Edward Augustus Holyoke

This article describes the American doctor, for the anatomist of the same name see Edward A. Holyoke (Anatom)

Edward Augustus Holyoke

Edward Augustus Holyoke (born August 1, 1728 in Marblehead , Province of Massachusetts Bay , † March 31, 1829 in Salem , Massachusetts ) was an American doctor . He was one of the 62 founding members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and served as president from 1814 to 1820.

Career

Edward Augustus Holyoke was born in 1728, the second of eight children. His father was Edward Holyoke , who later became the 9th President of Harvard College , part of Harvard University . His paternal ancestors came from Tamworth , England .

From 1742 to 1746 Holyoke attended Harvard University, before teaching at schools in Roxbury and Lexington for six months . In July 1747 he began medical training, which he finished in April 1749. In June of the same year he settled in Salem and practiced as a doctor in the city for decades. Holyoke made a particular contribution to the fight against smallpox , in which he exposed himself to an inoculation in order to convince his patients of this form of vaccination . 600 of his patients then agreed to this controversial treatment, of which only two died as a result. He also was one of the first to the use of pewter tableware with lead poisoning brought in connection. In 1783 Harvard University awarded him an honorary MD , which was the first medical doctoral degree that the university ever awarded. He was also a co-founder of the Massachusetts Medical Society and served as its president from 1782 to 1784 and from 1786 to 1788. In connection with the editorship of the Society (now The New England Journal of Medicine ), he was also the first author of medical articles.

Parallel to his work as a doctor, he worked as a trainer for around 35 medical students. One of his students wrote about him that he had the latest medical textbooks imported from England almost every year and that he was also knowledgeable about astronomy , meteorology , philosophy and theology . As a “man of science” he became one of the 62 founding members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780, which he later served as president from 1814 to 1820.

Edward Augustus Holyoke, often referred to in scriptures as “Dr. Holyoke ”, to distinguish him from his father of the same name, died in 1829 at the age of 100.

Personal

Edward Augustus Holyoke married Judith Pickman in 1755, who gave birth to a girl the following year, but died shortly afterwards; as well as her newborn daughter. As a result, Holyoke remarried in 1759 and had twelve children with his new wife, Mary Viall, of which only two daughters reached adulthood.

literature

• Essex Southern District Medical Society: Memoir of Edward A. Holyoke, MD LL.D. Perkins & Marvin, Boston, 1829. ( digitized in the US National Library of Medicine, PDF, 73.5 MB)

Web links

• Portrait on salemweb.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ Edward Augustus Holyoke. CHSI - The Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, accessed November 9, 2018 .