17 Facts About Benjamin Waterhouse

Benjamin Waterhouse was a physician, co-founder and professor of Harvard Medical School.

Benjamin Waterhouse is most well known for being the first doctor to test the smallpox vaccine in the United States, which he carried out on his own family.

Benjamin Waterhouse's parents were Timothy Waterhouse, a chair maker who served on the Governor's Council, and Hannah Waterhouse.

Benjamin Waterhouse was educated in Edinburgh at the University of Edinburgh Medical School.

Benjamin Waterhouse was elected that same year as a Fellow at Rhode Island College, where he taught natural history.

Benjamin Waterhouse was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1795.

In 1814, Benjamin Waterhouse resigned his Harvard professorship after opposing a plan to establish the Medical School in Boston and attempting to found a rival medical school.

Benjamin Waterhouse first wrote to then-President John Adams, his former roommate, hoping to spread the word about cowpox vaccinations preventing smallpox.

Once Jefferson became President the following year, Benjamin Waterhouse introduced Edward Jenner's method of cowpox vaccination in the United States.

Benjamin Waterhouse attempted to maintain a monopoly over the cowpox vaccine, for both financial reasons and to protect the vaccine from incompetent or fraudulent physicians.

Benjamin Waterhouse made the first vaccinations in the United States on four of his children.

Benjamin Waterhouse commissioned a controlled experiment at the Boston Board of Health in which 19 vaccinated and 2 unvaccinated boys were exposed to the smallpox virus.

Benjamin Waterhouse was a prickly character, with a tendency to become involved in controversy.

Benjamin Waterhouse had a commission in the US Army during the War of 1812 in the days before military physicians were accorded rank.

Benjamin Waterhouse was assigned to a Navy Frigate that was eventually captured by the Royal Navy.

Benjamin Waterhouse died in his home in Cambridge on October 6,1846, and was survived by his wife Louisa.

Benjamin Waterhouse is interred at Mount Auburn Cemetery, where Louisa erected a small monument in his honor.