William Douglass (physician)
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William Douglass (c. 1691–1752) was a physician in 18th-century
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, Massachusetts, who wrote pamphlets on medicine, economics and politics that were often polemical. He was a central figure, along with Cotton Mather during the controversy surrounding the 1721 smallpox epidemic in Boston.


Personal life

Douglass was born in Gifford, Scotland in about 1691. Douglass studied at
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
(MA, 1705), Leyden, Paris, and
Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...
, where he received his MD in 1712.William Douglass (ca.1691–1752) and his Map
/ref> He first arrived in Boston in 1716, with letters of introduction to
Increase Mather Increase Mather (; June 21, 1639 Old Style – August 23, 1723 Old Style) was a New England Puritan clergyman in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and president of Harvard College for twenty years (1681–1701). He was influential in the administ ...
, Cotton Mather and Benjamin Colman. After travelling in the West Indies, Douglass returned to Boston in 1718, where he lived for the rest of his life.Bullock:266 Douglass prospered in Boston, and put his money into property, both in the city and in remote parts of the Massachusetts Bay colony. Although he owned houses in Boston, he lived at the
Green Dragon Tavern ] The Green Dragon Tavern was a public house located on Union Street (then known as Green Dragon Lane) in Boston's North End. A popular meeting place for both the Freemasons and the Sons of Liberty, it was demolished in 1832. History The proper ...
, which he also owned. In 1746 Douglass offered the town of New Sherburn, where he had purchased a large quantity of land, $500 and thirty acres, with a house and barn, to be used to establish free schools in the town, in exchange for the town changing its name to Douglas, Massachusetts, Douglas.Trent and Wells:125 In common with other educated men of the time, William Douglass pursued a wide range of interests. He corresponded with
Cadwallader Colden Cadwallader Colden (7 February 1688 – 28 September 1776) was a physician, natural scientist, a lieutenant governor and acting Governor for the Province of New York. Early life Colden was born on 7 February 1688 in Ireland, of Scottish pare ...
for twenty-five years about subjects such as botany and geography, as well as medicine.Bullock:275Bullock:290 He knew five languages, accumulated a collection of 1,100 American plants, observed the weather, and studied
magnetic deviation Magnetic deviation is the error induced in a compass by ''local'' magnetic fields, which must be allowed for, along with magnetic declination, if accurate bearings are to be calculated. (More loosely, "magnetic deviation" is used by some to mean ...
and astronomy. His almanac ''Mercurius Novanglicanus,'' published in 1743, has been called "useful" and "good". His map of New England, which was published posthumously, was, at least in part, the basis for every map of New England published over the following fifty years. Douglass did not always fit in well with Boston society. He was a self-proclaimed "rationalist", and quickly joined in the growing dissent against official Puritanism in Boston. He was probably a member of the group of
freethinkers Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...
(the "hell fire club") that contributed to ''
The New-England Courant ''The New-England Courant'' (also spelled ''New England Courant''), one of the first American newspapers, was founded in Boston in 1721, by James Franklin. It was a weekly newspaper and the third to appear in Boston. Unlike other newspapers, i ...
'' published by James Franklin. He engaged in economic, political and medical controversies. Douglass never married, but had an illegitimate son (born in 1745) whom he adopted, causing a scandal in society. Although Douglass was a member of what may have been the first medical society in America, formed in Boston around 1735, he did not always get along with his fellow physicians.Bullock:270 In 1721 Douglass described himself as the only physician in Boston with a medical degree. He complained about the system that allowed someone with as little as a one-year apprenticeship with any sort of medical practitioner to present himself as a physician. He claimed that his fellow physicians were a major cause of death for their patients, and that they too often relied on a single treatment, such as
bloodletting Bloodletting (or blood-letting) is the withdrawal of blood from a patient to prevent or cure illness and disease. Bloodletting, whether by a physician or by leeches, was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily flu ...
or
emetic Vomiting (also known as emesis and throwing up) is the involuntary, forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Vomiting can be the result of ailments like food poisoning, gastroenteritis ...
s, for all conditions. He is believed to be the author of a pseudonymous proposal in 1737 to register all medical practitioners in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. William Douglass died in Boston on 21 October 1752.


Smallpox inoculation controversy

In 1721, while smallpox was spreading through Boston, Cotton Mather learned of the Turkish practice of inoculation to control the severity of smallpox, accounts of which had been published that year in the ''
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the first journa ...
'' (William Douglas claimed to have loaned those issues of the ''Transactions'' to Mather). Mather urged that inoculation for smallpox be practiced in Boston. William Douglass, along with almost all of Boston's physicians, opposed inoculation. Mather and Douglass attacked each other personally, and publicly through newspapers like ''
The Boston Gazette The ''Boston Gazette'' (1719–1798) was a newspaper published in Boston, in the British North American colonies. It was a weekly newspaper established by William Brooker, who was just appointed Postmaster of Boston, with its first issue release ...
'' and ''
The New-England Courant ''The New-England Courant'' (also spelled ''New England Courant''), one of the first American newspapers, was founded in Boston in 1721, by James Franklin. It was a weekly newspaper and the third to appear in Boston. Unlike other newspapers, i ...
'' respectively. By the next year, however, Douglass admitted that the inoculations were safer and more effective than he had believed they would be in 1721, and he eventually performed them himself, although he remained on bad terms with Mather.


Epidemic of 1735/1736

In 1735 and 1736 an epidemic of
diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild clinical course, but in some outbreaks more than 10% of those diagnosed with the disease may die. Signs and s ...
Harrington:124 or scarlet feverC. struck Boston. Douglass's account of the disease, ''The Practical History of a New Epidemic Eruptive Miliary Fever, with an Angina Ulcusculosa, Which Prevailed in Boston, New England, in the Years 1735 and 1736,'' has been called "one of the most valuable essays upon diphtheria up to that time", and "the first adequate description of scarlet fever in English." The ''Practical History'' was reprinted in ''
The New England Journal of Medicine ''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals as well as the oldest continuously published one. Hi ...
'' in 1825, as "one of the best works extant on the subject." Cadwallader Colden wrote that Douglass had published the "only successful method of cure" for the disease.


Economics

Douglass wrote several pamphlets condemning the use of paper money by the American colonies. His ''Summary of ... the British Settlements in North America'' attracted favorable notice from Adam Smith, who cited the work in ''
The Wealth of Nations ''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations'', generally referred to by its shortened title ''The Wealth of Nations'', is the '' magnum opus'' of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. First published in ...
,'' and called Douglass "honest and downright." Douglass also wrote about
wampum Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of Native Americans. It includes white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western Nor ...
, the
Bank of Amsterdam The Bank of Amsterdam ( nl, Amsterdamsche Wisselbank, lit=Exchange Bank of Amsterdam) was an early bank, vouched for by the city of Amsterdam, and established in 1609. It was the first public bank to offer accounts not directly convertible to c ...
, the ideas of
John Law John Law may refer to: Arts and entertainment * John Law (artist) (born 1958), American artist * John Law (comics), comic-book character created by Will Eisner * John Law (film director), Hong Kong film director * John Law (musician) (born 1961) ...
, the South Sea Bubble, taxation, and " political arithmetic."Bullock:281


Louisbourg

The capture of the
Fortress of Louisbourg The Fortress of Louisbourg (french: Forteresse de Louisbourg) is a National Historic Site and the location of a one-quarter partial reconstruction of an 18th-century French fortress at Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Its two siege ...
in 1745 by forces from New England caused great excitement and joy in Massachusetts. Douglas had been opposed to the expedition against Louisbourg from the beginning, and continued to criticize it afterwards. Douglass held that the expedition had been poorly planned and inadequately manned for an attack on the powerful fortress at Louisbourg, and had succeeded only by a string of lucky turns of events. Critics have cited Douglass's continued criticism of the Louisbourg expedition as evidence of his stubbornness and failure to acknowledge the errors of his opinions. Bullock, however, notes that historians largely agree with Douglass's assessment of the inadequacy of the preparations for the expedition against Louisbourg, and the role played by luck in it.


Libel

Douglass repeatedly attacked
William Shirley William Shirley (2 December 1694 – 24 March 1771) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of the British American colonies of Massachusetts Bay and the Bahamas. He is best known for his role in organi ...
, Governor of the
Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in British America which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of ...
, over Shirley's support of paper money in the colony, and over his leadership in the expedition against Louisbourg.Carr:306-07 In 1747 Royal Navy Captain Charles Knowles, who had served as governor of Louisbourg after its capture, sought to
impress The Independent Monitor for the Press (IMPRESS) is an independent press regulator in the UK. It was the first to be recognised by the Press Recognition Panel. Unlike the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), IMPRESS is fully compliant ...
American seaman from Boston to bring the ships in his squadron up to strength.Carr:298 The press gangs were heavy-handed, and Boston was still smarting from an incident two years earlier in which two American seamen had been killed in a fight with a Royal Navy press gang. Mobs roamed the streets of Boston, threatening naval officers and ships, and Governor Shirley at his home and at the Boston
Town House A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...
. Douglass used his pamphlets to attack both Shirley and Knowles over the impressment issue. Both men sued Douglas for libel, but the courts found in favour of Douglass in both cases.


Scholarly assessment

Douglass has been accused of being partial and prejudiced, often in error, careless in writing, and having a "conception of
historical method Historical method is the collection of techniques and guidelines that historians use to research and write histories of the past. Secondary sources, primary sources and material evidence such as that derived from archaeology may all be drawn ...
" that was "entirely inadequate." One assessment of Douglass's work was, "Always positive, and sometimes right."Harrington:127 On the other hand, Bullock calls Douglass "generally a reliable and valuable authority" on colonial trade, commerce, and money, and states that he gave "intelligent accounts of colonial taxation." Trent and Wells described the ''Summary of ... the British Settlements in North America'' as "interesting" and "valuable, in spite of its prejudices and inaccuracies."


Works

*''Inoculation of the Small Pox as practised in Boston, considered in a letter to A exanderS
uart A universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART ) is a computer hardware device for asynchronous serial communication in which the data format and transmission speeds are configurable. It sends data bits one by one, from the least signific ...
M. D. F. R. S., in London.'' (1722) *''The Abuses and Scandals of some late Pamphlets in favor of Inoculation of the Small-pox, as practised in Boston.'' (1722)Bullock:289 *''Inoculation, The Abuses and Scandals of some late Pamphlets in favor of Inoculation of the Small-pox, mostly obviated, and Inoculation further considered, considered in a letter to A exanderS
uart A universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART ) is a computer hardware device for asynchronous serial communication in which the data format and transmission speeds are configurable. It sends data bits one by one, from the least signific ...
M. D. F. R. S.'' (1722) *''Postscript to the Above, Being a short answer to the Matters of fact, &c, misrepresented in a late doggerel dialogue (between Academicus and Sawny, &c).'' (1722) *''Some historical remarks on the city of St. Andrews in North-Britain, with a particular account of the ...Harbour, etc.'' (1728) *''A Dissertation concerning the Inoculation of the Small-pox.'' (1730) *''A Practical Essay Concerning the Small-pox.'' (1730) *''The Practical History of a New Epidemic Eruptive Miliary Fever, with an Angina Ulcusculosa, Which Prevailed in Boston, New England, in the Years 1735 and 1736.'' (1736) *''Some Observations on the Scheme projected for emitting 60000 £ in Bills of a New Tenour, to be redeemed in Silver and Gold.'' (1738) *''An Essay, Concerning Silver and Paper Currencies; More Especially with Regard to the British Colonies in New England.'' (1738) *''A Discourse Concerning the Currencies of the British Plantations in America: More Particularly in Relation to the Province of Massachusetts-Bay, in New England.'' (1739) *''Mercurius Novanglicanus.'' (Almanac for 1743–1744) (1743) *''A Summary, Historical and Political, of the First Planting, Progressive Improvements, and Present State of the British Settlements in North America.'' (1748) (Online a
Google Books
. *''Plan of the British Dominions of New England.'' (Map) (1753)


Citations


Bibliography

*Bigelow, Jacob. (1880) ''Memoir.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts: University Press. Found a
Google Books
*Bullock, Charles J. (1897) "Introduction: Life and Writings of William Douglas". In "A Discourse Concerning the Currencies of the British Plantations in America, &c. by William Douglas. Edited by Charles J. Bullock." ''Economic studies.'' (Journal of the American Economic Association) Vol. 2 No. 5. Found a
Google Books
*Carr, J. Revell. (2008) ''Seeds of Discontent: The Deep Roots of the American Revolution: 1650-1750.'' Walker and Company. *C., T. E. Jr. (1981) "William Douglass on the first reported cases of Scarlet Fever in New England, 1736." ''Pediatrics.'' Vol. 68 No. 2 August 1981. Abstract found a

* *Gould, George Milbry and James Hendrie Lloyd. (1900) ''The Philadelphia medical journal, Volume 5.'' Philadelphia Medical Publishing Company. Found a
Google Books
*Emerson, Wm. A. (1879) ''History of the Town of Douglas (Massachusetts,) from the earliest period to the close 1878.'' Frank W. Bird. Found a
Google Books
*Harrington, Thomas Francis. (1905) "Chapter V. American Medical Literature of the Eighteenth Century." ''The Harvard medical school: a history, narrative and documentary. 1782-1905, Volume 1.'' Lewis Publishing Company. Found a
Google Books
* *Trent, William P. and Benjamin W. Wells. (1901) ''Colonial Prose and Poetry.'' Thomas Y. Crowell Company. Found a
Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglass, William People of colonial Massachusetts 18th-century American physicians Physicians from Massachusetts Writers from Massachusetts Alumni of the University of Edinburgh 1691 births 1752 deaths People from East Lothian