| Old navy | Damien Ihrig, MA, MLIS
Curator, John Martin Rare Book Room
_wikimedia.jpg) As Dioscorides once said, "April showers bring May flowers."* So let's take a moment to stop and smell the sneezewort (Achillea ptarmica).
This month, we present William Paul Crillon Barton's (1786–1856) masterwork, Vegetable materia medica of the United States (1817–1818). Barton was a well-known naval surgeon, medical botanist, artist, and professor. He was born on Nov. 17, 1786, in Philadelphia, to a family filled with people who made important contributions to every aspect of the early United States. Barton had both the opportunities and the drive to make his own impact on the new nation.
Growing up, Barton must have heard many stories of his great-uncle, the astronomer, cartographer, inventor, and clockmaker David Rittenhouse (who also became Barton's grandfather-in-law after Barton married his cousin, Esther). Barton's father, William, wrote the definitive biography of David Rittenhouse and helped to design the Great Seal of the United States, most famous now for its ubiquity on US dollars and as a plot device in the National Treasure movie.
His uncle, Benjamin Barton, was a well-known physician and botanist whom Barton would eventually study under. And his brother, John Barton, pioneered corrective osteotomy for joint ankylosis and invented the Barton bandage and Barton forceps.
William Barton spent most of his career in the Navy as a surgeon and administrator, eventually working his way up to the head of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, the precursor to the Navy Surgeon General. However, he never lost his love of medicinal plants and eventually published the beautifully illustrated Vegetable Materia Medica, the first US botanical work published with colored plates.
Read below to learn more about our copy of Vegetable Materia Medica, Barton's friend (frenemy?) and fellow plant enthusiast Jacob Bigelow, and how Barton played a role in presidential case law.
Thank you to everyone who attended the JMRBR Open House on April 24. I look forward to seeing you again next year. Stay healthy and happy reading!
*Unfortunately, there is no evidence Dioscorides ever said this. It seems to originate from the UK and the poem Aprils husbandrie by Thomas Tusser (1524–1580) in which is the line, "Swéete April showers, Doo spring Maie flowers."
Hours
The JMRBR is open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and by appointment on Friday. For more information, please contact me at damien-ihrig@uiowa.edu or 319-335-9154. | | | | BARTON, WILLIAM P. C. (1786–1856). Vegetable materia medica of the United States. Two volumes. Printed in Philadelphia by M. Carey & Son, 1817–1818. 28 cm tall.
Barton attended Princeton University and graduated in 1805. While at Princeton, as was customary for all undergrads, he took the name of a celebrated individual—Count Paul Crillon—and kept the initials P. C. for life. [Interestingly, the only Paul Crillon I can find information on is the alias for the French spy and con artist, Paul Émile Soubiran, whose scheming helped hasten the start of the War of 1812—and earned him a pile of cash.]
Barton then studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania under his uncle, Benjamin Barton, who wrote the first American botanical textbook. This sparked Barton's lifelong interest in botany and desire to publish an illustrated medical botany book devoted to American plant species.
Barton graduated in 1808 with his medical degree. His dissertation on nitrous oxide gas, which included an illustration of a man inhaling "laughing gas," was influential at a time when such experiments were often mocked.
At age 23, Barton joined the U.S. Navy as a surgeon. He worked to improve medical supplies on ships and pushed for the use of lemons and limes to prevent scurvy, even before the Navy recognized the importance of antiscorbutic (term used in the 18th and 19th centuries for foods known to prevent scurvy) treatments for vitamin C deficiencies developed at sea.
In 1811, Congress established the first naval hospitals, and Barton, ever the stickler for best practices and a properly functioning supply chain, was asked to draft regulations for them. He proposed detailed rules and regulations and was the first to advocate for the hiring of female nurses for the Navy.
He advocated for the U.S. to follow the British model for naval medical facilities, including that all property should be marked with a special designation to prevent theft. From that point forward, all Naval medical supplies were marked "U.S. Naval Hospital."
After his uncle's death in 1815, Barton became a professor of botany at the University of Pennsylvania. He also taught at Thomas Jefferson Medical College and served as its Dean from 1828 to 1829. He also helped develop the Philadelphia Naval Hospital, the first home for the Naval Academy. By 1824, Barton was appointed to the board that examined Navy surgeon candidates, and in 1830, he became the commanding officer at the Naval Hospital in Norfolk, VA.
It was during his time at Penn and the Philadelphia Naval Hospital that Barton became a footnote in the development of U.S. presidential case law, specifically, the Monroe Precedent of 1818. Barton was court-martialed after being accused of two counts of "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman" in relation to his actions securing a staff position for himself at the hospital. | | | President James Monroe met with Barton twice to discuss the appointment at the Naval Hospital. Subsequently, Monroe was subpoenaed to appear before the judge advocate to testify about those meetings. Monroe is in select company. Only three other sitting presidents have been subpoenaed: Thomas Jefferson (Aaron Burr trial), Richard Nixon (Watergate tapes), and Bill Clinton (Paula Jones lawsuit).
Monroe eventually submitted a written deposition, although it arrived after the court made its decision. [I am sure there is a government joke in there somewhere.] Barton was found guilty on one count of acting improperly, but he was acquitted of outright lying and received a mild reprimand.
In 1842, President John Tyler appointed Barton as the first head of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. He recommended many reforms, including higher standards for Naval physicians and tighter control of medical supplies and alcohol. Not surprisingly, his strict policies on alcohol were unpopular amongst the sailors.
The American physician and botanist, Jacob Bigelow, was Barton's friend and classmate in medical school. They both trained under Benjamin Barton and developed a passion for medical botany. Bigelow published the first volume of his American Medical Botany in 1817, just after Barton. Barton decided in 1815 to write Vegetable materia medica of the United States to honor his uncle after his death, while Bigelow began his project in the spring of 1816.
Barton’s work, published in an edition of only 500 copies, contained fewer entries than Bigelow’s. This allowed Barton to find enough colorists to hand-color his plates, which were often elegant and preferred by contemporaries.
Bigelow, planning a larger edition, resorted to a color-printing process for some plates. Not all copies of Barton’s work have colored plates; some are partially or entirely uncolored.
Vegetable materia medica was published in eight parts, with the final number issued in March 1819. Some copies contain advertisement leaves indicating the publication details and instructions for binders.
Although a third volume was advertised in 1820, it was never published. Barton’s work depicts forty-nine different plants, shrubs, and trees in fifty plates, with descriptions of their geographical distribution, appearance, and medical properties.
We are lucky enough to have two copies of Vegetable materia medica. The first is covered in one-quarter red leather with marbled paper. It shows some wear and tear with scratched and torn covers and the cover of volume one is partly detached.
The second copy is also covered in one-quarter red leather, but with an accompanying plain brown leather. The paper in both copies is in okay shape, but with quite a bit of foxing throughout.
Contact me to take a look at this book or any others from this or past newsletters: damien-ihrig@uiowa.edu or 319-335-9154. | | | |
