Call no. Z10/2                                                                                                                                           Acc. 34026
(Hirsch 56)                                                                                                                                                04/23/1909



Barton, William Paul Crillon, 1786-1856.
   [Manuscript relating to the early history of Jefferson Medical College, ca. 1830?].
   1 v.



Biography

William Paul Crillon Barton, navy surgeon and botanist, was born in Philadelphia on 17 Nov. 1786 to William and Elizabeth (Rhea) Barton. He married Esther Sargeant in Sept. 1814. On 27 Feb. 1856 Barton died in Philadelphia.

Barton received his A.B. from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1805 and studied medicine under his uncle, Benjamin S. Barton, M.D., from 1805-1808. In 1808 he received his M.D. from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1809 he served as a resident physician in Pennsylvania Hospital.

After his residency, Barton joined the U.S. Navy as an assistant surgeon. In the Navy, Barton was responsible for several major reforms of the medical department and hospitals. In 1814 he wrote the Treatise Containing a Plan for the Organization and Government of Marine Hospitals. In 1842 he was appointed the first Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery of the Navy. He held this position until he retired in 1844.

A noted botanist, Barton held the academic posts of Professor of Botany at the University of Pennsylvania (1816-1828) and Professor of Materia Medica and Botany at the Jefferson Medical College (1828-1830). His most notable botanical writing is Vegetable Materia Medica of the United States (1818).

Professionally, Barton was a member of the Philadelphia Medical Society, the American Philosophical Society, and the Philadelphia Linnean Society. Barton served as President of the Board of Medical Examiners (1852). He was elected a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia on 6 June 1815.

Scope and Contents

One volume (47 leaves) of an allegorical essay on the spirit of competition that existed between the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the newly founded Jefferson Medical College. A 15 page typewritten transcript is included with the manuscript.


Provenance

Given to the College of Physicians on 9 June 1893 by G.M. Abbott, grandson of the author.




1
1 v.

10/04/2000
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