JOHN SHAW—A MEDICAL POET of MARYLAND by JOHN RUHRÄH, M.D
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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. There are physicians who have been as unknown as a physician though he better poets than practitioners, as Keats, played a part in the history of medical Goldsmith and Schiller, and there have education in America as a founder of the been others whose poems are obscured by first medical college of Maryland. After the brilliance of their medical work, as his untimely end, John E. Hall, a brother William Harvey, whose discovery of the of Dr. Thomas N. Hall, collected his circulation is known to the veriest tyro poems, wrote a biographical sketch of the in medicine, while his poems are familiar author and both were published in a small to but few of the literati of the profession, volume in 1810 by Edward Earle, of and Haller, no mean versifier is better Philadelphia and Edward Coale, of Balti- remembered as a physiologist, anatomist more. The work was printed by Fry and and botanist than as a poet. Even hard- Kammerer. headed, common sense surgeons have wan- John Shaw, it is stated, “was the son of dered into the fields of fantasy and Trau- 1 It might be added in passing that the first merein an französichen Kaminen published anthology of native American verse to be published, under the pen name of Richard Leander, was also arranged and edited by a physician, Dr. but in reality by Von Volkmann is by no Elihu Hubbard Smith, of Litchfield, Connecticut. means the Ieast of the German classics. It is a rare volume of 304 pages, entitled “American Poems, Selected and Original,” printed by CoIIier William Henry Drummond, the Irishman, and Buel at Litchfield in 1793, and containing, among transplanted in Canada, brought out a much that is trite or conventional, several pieces by garland of poems which will be remembered Dr. Lemuel Hopkins of Hartford, notably his well- Iong after his achievements as a physician known “ Verses on General Ethan Allen.” a respectable gentleman of Annapolis, born John’s in October, 1796, on which occa- in that city on the fourth of May, 1778.” sion he delivered the Latin salutatory The writer of the memoirs had but Iittle oration. He was sufficiently fluent in the acquaintance with his early Iife and ex- Latin tongue to compose it in that Ianguage presses his indebtedness to Francis Scott in place of first writing it in English and Key, Esquire, of George-Town, District of then making the translation, as was the Columbia, for certain information of “those custom of most of the students reading happy years spent in the closest intimacy Latin at that time. He was subsequently with a friend who had all his regard and granted the degree of Master of Arts. affection.” Having decided on the study of Medicine Thinking accounts of the early days of he started in with Dr. John Thomas Shaaf, Iittle value or interest to the world, the of Annapolis, and during the next two writer of the memoirs passes over this years read widely in the Iiterature of his period, but states that “Shaw was initiated chosen profession, particularly the earlier into the rudiments of the elassics by Mr. writers. Being a good scholar he was able Higginbotham, a man whose refined taste to read Hippocrates in the original tongue. and profound Iearning in ancient Iore, were In the autumn of 1798, he went to daily invigorated by the delight with which Philadelphia to attend Iectures at the he pursued these studies.” University of Pennsylvania. Shaw arrived When St. John’s CoIIege was established in Philadelphia on the sixteenth of Novem- at Annapolis, Shaw’s class was moved to that ber, pursuing his studies till some time in institution and he was frequently called on December, when he Iearned that a surgeon as a show pupil of what was regarded as a was wanted for the fleet that was about show class. His biographer doubts whether to sail for Algiers. He made application he acquired anything else than Latin and and was appointed on the twenty-first of Greek while at college, but Iater on, especi- the same month. He Ieft Philadelphia ally while he was in Europe, he became on the twenty-third of December and familiar with a number of modern Ianguages sailed on the Brig Sophia, which was ac- and made translations from Italian, Spanish, companied by the brig Hassan Basbaw, Portuguese and Arabic poets. He must the schooner Skjoldbrand, and the schooner have been familiar with French and, while Lela Eisa. Shaw was a very entertaining in Canada, acquired a knowledge of the Ietter writer. He tells graphically how, Ianguage spoken by the Mohawks. when he reached the vessel, he found that Shaw very early in Iife began to write the medicine chests which had been packed poetry. At the age of seventeen he published by an apothecary in Philadelphia were in the Baltimore Telegraph for May 13, filled up with useless articles selected with- 1795, a poem entitled “The Voice of out judgment. Had it not been for the fact Freedom,” and from that time on till his that he had brought along a few remedies death indulged his fancy in various poetic he would have been wanting in the most forms, including, as noted above, quite a essential things. He gives the following number of translations. Some of the poems account of his going on board: were found among his papers after his In order to pass from the pier to the Sophia, it death and have been reprinted without the was necessary to cross upon the ice, which, from polishing which the author would doubtless a considerable thaw in the day, was rather a have given them had he known they would hazardous attempt. Thinking of this and put- see the Iight of day. ting the question to myself, “what if I should Shaw received his A.B. degree from St. be drowned?” I began to philosophize upon the subject, and very wisely concluded that it might For if thy favour thou bestow be to my advantage, as I should then be freed Each earthly charm is instant flown; from all the troubles and vexations of this The Iight soul spurns the world below, world. Scarcely had I made this conclusion when On wild wing fluttering to be gone. I arrived atthe pier, and attempting to get upon the ice I found myself over head and ears And though mortality’s harsh chain Forbid the pris’ner yet to fly, in the water. My philosophy vanished in an Thou, Lord! shalt burst her bonds again, instant; I scrambled out upon the ice as fast as And bid her seek her native sky. I could; and got on board in a better humour with the world than I had been all day. My speculations were all over-turned by this season- The trip to Europe was made rather able cold bathing, and never once occurred to me uneventfully and Shaw had an opportunity before the next day. of visiting a Iarge number of places before We were detained at Port Penn by the ice his return. His Ietters describing his im- until the 4th of January, 1799, when the squad- pressions make very delightful reading and ron set sail and we were out of sight of Iand he made the most of his opportunities. next morning.” When the squadron returned, Shaw was After the manner of youth, Shaw was Ieft behind as secretary of the Consulate, given to asking cui bono, even of Iife itself, and while the pay amounted to almost but much of this mood was of the quality nothing, he picked up a certain amount by of which another poet once said: practicing his profession. He seems to have “Go, you may call it madness, folly; been widely employed and was made You shall not chase my gloom away; physician to the Bey of Tunis.