JOHN SHAW—A MEDICAL POET of MARYLAND by JOHN RUHRÄH, M.D
JOHN SHAW—A MEDICAL POET OF MARYLAND By JOHN RUHRÄH, M.D. BALTIMORE, MD. ROM the days when Nicias, a are forgot, The Voyageur; Phil-o-rum’s student of medicine at Cos, poured Canoe; Johnnie Courteau and the Habitant out his heart in verse to his Iady have earned for him the title of “the poet Iove, and Nicander, priest of Iaureate of British Canada,” while the ApoIIo and physician, sang of poisonsreal poet Iaureate of England by Ietters andF venomous serpents, to the present patent is a physician, Robert Bridges. troublous times, devotees of Erato and America can point with pardonable pride Euterpe have been recruited from the to a few medical poets, Joseph Rodman ranks of the followers of yEscuIapius. Some Drake, Oliver Wendell Holmes; Weir have been true Iyric poets, whilst others Mitchell; Samuel Minturn Peck; Charles have sought to teach while they sang and Stuart Wells; John Allan Wyeth; George M. from the Iatter have come a number of Gould, Hugo Erichsen; Frank D. BuIIard; Lehrgedichte, such as the Regimen Sanitatis to mention some of the better known names. Salerni, La Balia (the Nurse), of Tansillo, Thomas Dunn English is remembered on the Callipaedia or the way to have Beauti- account of his Ben Bolt, American Ballads, ful Children, of Claude Quillet, Paedotro- and Book of Battle Lyrics, and to many it phiae, or the Art of Bringing up Children, is news that he was a physician.1 of Sainte Marthe, and Syphilis of Fracastor- John Shaw, of Maryland, ill fated, the ious. Some, Iike Garth in the Dispensary, victim of the great white plague at thirty, have satirized the times and not a few an almost unknown name in the annals medical men have translated the classic of American Iyric poets, is almost equally poets.
[Show full text]