The American New Dispensatory: Containing General Principles of Pharmaceutic Chemistry; Pharmaceutic Operations; Chemical Analysis of the Articles of ... Articles, the Production of the United
(Excerpt from The American New Dispensatory: Containing Ge...)
Excerpt from The American New Dispensatory: Containing General Principles of Pharmaceutic Chemistry; Pharmaceutic Operations; Chemical Analysis of the Articles of Materia Medica; Materia Medica, Including Several New and Valuable Articles, the Production of the United States
Such has been the series of improvements in Chemical Science for the last thirty years, that Dispensatories and Pharmacopoeias have in constant succession been super seded and rendered obsolete. Those gentlemen, there fore, whose education is not of modern date, are subject ed to the alternative, either of making continual acces sions to their libraries, or of treating with disrespect the prevailing systems of the day. Medical students seldom have leisure to search the pages of numerous volumes on the subject; and there is much reason to apprehend, that candidates frequently commence their professional duties under circumstances extremely inauspicious as respects this branch of education. The mutual duties, therefore, both of the medical instructer and the student, might be facilitated by a standard work, exhibiting in familiar lan guage, and in a concentrated form, the principles of mod ern Pharmacy, as well as those of Chemistry and Materia Medica, to which it is so closely allied.
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Military Journal, During the American Revolutionary War, from 1775 to 1783 (Classic Reprint)
(It may be deemed reproachful to our country that nearly h...)
It may be deemed reproachful to our country that nearly half a century has elapsed since the American colonies were emancipated from British thraldom, and that we are yet unfurnished with proper biographical memoirs of the renowned patriots and heroes whose unparalleled efforts, under Providence, achieved the inestimable blessings of liberty and freedom. No characters, assuredly, are more worthy to excite the curiosity and gratitude of posterity than those who contributed so largely to the establishment of our invaluable civil and religious privileges under a republican constitution. The immortal chieftain, indeed, and his illustrious compeer. General Gheene, can receive no additional memorials from any labors in my power to bestow. I might incur the imputation of arrogance were I to imagine myself competent to the duty of portraying in a just light the characters of those whose revered names are introduced into the appendix of this work. I can only claim the merit of having exerted my best efforts to procure documents and assistance, and to illustrate their qualities under the guidance of the legitimate principles of impartiality and justice. Should posterity inquire why their ancestors, destitute of military education or experience, abandoned their peaceful abodes to encounter the perils of uncertain warfare, let them be told it was not to execute the mandates of a tyrant in subjugating their fellow-men, but it was in defence of our most precious rights and privileges ;it was a display of that genuine patriotism and true glory which it is ever most honorable to venerate and cherish. While their own hearts glow with patriotic fervor, let them reflect that true glory consists in the love of peace and the culture of benevolence and good-will to men. Let their souls hold in detestation every species of warfare, save that which may secure and defend the invalua
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
American Orchardist: or, A Practical Treatise on the Culture and Management of Apple and Other Fruit Trees, with Observations on the Diseases to Which ... Juice and Currants :... (Cooking in America)
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Created for the use of American fruit-growers, both rec...)
Created for the use of American fruit-growers, both recreational and professional, James Thacher's 1825 work is a comprehensive source of information on the cultivation and usage of apples and other fruits.
Eyewitness to the American Revolution: The Battles and Generals As Seen by an Army Surgeon
(Beginning in January 1775, Dr. Thacher journalized battle...)
Beginning in January 1775, Dr. Thacher journalized battles, incidents and conversations he observed. His diary, acting as a collective colonial voice cries outrage over the royal breach of the English Constitutional contact. He also bemoans the loss of life in battle, celebrating the bittersweet victory of our nation's ultimate independence.
His outspoken and independent voice describes many battles of the Revolution in intimate detail. Both objective and impassioned, Dr. Thacher captures the full range of each battle's implications in this chronical.
Thacher's many anecdotes and observations build character sketches not only of the "key" figures of the way, but of the common men and women that lived it. Tragic, humorous, patriotic and sensitive, the entries expose the harsh fabric of life during wartime.
History of the town of Plymouth, from its first settlement in 1620, to the present time : with a concise history of the aborigines of New England, and their wars with the English
(History of the town of Plymouth, from its first settlemen...)
History of the town of Plymouth, from its first settlement in 1620, to the present time : with a concise history of the aborigines of New England, and their wars with the English. 424 Pages.
James Thacher was an American physician, patriot, and historian.
Background
Thacher was born in Barnstable, Massachussets, in 1754. He was the third son of John and Content (Norton) Thacher. The Thacher (often spelt Thatcher) family were of English stock, and James was a descendant of Ant[h]ony Thacher who came to America in 1635. They were honest, hardworking people of more than average distinction.
Education
Thacher's father was a poor farmer and consequently could give his son scant education. Without academic training the boy was apprenticed at the age of sixteen to Abner Hersey, the leading physician in Barnstable, an eccentric, hard-headed, morose man, greatly respected for his medical skill. Five years of work with Hersey, without leisure for social intercourse, gave young Thacher a sound knowledge of practical medicine.
Harvard College granted him an honorory M. D. degree in 1810.
Career
He was about to begin to practise for himself at the age of twenty-one when the events in Boston of the summer of 1775 stirred the young Whig, and in July, after examination by the medical board of the Provincial Congress sitting in Watertown, he was appointed surgeon's mate to the military hospital in Cambridge. His medical ability, in spite of his lack of training, was soon appreciated.
In February 1776 he was promoted to serve as assistant to David Townsend, in Asa Whitcomb's regiment at Prospect Hill and in Boston just after the evacuation by the British. He also went with Townsend to Ticonderoga, taking part in the retreat, which he vividly describes. A long service in the General Hospital at Albany was followed by another period in the field, first with the 16t Virginia Regiment, November 1778 to June 1779, and later with his old friend Townsend in a Massachusetts regiment under Col. Henry Jackson. During this latter period he took part in the ill-fated Penobscot expedition, spent a miserable winter in New Jersey, and witnessed the execution of Major John André, of which he wrote an excellent account in his diary, and in the New England Magazine, May 1834. The year 1781 found Thacher acting as surgeon to a select corps of light infantry, under Col. Alexander Scammell; he was present at the siege of Yorktown and the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. He retired from the army on July 1, 1783.
His diary, A Military Journal during the American Revolutionary War, carefully kept from 1775 to 1783, was published in 1823, with a second edition in 1827, and was reprinted as Military Journal in 1854 and 1862 and as The American Revolution at least six times from 1856 to 1862. It gives a good picture of the spirit of the army, especially under the adverse circumstances of hunger, fatigue, and cold, and provides detailed descriptions of men and events almost unequaled by any of his contemporaries. He was a keen observer of the habits of his fellow-soldiers and, for a young country boy untrained in narration, his Journal must be considered a remarkable historical document.
Unfortunately, Thacher failed to give many details of his hospital experiences, except in regard to smallpox inoculation, which he carried out on a large scale. He began the practice of medicine and surgery in Plymouth in March 1784, well qualified, for his time, by his long experience in the army, and he soon established himself as the leading physician of the county. Students came to him for their apprenticeship and rumors that "dissecting material for his demonstrations was obtained from a neighboring church-yard" interrupted instruction for a time.
Medical writing was begun under difficult circumstances and books soon began to appear, so that Thacher's name came to be known in the thirteen states and even in Europe. His reputation as a man of exceptional worth was well deserved, for to Thacher we owe not only an account of the Revolution, as noted above, but also the first American medical biography. This book, the product of his later years, when deafness was a serious handicap to his practice, has preserved for posterity the names of many physicians that otherwise might have been lost. The American Medical Biography (1828), a substantial volume in two parts, is the chief sourcebook of the period; nearly always accurate, reasonably judicious, and strictly impartial, Thacher did not hesitate to draw exact pictures of his contemporaries, few of which we would care to change a hundred years later. Other works by Thacher are The American New Dispensatory (1810, fourth edition, 1821), a sound application of American pharmacopoeial principles; Observations on Hydrophobia (1812), a good summary of the disease, showing Thacher's extensive reading in spite of his isolation; American Modern Practice (1817; second edition, 1826), an early textbook of medicine in this country; The American Orchardist (1822, second edition, 1825); A Practical Treatise on the Management of Bees (1829), useful compilations for farmers; An Essay on Demonology, Ghosts, and Apparitions (1831), dealing with Salem witchcraft; and History of the Town of Plymouth (1832; second edition 1835).
(Beginning in January 1775, Dr. Thacher journalized battle...)
Religion
For many years he was an active member in the First Church of Plymouth.
Membership
He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Massachusetts Medical Society, the Pilgrim Society of Plymouth, and the French Society of Universal Statistics.
Personality
Small of stature, light and agile in movements, Thacher was fond of social intercourse, yet regularly studious.
Connections
He was married to Susannah Hayward of Bridgewater, Massachussets, on April 28, 1785. Two of their six children survived him at his death.