Description:

Bard Samuel

Samuel Bard, George Washington's Doctor & Founder of Columbia's College of Physicians & Surgeons, 1763 ALS, w/Great Medical Content 



SAMUEL BARD, Autograph Letter Signed, to John Bard, August 1, 1764, Edinburgh, Scotland.  3 pp., 7.25" x 9". In very good to near fine condition, with expected paper folds. A tear located on the third and fourth pages corresponding to wax seal. Two old hinges located at top and bottom of gutter.

 



Samuel Bard, studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh, writes to his father in New York City about his cousin Becky Campbell. Only recently had some doctors begun to understand that a lack of fresh vegetables and fruits (actually Vitamin C) caused scurvy. The disease causes not only changes to the skin, gum disease, and pour wound healing, but also emotional changes that were poorly understood in the eighteenth century.  Bard also refers to the ongoing Pontiac’s War on the frontier of British settlement in North America.

 

In full:

                                                                        Augt 1, 1764

My Dr Father.

            As I am to write to you again in a few Days by a private opportunity I send you this only to acquit myself of my Promise of writing by every Packet, but altho’ I hitherto have, & while I continue a broad shall as far as is in my Power, steadily observe this Method of Correspondence, I beg you will not let a Packet arriving without any Letters from me, give you an uneasiness, as I find by a Letter from my Brother has lately been the case. for there are many accidents which may prevent my Letters comeing by the Packet I intend they should, such as the Packet sailing before its stated time, the Mails being robed, or my letters lying a Day or Hour too long in the hands of my friend at London. Since I have been from home, I have often considered with much surprise, the amaising obstinacy of my cousin Becky Campbells Disorder in her head. I have looked round the Hospitals I have attended, in hopes of meeting with something similar to it, but hitherto in vain. however there is one Medicine whose good effects in many scorbutic cases I have been a Witness to, which I believe has not yet had a tryal in hers, & which for her sake I could heartily wish might be put to a fair experiment. I mean the Merc: sub: cor: you have no doubt heard of the success with which this Medicine has been used in the L:V: and some scorbutic Disorders  I myself have seen some cases which were really surprising while I attended St Thoms Hospital a <2> A Girl was brought in, with the V: Disease whose Body was intirely covered with an irruption, so that she appeared like a Leper. she was immediately put under the use of this Medicine, & in less than three weeks her Body became as clean and smooth as that of an Infant, but she was obliged to continue it much longer before she was radically cured. Speaking to a Gentleman of extensive Practice in this Place he related to me a case which if I had not the greatest Dependence on his veracity would really stagger my Faith. he was imployed in the case of a scorbutic child. he gave it three grins of the sublimate dissolved in as many Quarts of a mucillaginous Decoction of which one Quart only was drank in a Week, and before the last Bottle was out, he saw his patient perfectly recovered. if you have not already seen them in the London Medical Essays there are some Papers upon this subject, where there are some cases related which will afford you pleasure in the perusal. The manner in which it is given here is much the same as these discribed only I believe the solution is made here in a solution of sol ammon: instead of Brandy and as it is intended to opperate by sweat, opium is sometimes given with it to promote it, and to prevent its purging.

            I have wrote a second time to Mr Bowles but he has not yet answered my Letter, I expect he will by the next Post, & if he does I will send it you by the next opportunity which will be a private ship to New York, in which I shall send to the care of Mr Norvel the Books on husbandry for wh you wrote to me. 

            I am very sorry to hear by the publick Papers that the Indian War is not at an End. I cannot conceive what it is these People are aiming at, but I am afraid, we ourselves are not intirely blameless. I would be obliged to you to send me Doctr Coldens titles for it you approve of it I propose dedicating my Thesis to him & you. Remember me in the most affectionate manner to Mama and all my friends and assure them they shall hear from me very soon. I enjoy perfect health and am as happy as I possible can be while at so great a Distance from you.

                                                                        I am Dr Sir

                                                                        your most Dutifull & affectionate son          

                                                                        Saml Bard




Samuel Bard (1742-1821) was born in Philadelphia as the son of Dr. John Bard and graduated from King’s College (Columbia University) in 1758, before traveling to Europe for a medical education. He spent five years in France, England, and Scotland, and earned his M.D. at the University of Edinburgh in 1765. When he returned, he entered into partnership with his father. He married his cousin Mary Bard (1746-1821), and they had six children. Samuel Bard founded the first hospital in New York City in 1769 and formed the plan for a medical school. He left the city during the Revolutionary War, but he soon returned to secure his property and worked as a physician while the British occupied the city. After the war, George Washington selected Bard as his personal and family physician while in New York. In 1791, he helped found the New York Medical School at Columbia College. Bard and his partner after 1796, Dr. David Hosack, were physicians to Alexander Hamilton and his family. Bard retired from his profession in 1798 but returned to the city when a yellow fever epidemic again appeared in 1803. He and his wife died of pleurisy one day apart and were buried in one grave.



John Bard (1716-1799) was born in New Jersey, but his father died when he was young. His mother sent him to Philadelphia, and he was apprenticed to an English surgeon for seven years. He became acquainted with Benjamin Franklin and opened his own medical practice in 1737. In 1740, he married the niece of his master. In 1743, Franklin suggested that he might have better prospects in New York City, where two prominent physicians had recently died. He followed Franklin’s advice and established a successful practice in New York. He became the first president of the New York Medical Society. The town of Hyde Park, New York, famous later as the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, was named for Bard’s estate, “Hyde Park,” named for a colonial governor of New York and New Jersey.



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