Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/155

 BARTLETT

BARTLETT

of practice was pursued, but when in 1754 the angina again appeared in Kings- ton, Dr. Bartlett gave up this method of treatment and used the then new remedy, Peruvian bark, and met with general success.

From his integrity and decision of char- acter Josiah Bartlett was soon appointed a magistrate and in 1765 began his polit- ical career as representative in the assem- bly of the Province.

In February 1775 he was deprived of the commission he had held as justice of the peace, and the command of the mili- tia by Gov. Wentworth. In the Septem- ber following, he was appointed by the provincial congress, of which Dr. Matthew Thornton was president, to command a regiment and was again chosen a dele- gate to the continental congress. He accepted both and attended the congress, and when that memorable vote for Ameri- can Independence was taken the medical colonel's name was first called as repre- senting the most easterly province.

In 1779 Col. Bartlett was appointed chief justice of the superior court and in 178S chief justice of the state; an ac- tive member of the convention for adopt- ing the confederation in 17SS and was chosen a senator in congress in 17S9 which position he declined. In 1790 he occupied the station of president of the state of New Hampshire and in 1793 was unanimously elected governor of the state under the new form of government.

Although Dr. Bartlett was actively en- gaged in politics during these memorable years, he always displayed actively a zealous interest in the welfare of his profession.

He was not only the founder of the New Hampshire Medical Society in 1791, but attended its meetings, taking the time amid the onerous cares of public life. He was the first president of the medical society and was annually elected for three consecutive years, when he

He married Mary Bartlett, a distant relative, and had three sons, Levi, Josiah and Ezra.

On January 29, 1794, he resigned all public positions on account of increasing infirmities, and died quite suddenly of paralysis on the ninteenth of May, 179.5, in his sixty-sixth year. J. F. P.

Biog. of the Signers to the Declar. of Inde- pend., Phila., 1S49.

Bartlett, Josiah (1759-1820).

Josiah Bartlett, soldier of the Revolu- tion, promotor of good medical literature and prominent physician, was the son of a sea captain, George Bartlett, who came from Slocum Regis in Devonshire. Josiah was born in Charlestown, Massa- chusetts August 11, 1759, and during his childhood and early youth attended the local schools and when about four- teen was placed under Dr. Isaac Foster, a local physician. During the period immediately preceding the war of the Revolution young Bartlett studied under Dr. Foster and when Foster was ap- pointed to the medical department of the American Army at Cambridge, on April 20, 1775. Later on the tutor was appointed chief surgeon to the General Hospital at Cambridge, and procured the office of surgeon's mate for his pupil, then sixteen, who served until 17S0, when he resigned from his pupilage and gave up his commission. During this year Dr. Bartlett attended one course of lectures on anatomy by Dr. John Warren, at Cambridge, and soon afterwards was en- gaged for two voyages as surgeon to the ships of war. During these public ser- vices Dr. Bartlett manifested a degree of activity, attention and faithfulness which secured to him a high reputation and the approbation of his superiors in office.

In 1789 he became a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society and un- its recording secretary from 1792 to 1796. In 1810 he delivered the annual oral ion before this society on the progress of medical science in Massachusetts. Dr. Bartlett attended a complete course of medical lectures at Cambridge in 1790, receiving the honorary M. D. in 1791 an. I the honorary M. D. in 1809 from Harvard University.