Elisha Bartlett's Philosophy of Medicine

The idea of preparing a new critical edition of Elisha Bartlett s Essay on the Philosophy of Medical Science was suggested to me several years ago by Dr. H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. Since that time it has been a pleasure to get to know the life and work of Elisha Bartlett. I am pleased to be completing this book in the bicentennial year of Bartlett s birth. Bartlett was born in 1804 in Smithfield, Rhode Island, less than twenty-five miles from Worcester, Massachusetts, my present home a short journey even in Bartlett s day. I have been able to walk at some of the sites to which Bartlett continually returned during his life. Visiting Bartlett s grave in the Slatersville cemetery has been an inspiration for the preparation of this book. Proximity to several institutions with rich holdings in Bartlett s works and in nineteenth-century American history of medicine greatly facilitated my research. First, though, I want to acknowledge the College of the Holy Cross for supporting my sabbatical leave for the academic year 2003-2004. The American Antiquarian Society, in Worcester, Massachusetts, was generous in giving me access to its remarkable resources. I was able to find many of Bartlett s published works and other nineteenth-century medical literature there, and the entire library staff provided quick and able research assistance.