Benjamin Waterhouse and the Introduction of Vaccination: A Reappraisal (Yale University Department of the History of Medicine Monograph Series No. 33)

95 pp. 8vo. A reassessment of the traditional view of Dr. Waterhouse, and submits evidence that rather than being a selfless hero and servant of the public health, Waterhouse was unethical, deceitful, and that his introduction of vaccines was driven largely by an interest in self-promotion. From Heirs of Hippocrates entry for Waterhouse's Cautions to Young Persons Concerning Health (1125): "Waterhouse, first professor of medicine at Harvard and voted the 'Jenner of America' by the London Medical Society, was a native of Newport, Rhode Island. He was apprenticed to a local physician at the age of sixteen and in 1775, on the last ship the British allowed to leave Boston, sailed for England to study medicine. While abroad Waterhouse studied with Fothergill, a relative of his mother's. He received the M.D. degree at Leiden in 1781 before returning to the United States the following year. Waterhouse helped found the Harvard Medical School where he taught for many years, introduced vaccination for smallpox into the United States..."