The idea of preparing a new critical edition of Elisha Bartlett's Essay
on the Philosophy of Medical Science was suggested to me several years
ago by Dr. H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. Since that time it has been a
pleasure to get to know the life and work of Elisha Bartlett. I am
pleased to be completing this book in the bicentennial year of
Bartlett's birth. Bartlett was born in 1804 in Smithfield, Rhode Island,
less than twenty-five miles from Worcester, Massachusetts, my present
home-a short journey even in Bartlett's day. I have been able to walk at
some of the sites to which Bartlett continually returned during his
life. Visiting Bartlett's grave in the Slatersville cemetery has been an
inspiration for the preparation of this book. Proximity to several
institutions with rich holdings in Bartlett's works and in
nineteenth-century American history of medicine greatly facilitated my
research. First, though, I want to acknowledge the College of the Holy
Cross for supporting my sabbatical leave for the academic year
2003-2004. The American Antiquarian Society, in Worcester,
Massachusetts, was generous in giving me access to its remarkable
resources. I was able to find many of Bartlett's published works and
other nineteenth-century medical literature there, and the entire
library staff provided quick and able research assistance.