Robert Mason Fuller

Background

Robert Mason Fuller was born on October 27, 1845, in Schenectady, New York. He was the son of John Irwin and Louise (Gardner) Fuller.

His father had been a merchant, manufacturer, and banker in New York City.

Education

Fuller obtained his preliminary education at Union School in Schenectady. During 1861-63, he worked as a clerk in a drug store, at the same time studying pharmacy. Later he took a special chemistry course at Union College.

His teacher in both of these branches was Prof. C. F. Chandler, from whom he received a certificate, and perhaps his special interest in toxicology. In a report to the United States government made in 1913, he stated that at the age of sixteen he had begun to experiment with the manufacture of tablet triturates.

In 1863, he began the study of medicine at the Albany Medical School which gave him the degree of M. D. in 1865; and during this undergraduate period, he was attached to the Ira Harris United States Hospital as assistant to Dr. Armsby, the professor of surgery at the Albany Medical School.

Career

For a short time, Fuller was at the front in the 6th Army Hospital Corps Hospital, at City Point, Virginia. In passing through Washington, he chanced to be present at Ford’s Theatre the night of Lincoln’s assassination.

After graduation, he remained for a short time in Albany before removing permanently to New York City where he practiced for forty years.

He developed also an interest in the photography of skin diseases and used the camera with great success while serving as a lecturer on dermatology in the medical department of the University of the City of New York.

After bacteria had been made visible by staining methods he became interested in this aspect of microphotography. Yet he seems never to have lost interest in tablet triturates, and in 1878, after a continuous study of seventeen years, he made his first report on this subject to the New York Academy of Medicine.

The paper, entitled “Dose-Dispensing Simplified: An Easy, Economical and Accurate Method of Dispensing Medicine in a Compact and Palatable Form, ” appeared in full in the Medical Record, March 9, 1878. He did not apply for a patent, and the manufacture and marketing of the triturates was taken over by Benjamin T. Fairchild, then chief of the dispensing department of Caswell, Hazard & Company.

It was not until the formation of the firm of Fairchild & Brothers, however, that the triturates were brought directly to the attention of medical practitioners. At a later period (1881) this new firm joined forces with Horace Fraser under the firm name of Fraser & Company, which subsequently both manufactured and distributed the triturates.

Full credit for originating and working out the principle of this innovation is unanimously assigned to Fuller, who has been long and justly known as the “father of the tablet triturate. ”

After his retirement from practice about 1909, he returned to Schenectady and from that period until his death was chiefly interested in Union College and the Albany Medical School. For the former, he assembled a library on chemistry, and to the latter, he bequeathed $30, 000.

Achievements

• In connection with his early studies of toxicology, Fuller invented a method of using the photographic camera for demonstrating the presence of microcrystals of arsenic a method which was to prove of value in forensic medicine. He also practiced the photography of wounds with such success that some of his slides were inserted in the official Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion.

Connections

Fuller never married.

Father:

John Irwin Fuller

Mother:

Louise (Gardner) Fuller