Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 49.djvu/277

Rh After receiving his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, in June, 1802, Dr. Rogers began the practice of his profession in Philadelphia, He also took private pupils and lectured to classes in botany, chemistry, and other sciences. He was called to Ireland in 1803 to settle the estate of his father, who died in that year. This business disposed of, he returned to Philadelphia, bringing with him two brothers and a sister.

The next five years of effort did not bring him a satisfactory income and he removed to Baltimore, where he was more prosperous until he became involved in a controversy on methods of vaccination, which injured his practice. When Dr. Robert Hare resigned the professorship of Natural Philosophy and Mathematics in the ancient College of William and Mary, at Williamsburg, Va., Dr. Rogers was elected to succeed him. In this congenial position he remained, a competent and forceful instructor, until he died of malarial fever in 1828. His wife had succumbed to the same disease eight years before.

James B. Rogers received his elementary education in Baltimore during the residence of his parents in that city, and, after attending the College of William and Mary, took up the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Thomas E. Bond. In 1822 he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Maryland. It is said that while a student he assisted his brothers William and Henry in teaching their school at Baltimore. After graduating he taught for a time a class of girls in conjunction with a Dr. McClellan, of Baltimore. This enterprise, proving unsatisfactory, was given up. Being now in need of employment, he thought of seeking the post of surgeon to a colony of free negroes which it was proposed to establish at Cape Mesurado. He consulted his father on this matter, and must have written a rather querulous letter, for he got this chunk of paternal hard sense in reply: "What is the use of your complaining of mankind? The world as yet owes you nothing. Up to this time you have been simply a recipient of its benefits. Make yourself worthy of a place here and you will find one." The project of going to Africa was abandoned.

Dr. Rogers now joined an intimate friend and fellow-student, Dr. Henry Webster, in a partnership to practice medicine at Little Britain, Pa., about two miles north of the Maryland line. But after a few years' experience he abandoned the profession, having found it repugnant to his mental habits and sensitive nature. He returned to Baltimore, and was soon appointed superintendent of the extensive chemical manufactory of Messrs. Tyson and Ellicott.

From this time on Dr. Rogers made pure and applied chemistry his chief concern. The professorship of Chemistry in the