Joseph Carson (Physician) hand-tinted photograph (cropped)

Joseph Carson (born April 19, 1808,

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

; died December 30, 1876) was a United States physician and medical botanist.

Biography

He was privately schooled in Philadelphia, graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1826, and from the Medical School of the University in 1830. He began a practice in 1832, which emphasized obstetrics. He studied botany throughout his life. From 1836 to 1850, he was professor of materia medica in the

Philadelphia College of Pharmacy Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1 ...

. He held a similar chair in the University of Pennsylvania from 1850 to 1876. In 1870 he was president of the national convention for the revision of the United States

Pharmacopeia A pharmacopoeia, pharmacopeia, or pharmacopoea (from the obsolete typography ''pharmacopœia'', meaning "drug-making"), in its modern technical sense, is a book containing directions for the identification of compound medicines, and published by ...

. He was a elected as a member to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1844.

Works

For a number of years he was an associate editor of the ''American Journal of Pharmacy''. He edited

Jonathan Pereira Jonathan Pereira FRS (22 May 1804, in London – 20 January 1853) was a pharmacologist, author of the ''Elements of Materia Medica'', a standard work. He was examiner on the subject in the University of London. Life Pereira graduated as apotheca ...

's ''Elements of Materia Medica'' (1843; 2d ed., 2 vols., 1845) and J. Forbes Royle's ''Materia Medica and Therapeutics'' (1847); he published ''Illustrations of Medical Botany'' (1847) to which he contributed many drawings.

Family

He married Mary Goddard in 1841 and Sarah Hollingsworth in 1848. With the latter he had four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carson, Joseph 1808 births 1876 deaths Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania faculty American obstetricians American botanists Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni