Background

John Beck was born on September 18, 1794, in Schenectady, New York. He was the third son of Caleb Beck, who had married Catherine, only daughter of the Rev. Derick Romeyn, a founder of Union College. Dr. Theodric Romeyn Beck, distinguished in American medical jurisprudence, was an older brother. A younger brother was Lewis Caleb Beck, naturalist and sometime professor of chemistry at Albany Medical College. Early left fatherless, John went to live at Rhinebeck, New York, with his uncle, the Rev. John B. Romeyn. In 1804 Dr. Romeyn took his nephew to New York.

Education

Beck entered Columbia College at the age of fifteen, and four years later graduated with highest honors. Immediately thereafter he went abroad with his uncle and patron, applying himself assiduously, while in London, to the study of Hebrew. On his return to America he took up the study of medicine with Dr. David Hosack of New York. In 1817 he graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, having submitted a thesis on Infanticide, which afterward, with additions, was incorporated into the great treatise of his brother, T. Romeyn Beck of Albany, on Medical Jurisprudence, a medical classic in which John Brodhead collaborated.

Career

For many years Beck was looked upon as the standard authority on the medicolegal aspects of infanticide, both in this country and England. In 1820 he made to the New York Board of Health a "Report Concerning the Nature and Origin of Malignant Fever (Yellow Fever) in Middletown, New York, " which subsequently was published in the New York Medical and Physical Journal, of which he was one of the founders and editors. To that publication he also contributed, among other articles, one entitled, "An Examination of the Medicolegal Question whether in cases of Infanticide the floating of the lungs in water can be depended on as a certain test of the child's having been born alive"--an exhaustive inquiry into the subject which enhanced the author's renown.

In 1826 Beck became professor of materia medica and botany in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, which chair was subsequently exchanged for that of medical jurisprudence. In 1835 he was appointed one of the physicians of the New York Hospital, in which position he developed marked skill in the clinical investigation of disease.

In 1843 he published Medical Essays; in 1849 his work on Infantile Therapeutics appeared, and in the following year he wrote a Historical Sketch of the State of Medicine in the Colonies, being his inaugural address as president of the State Medical Society. Although for many years Beck was an invalid and a martyr to pain, he had untiring energy as practitioner, teacher, and writer. He was an able controversialist, for he possessed a logical mind, with clearness of apprehension and scholarly diction. In the moral sphere of conduct he never sacrificed principle to expediency. He died of malignant disease of the bowel, after long suffering. His chief biographer, Dr. C. R. Gilman, relates that his friend told him, some months before his death, that for five years he had not been free from pain for one single half-hour.

Achievements

• John Beck was a well-known medico-legal expert who wrote many articles and treatise on miscarriage, abortion, infant physiology, and associated forensic issues. John Beck was one of the founders and editors of the New York Medical and Physical Journal. He contributed many articles to it, including "An Examination of the Medicolegal Question whether in cases of Infanticide the floating of the lungs in water can be depended on as a certain test of the child's having been born alive. " Beck's most important works: Report Concerning the Nature and Origin of Malignant Fever (Yellow Fever) in Middletown, New York (1820); Medical Essays (1843); Infantile Therapeutics (1849); Historical Sketch of the State of Medicine in the Colonies (1850), etc.

Works

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  • An Historical Sketch of the State of American Medicine Before the Revolution: Being the Annual Address Delivered Before the Medical Society of the ... York, February 1st, 1842 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from An Historical Sketch of the State of America...)

  • Address to the Graduates of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New-York: At the Commencement, Held March 12, 1846 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Address to the Graduates of the College of P...)

  • Essays on Infant Therapeutics

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Lectures on materia medica and therapeutics

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • The New York Medical and Physical Journal

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • An introductory lecture: delivered at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the City of New York, November 6, 1829

    (This is a reproduction of a classic text optimised for ki...)

  • Elements of Medical Jurisprudence, Volume 1

    (This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before ...)

  • An inaugural dissertation on infanticide

    (An inaugural dissertation on infanticide. This book, "An ...)

Membership

John Beck was vice president and president of the County Medical Society and the State Medical Society; vice president of the New York Academy of Medicine; a member of the Reformed Dutch Church.

Connections

John Beck was married in 1831 to Anne, daughter of Fanning C. Tucker.

Father:

Caleb Beck

Mother:

Catherine (Romeyn) Beck

Wife:

Anne (Tucker) Beck

Grandfather:

Rev. Derick Romeyn

He was a founder of Union College.

Brother:

Lewis Caleb Beck

He was a naturalist and sometime professor of chemistry at Albany Medical College.

Brother:

Dr. Theodric Romeyn Beck

He was distinguished in American medical jurisprudence.

Uncle:

Rev. John B. Romeyn