malicious murder; and if she be known to be a lunatic, though she have her lucid intervals, there need be very good and satisfactory proof that she was compos mentis for the law favors life."34

The second instance relates to Abigail Thompson, of Farmington, who was accused of killing her husband by throwing a pair of shears at him, in a fit of anger, thus causing a wound from which he died. Bulkeley writes: "I find yt ye womans act was in ye nature of a chance medley, done in a quarrel, upon a sudden provocation; and also yt ye man lived 18 days after ye wound, was up and down, here and there, cut wood, dressed flax, &c., all weathers; and yt in all this time no care was taken of him by any of his neighbors or relations, his wound was never searched, no proper means at all used, for his cure, nothing but a plaster applyed, wch skinned it over 3 or 4 days before he dyed; and in fine, nobody abiding in ye house with them night or day, but he was wholly left to the mercy, care and nursing of that bloody woman, who they knew had wounded him. Hereupon my little sense concludes that ye wound, penetrating into ye brain, was indeed such yt he might possobly dyed of it, but the neglect of it and ye (illegible) method of cure was such that he must of necessity dy of them, and tis impossible to make it evident yt he died of ye wound. I cannot say ye wound would have been cured if good means had been seasonably used; but I can say it is probable it might have been cured, because more dangerous wounds of ye brain than that have been cured. neither is or can be evident that he died of ye wound; but I think tis evident yt he died of corruption, gangrene and suppuration of ye wound and brain, through ye neglect and means to prevent it, wch in an ordinary way of Providence, might have been done. Tis now endeavord to lay ye fault of ye neglect upon ye woman. I cannot excuse her, any more than ye man or his friends. I think yy all are to blame; but besides else may be said to avoid it, tis certain she was not indicted, or brought to answer, on that account, and we must not indict upon one crime and evidence for another."35

His knowledge of chemistry was most profound and his laboratory was well stocked with apparatus and chemicals. "Even to alchemy with its visionary speculations, then so closely allied to chemistry, he seems to have paid considerable attention. He was master of several languages, among which may be reckoned the Greek, Latin and Dutch." Besides theology and medicine he

Vor M

37

was skilled in the knowledge of law and was a politician in the noblest sense of that word. He was on the losing side, however, for his loyalty was of the "high tory and passive obedience type" so he was an ardent advocate of Sir Edmund Andross, by whom he was made a Justice of the Peace in 1687.38 His pamphlets entitled "The People's Right to Election" and "Will and Doom" attest his firm belief in the divine right of kings, and when the Connecticut charter was resumed in 1689, his position on Andross' side caused him to lose much in public favor. He had previously refused to take the freeman's oath, so he was denied a seat among the deputies, although he was elected as one from Wethersfield in 1679.39

Ill health caused him to visit Antigua, in the West Indies, with his son Charles, in 1681.40 Eight years later, in one of his pamphlets he speaks of his "bodily infirmity," while in his will he says: "I have much more than twenty years walked upon the very mouth of the grave, under so great infirmity that I cannot but wonder how I have all the while escaped falling into it."4 Yet in spite of his ill health he was able to continue in the practice of medicine until his death, at the age of seventyseven, on December 2, 1713. He was buried in the cemetery back of the Congregational Church in Wethersfield, and upon his tomb the following inscription can yet be deciphered :—

9742

His will was dated May 26, 1712, and in its first clause he states his occupation was that of a "practitioner of physick." In it we also find the following: "Item, to my grandson Richard Treat, (the son of Thomas and Dorothy) I give and bequeath all my books and manuscripts, which anyway concern medicine and chymistry, among which I include all Glauber's and Boyle's Books, which I have, whether in Latin or English, as also Georgius Agricola De Re Metallica and Lazarus, each re-translated by St. John Pettus called Fleeta Mina, or the art &c of

Metalls; and the same St. John Pettus his Fodine Regales, and such like books, and also Littleton's Dictionary for the Latin tongue, and my Dutch Grammar for the Dutch language, together with my manuscript Dutch Dictionary which may help him to read and understand Hehwart's Degerend, &c., i.e. the Day Spring, a new resurrection of the art of medicine which book is in the Dutch language, and together with all my vessels and instruments useful thereabout, of glass, brass, copper, iron, stone or earth. All these I give to him, provided he hold and pursue his inclination to that study, but if by death or otherwise he be diverted or depart from it, then I give all to the next of his bretheren that will apply himself to the study; but if none of them, then I give them all to his mother (my daughter Dorothy) to dispose of at her discretion or to his father, in like manner, if he survive her.”44

Various estimates are given of his character. Chauncy writes in 1721 "I have heard (him) mentioned as a truly great man, and eminent for his skill in chemistry"45 and Benjamin Trumbull says "Mr. Bulkley was viewed as one of the greatest physicians and surgeons then in Connecticut."46 Later writers, as John Hammond Trumbull and Palfrey, somewhat detract from previous estimates of him. The former states "he had few superiors in the colony in natural ability, professional learning or general scholarship," but adds "overweening self importance, obstinate adherence to his own opinions or prejudices, a litigious spirit and the peculiarities of his political creed, detracted from his usefulness and kept him almost continually at strife with his parish, his neighbors cr the government of the colony." While Palfrey notes "He was always a discontented and troublesome person. A contemporary opinion of him is to be found in the Boston News Letter for December 28, 1713. Here we read "he was Eminent for his great Parts, both Natural and Acquired, being Universally acknowledged besides his good Religion and Vertue to be a Person of Great Penetration, and a sound Judgment, as well in Divinity as Politicks and Physick; having served his Country many years successively as a Minister, a Judge and a Physician with great Honour to himself and advantage to others."49

9948

I shall feel that my labors have been rewarded in thus bringing before you Gershom Bulkeley, numbered among those "Persons whose more declared Business was the Study of Divinity,"

1950

if he shall henceforth find, at least, slight mention in subsequent accounts of colonial medicine in this country.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

1. Chapin and Caulkins give 1636 as the year, while Shattuck and Chapman put it a year earlier, as above. Sibley cannot determine the exact date and says it was in 1635, 1636 or 1637.

2. These were the words by which he expressed his seclusion. (See Shattuck, History of the Town of Concord, Mass., Boston, 1835, p. 158.) 3. Sibley. Harvard Graduates. Cambridge, 1873, i, pp. 389-402.

4. Sibley. Op. cit., pp. 389-390.

5. Caulkins. History of New London. New London, 1852, p. 131. Caulkins. Loc. cit.

6.

12.

Adams. Historic Sketch of the First Church of Christ in Wethersfield. Hartford, 1877, p. 10.

13. Chapin. Glastonbury for Two Hundred Years. Hartford, 1852, p. 40.

14. Chapman. The Bulkeley Family. Hartford, 1875, p. 81.

15. Conn. Coll. Records, ii, p. 271.

16. Conn. Coll. Records, ii, p. 388.

17. Conn. Coll. Records, ii, pp. 399-400.

18. Conn. Coll. Records, ii, p. 409.

19. Hubbard.

The History of the Indian Wars in New England.

Edited by S. G. Drake, Roxbury, 1865, i, p. 204.

20. Fowler. Memorials of the Chaunceys. Boston, 1858, p. 280; and Conn. Coll. Records, ii, p. 424.

21.

22.

Conn. Coll. Records, ii, p. 277.

Conn. Coll. Records, ii, p. 444. 23. Conn. Coll. Records, ii, p. 433. 24. Conn. Coll. Records, ii, p. 325. 25. Conn. Coll. Records, ii, p. 483. 26. Conn. Coll. Records, v, p. 282. 27. Conn. Coll. Records, iii, p. 510.

28. Mass. Records, v, p. 318.

29. Steiner. Governor John Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut, as a Physician. Johns Hopkins Hosp. Bull., 1903, xiv, p. 302.

30. V. Mass. Hist. Coll., viii, p. 281.

31. Conn. Coll. Records, iii, p. 218.

32. Russell. Early Medicine and Early Medical Men in Connecticut. Proc. Conn. Med. Soc., Bridgeport, 1892, p. 28. Dr. Russell gives an excellent account of Gershom Bulkeley.

33. The above selections are taken from those given by Russell in his article, previously cited. They are to be found in the original in a manuscript volume of Bulkeley's, now owned by Dr. G. W. Russell. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Russell, as he allowed me to consult this volume.

34. Sumner. Address on the Early Physicians of Connecticut. Hartford, 1851, p. 28.

35. VI. Mass. Hist. Coll., iii, p. 399.

36. Chapin. Loc. cit.

37. Conn. Coll. Records, iii, p. 389.

38. Conn. Coll. Records, iii, pp. 455 and 457; and Hoadley, Coll. Conn.

Hist. Soc., Hartford, 1895, iii, p. 73.

39. Conn. Coll. Records, iii, p. 26.

40. Hoadley. Coll. Conn. Hist. Soc.

Hartford, 1895, iii, p. 71.

41. Coll. Conn. Hist. Soc. Hartford, 1860, i, p. 59.

43. Tillotson. Wethersfield Inscriptions. Hartford, 1899, p. 30.

44. Chapman.

45. Mass. Hist.

Op. cit., p. 84

Coll., x, p. 155.

46. Trumbull. History of Connecticut. New London, 1898, i, p. 291. 47. Conn. Coll. Records, iii, pp. 388-389.

48. Palfrey. History of New England. Boston, 1864, iii, p. 544.

49. Sibley. Op. cit., p. 397.

50. Mather. Magnalia. Hartford, 1853, i, p. 493.

EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL OF A SCOTCH MEDICAL STUDENT OF THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY.

Edited by L. M. A. LIGGETT,
New York City.

In 1785, Alexander Coventry, a young gentleman of eighteen, possessing good looks, a modest fortune, and a determined ambition, left his native town of Hamilton, in the beautiful Clyde valley of East Scotland, for a year at the Edinburgh Medical School, having spent two years in preparation under Dr. Hamilton at the Glasgow University. Like most young gentlemen of that period he kept a journal, and from it can be gathered a very faithful picture of a student's life and of the great group of men who were then making Edinburgh famous in surgery and medicine. Coventry writes under date of November 10:-"The rents from Fairhill" (his country place) "not being due until Spring, I borrowed thirty pounds from good Baillie Lamb, an Irish gentleman, and, my winter's expenses thus provided for, on the third of November I left Hamilton for Edinburgh, having to walk sixteen miles before I could catch the Glascow coach. I reached Edinburgh about dark; I had written my uncle John Crie who lived at Inveresk and knew where to call for him, accordingly I met him and he took me in to Mr. Wallis's tavern in a lane running from High Street to the Cowgate. The first evening several of my