RT Journal
A1 Simpson HN
T1 BEnjamin waterhouse
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1949
FD November 12
VO 141
IS 11
SP 794
OP 794
DO 10.1001/jama.1949.02910110046024
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1949.02910110046024
AB To the Editor:— 
    At the bottom of page 254 in The Journal, Sept. 24, 1949, is a quotation from a release from the Surgeon General's Office which begins: "In 1800, Benjamin Waterhouse, an Army surgeon, brought vaccination to the United States." I could not help raising an eyebrow at this description of Waterhouse, who held the initial appointment as professor of the theory and practice of physic at Harvard at the time of his historic accomplishment.Waterhouse resigned from his professorship in 1812 after a bitter wrangle with his colleagues, and according to the Dictionary of American Biography, "... in 1813 Madison appointed him medical superintendent of all the military posts in New England, a position which he held until 1820."If the Surgeon General's office would say, "In 1800, Benjamin Waterhouse, first professor of the theory and practice of physic at Harvard Medical School, who thirteen years later became an