9040. WATERHOUSE (Dr.), Marine hospital appointment.—
When the appointment
of Dr. Waterhouse to the care of the marine
hospital was decided on, no other candidate
had been named to me as desiring the place.
The respectable recommendations I had received,
and his station as professor of medicine
in a college of high reputation, sufficiently
warranted his abilities as a physician, and to
these was added a fact well known, that, to his
zeal, the United States were indebted for the
introduction of a great blessing,—vaccination,
which has extirpated one of the most loathsome
and mortal diseases which has afflicted humanity
some years, probably, sooner than would
otherwise have taken place. It was a pleasure,
therefore, as well as a duty, in dispensing the
public favors, to make this small return for the
great service rendered our country by Dr.
Waterhouse.—
To Joseph B. Varnum. Washington ed. v, 222.
(W.
1807)
