Born in Rhode Island in 1754, hailed in Great Britain and much of the united States, yet scorned by the medical and Brahmin establishments in Boston, Benjamin Waterhouse is one of the most important, controversial, and colorful figures in American Medical history. Best known for introducing vaccination to the United States and joining with Thomas Jefferson in promoting this procedure throughout the country and beyond, he served as the first professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and was a feared penman for the Jeffersonian cause and the co-author of an early best seller recounting the experiences of the young Massachusetts doctor taken prisoner during the war of 1812. In addition, Waterhouse pioneered the popularization of the study of natural history (biology, geology and mineralogy in New England. This work is the first major biography of this fascinatingg, many faceted personality.