Excerpt from Dr. Lyman Spalding: The Originator of the United States Pharmacop ia; Co-Laborer With Dr. Nathan Smith in the Founding of the Dartmouth Medical School and Its First Chemical Lecturer; President and Professor of Anatomy and Surgery of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Of When my father, Lyman Dyer Spalding, was a boy of eleven (1821) his father, Dr. Lyman Spalding, died, leaving to his widow, Elizabeth Coues Spalding, all of his papers. When she died in 1838, they were laid aside by his eldest daughter. Miss Elizabeth Parkhurst Spalding, and after her death they fell into the hands of Pay Director Joseph Foster U.S.N., Rear Admiral Retired, a son of Mrs. Adelaide Spalding Foster, the last surviving child of Dr. Spalding. Eight years ago he gave me these ancient documents to look over, and, on unfolding them, I found a treasure for illuminating American Medical History in the form of letters to my Grandfather from the leading physicians of his time. I now propose to print a selection from these papers in order to show what part Dr. Spalding took in the advancement of American medicine. Much to my regret, none of his own letters have been discovered, but I have before me a few copies of those which were probably sent to various friends. Interweaving these, with anecdotes of their writers and of the chief personages named therein, I propose to recall to memory the career of a distinguished man in medicine. An occasional abruptness in the narrative depends upon my inability to discover after so long a lapse of time the missing links of the story, or upon the interruptions of medical practice. Grateful thanks are due to Lieutenant Colonel Walter C. McCaw, U.S.A., of the Surgeon Generals Library, to Mrs. R. M. Thompson of the Boston Medical Library, to Mr. John S. Brownne, Librarian of the New York Academy of Medicine, for much assistance in reconstructing the lives of the personages of this story; to Mrs. Emily A. Smith of Baltimore for anecdotes concerning Dr. Nathan Smith, to Dr. Frederick C. Shattuck of Boston for letters from Dr. Spalding to his Grandfather, Dr. George Cheyne Shattuck, to Rear Admiral Foster for many hints on family history and to Dr. Walter L. Burrage of Boston who with great patience reviewed my Mss and suggested many improvements. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."