BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE

 HIS FORWARD THINKING HELPED ERADICATE SMALL POX IN THE UNITED STATES

WATERHOUSE, BENJAMIN.  (1754-1846).  American physician;  co-founder and professor of Harvard Medical School; known for being the first doctor to test the smallpox vaccine in the United States, which he first tested on his own family. [See further background info below]. Very rare Autograph Letter Signed, “Benjn. Waterhouse”.  One full page, January 9, 1836.  No place.   To “C.C. Foster”.  Waterhouse writes:

“I was sorry that I could not have waited on you last evening agreeably to you polite invitation as I wished and intended – and did not give up the idea till late —  But suffering under a cold, which has confined me within doors since Sunday.  I was constrained to forgo the pleasure of meeting you, and the others of the Social Club.  I lament it the more as I consider such hebdomide [sic – hebdomad (meaning once a week)] meetings an excellent mode of breaking the scum that is so apt to gather     on the lives of the aged, especially in such dismal weather as this really is.

Our kind regards and best wishes rest on you and yours; and to which I add my respectful and friendly salutations.  Benjn Waterhouse.

PS ~ Have you ever read the volume which accompanies this?  Your Uncle Joseph processes one.  B.W.”

In 1799, a London physician and friend of his, Dr John Coakley Lettsom, [also a close friend of Benjamin Franklin’s] sent Waterhouse information on a vaccine that had been developed in England by physician Edward Jenner for smallpox. After receiving the vaccine from London, on July 8, 1800, Waterhouse injected his son, Daniel Oliver, his 2 daughters, Mary & Elizabeth, and two of his servants, Samuel Carter & Kesiah Flag with the vaccine.  It’s successful application had him soliciting the help of President Thomas Jefferson in the vaccine’s distribution, effectively stamping out smallpox in the United States. In 1802, the vaccine was given to Native Americans, helping them stem the spread of the disease among the tribes.         

His letters are among the scarcest of important medical and scientific personalities, and this letter will make a fine addition to any collection.                                  

$6500.00