modest and unaccustomed to exert them. Possibly his interest in his profession precluded any pronounced ambition toward a political career.
On May 22, 1779, he was married to Elizabeth Selden, daughter of Cary Selden, with whom he had two children.
