Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/248

NAME CLAYTON 226 CLAYTON As a writer he contributed various articles on materia medica to the "New American Cy- clopaedia." In conjunction with Dr. Robert Amory he published, in 1872, a small volume on the "Physiological and Therapeutical Ac- tion of the Bromides of Potassium and Am- monium," and in 1876 "Practical Medicine," a brief and clear account of the progress of medical knowledge in the century just finished. His essay on "Sex in Education" provoked sharp antagonism and was much discussed and read. Another essay, "The Building of a Brain," was widely read but called forth less comment. In his later years he gave him- self more and more to literature. He married Sarah Loring, daughter of Jacob H. Loud, of Plymouth, in 1852. She died a year before him. They had two chil- dren, Mary Stimson, who died in infancy, and Elizabeth Loring, who married Dr. Reginald Heber Fitz (q. v.), Shattuck professor of pathological anatomy in the Harvard Medical School from 1879 to 1892. Walter L. Burrage. Bos. Med- and Sur. Jour., 1877, vol. xcvii, 657. Biog. Encyclo. of Mass., in the 19th Cen. New York, 1879. Private family memorials. Clayton, John (1693-1773) This botanist was born in England in 1693, educated there, came to Virginia in 1705, and for the rest of his life lived in Gloucester County, though it is said by Jefferson that he was a native of Virginia. Some say that he was not a physician, but we have it on the authority of Dr. J. M. Toner that he was edu- cated to the medical profession, and was emi- nent in it. He was one of the leading botan- ists of his day, giving much time to botanical research and correspondence with Linnaeus. Laurence Gronovius did him the honor to name a genus of plants, Claytonia Virginica, the "Spring Beauty," after him. He had a noted botanical garden and pre- pared for the press a work of two volumes on botany and a "hortus siccus" of folio size, with marginal notes and directions to the en- graver in preparing the plates for the proposed work. These were left in the charge of the county clerk of New Kent, and were unfortu- nately burned, together with the county rec- ords, at the beginning of the Revolution. His long life was chiefly spent in botanical ex- plorations and in the description of the plants of the colony. As a practical worker he was probably without superior in his day, and is supposed to have added more to the cata- logue of plants than anyone before him. The fact that he was assistant, and later for fifty years clerk of Gloucester County, would indicate that he was not a practitioner. His father was an eminent lawyer, and for a time attorney-general of the colony, which is an argument in favor of Jefferson's claim that he was a native of Virginia. At the great age of seventy-seven Clayton made a botanical ex- ploring tour of Orange County, then largely a wilderness, and he is said to have visited al- most every part of the colony in botanical research. This old naturalist was a pious member of the Church of England. It was impossible, he declared, that a botanist could be an atheist, seeing, as he did, the infinite wisdom and con- trivance displayed in the structure of the smallest plant. A scientist of world-wide reputation and a citizen of sterHng integrity, after a long and useful life, he passed away on the fifteenth of December, 1773. Numerous articles descriptive of the plants he discovered were published in the "Philo- sophical Transactions," London. Several of these treated of medicinal plants discovered, and others, of the difl^erent species of to- bacco and their cultivation. His chief work was his fine "Flora Virginica," editions of which were issued from the press at Leyden in 1739,rl743, and 1762, and is referred to by all Writers who treat of North American plants. John Frederick Gronovius, the celebrated Swedish naturalist, and the Dutch naturahsts of the same name collaborated with Clayton on the book. j^^^^j^^ ^ Slaughter. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia. Contributions to the Annals of Med. Progress* J. M. Toner. 1874. Araer. Med. Biography. James Thacher, 1828. Dictny. of Nat. Biog. Leslie Stephen, 1908. Clayton, Jo.hua (1744-1798) Joshua Clayton was born at Dover, Del., July 20, 1744, the son of John and Grace Clay- ton, and a lineal descendant of Joshua Clay- ton, who was one of the immigrants who came over with William Penn in 1682. He became one of the leading physicians of the state. At the outbreak of the Revolu- tion, thinking he was living on the Maryland side of the state line, he assisted in organiz- ing the Bohemia battalion of the Maryland regiment and was commissioned major in that battalion, January 6, 1776. On the disband- ment of the Bohemia battalion as a separate organization, he entered the Continental Army and took part in the battle of Brandywine as aide de camp to General Washington with, rank as colonel. He likewise served through the winter at Valley Forge. During the encampment at this place, the Army fell short of quinine and Col. Clay- ton devised a substitute from a mixture of oak