William P.C. Barton

William Paul Crillon Barton (17 November 1786 Philadelphia, PA - 3 March 1856 Philadelphia, PA), was a medical botanist, physician, professor, naval surgeon, and botanical illustrator.

Career

Barton was born on 17 November 1786, in Philadelphia, PA. His father William Barton, a lawyer, was the designer of the Great Seal of the United States. His uncle, Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815) was an eminent medical botanist and vice-president of the American Philosophical Society. Philadelphia in the 1800s was a town known for its able doctors and efficient medical institutions. In 1752, the first hospital in the United States was founded in Philadelphia. The first American medical textbook was published in Philadelphia, the first clinical medical lecture was delivered by the Philadelphian Dr. Thomas Bond, and navy surgeon, and Philadelphian, Edward Cutbush wrote a pioneering book on military medicine. His "Observations on the Means of Preserving the Health of Soldiers and Sailors" spawned much-needed reforms in both the Navy and Army. [Pleadwell, FL CAPT. Edward Cutbush, M.D.: The Nestor of the Medical Corps of the Navy.” Annals of Medical History 5 (1923): page 367]

As was customary for the era, Barton pursued a classical education at Princeton University. The curriculum included Aristotelian logic, and study of the Greek and Latin languages. Barton began studying medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1805 under his uncle, Benjamin Smith Barton, who was a renowned botanist and author of the first American text book on botanical science. In these years of study, William Barton’s interest in botany and the natural sciences grew into a lifelong passion. In 1808, upon publication of "A Dissertation on Chymical Properties and Exhilarating Effects of Nitrous Oxide Gas and Its Application to Pneumatick Medicine", Barton received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Complete with an illustration of a giddy man breathing in “laughing gas” from a sheep’s bladder, the treatise had great impact on scientific thought when nitrous oxide experiments were “generally derided as extravagant and imaginary.” [Barton, WPC. A Dissertation on Chymical Properties and Exhilarating Effects of Nitrous Oxide Gas and Its Application to Pneumatick Medicine. Philadelphia: Lorenzo Pres, 1808: pages xiii-v.]

At the age of 23, Barton chose to enter the U.S. Navy as a surgeon. He received his commission on 10 April 1809, and less than week later commissioned the famous Thomas Sully to paint his portrait for a sum of $50. This painting, now in the Wilstach Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, shows a young Barton in uniform - a blue coat with gold braid, and hands gloved. Barton wrote, “I was overwhelmed with the difficulties I had to encounter in the performance of professional duties, where every species of inconvenience and disadvantage that can be imagined was opposed to the exertions of the surgeon.” [Barton, WPC. A Treatise Containing a Plan for the Internal Organization and Government of Marine Hospitals in the United States: Together with A Scheme for Amending and Systematizing the Medical Department of the United States Navy. 1st ed. Philadelphia; privately printed, 1814. page xiii] Ultimately, Barton was not one to accept inadequacies, but rather to fight for reform. Barton fought to tighten the controls of shipboard medical supplies. He called for the introduction of lemons and limes aboard Navy ships long before the U.S. Navy accepted the importance of an antiscorbutic treatment for vitamin C deficiency or scurvy. Barton went as far as to send a bottle of lime juice to the Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton with the instructions to drink it in the form of lemonade. [Barton, WPC. A Treatise Containing a Plan for the Internal Organization and Government of Marine Hospitals in the United States: Together with A Scheme for Amending and Systematizing the Medical Department of the United States Navy. 1st ed. Philadelphia; privately printed, 1814. pages 147-155] His outspoken manner angered many of his colleagues. Barton, of necessity, became familiar with the administration of hospitals. In 1830 he became the commanding officer at Naval Hospital Norfolk, VA. He was involved in the development of the Philadelphia Naval Hospital when it was located in the Naval Asylum. Today, this gothic structure, that also served as the first home of the U.S. Naval Academy, stands in Grays Ferry.

His "A Treatise Containing a Plan for the Internal Organization and Government of Marine Hospitals in the United States: Together with A Scheme for Amending and Systematizing the Medical Department of the United States Navy" (1814) contained recommendations of reform for the already new Navy hospital system. He urged that U.S. Navy hospitals should be modeled after British medical facilities. One of his many recommendations recommended that all hospital property should be marked “U.S. Naval Hospital” to prevent theft. [Barton, WPC. A Treatise Containing a Plan for the Internal Organization and Government of Marine Hospitals in the United States: Together with A Scheme for Amending and Systematizing the Medical Department of the United States Navy. 1st ed. Philadelphia; privately printed, 1814. pages 38-39] Much of Barton’s time was dedicated to the teaching of Materia Medica, or medical botany, at the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson Medical College. One of his prominent students was Dr. Samuel D. Gross, later immortalized in the Thomas Eakins painting "The Gross Clinic" (1876). Gross portrayed his old teacher as a colorful character in a speech delivered to Alumni Association of Thomas Jefferson Medical College on 11 March 1871.

President John Tyler appointed Barton to the office of first head of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery on 2 September 1842. (The post of Navy Surgeon General was created in March 1871). His time as Chief clerk was active, but short. Among his recommendations were the adoption of a supply table so that drugs and medical supplies could be properly procured and accounted for; the abolition of a venereal fee; uniform standards for recruits; higher professional standards for Navy physicians; standardizations and administrations of naval hospitals; and strict control over the use of liquor on board ships. He was a vehement prohibitionist, and had a “liquor circular” pasted on boxes of whisky identifying the contents as medical supplies which required stringent accounting, a step which was not popular in the fleet.

References

Bibliography

*Barton, WPC. "A Dissertation on Chymical Properties and Exhilarating Effects of Nitrous Oxide Gas and Its Application to Pneumatick Medicine". Philadelphia: Lorenzo Pres, 1808: xiii-v.
*Barton, WPC. "A Treatise Containing a Plan for the Internal Organization and Government of Marine Hospitals in the United States: Together with A Scheme for Amending and Systematizing the Medical Department of the United States Navy". 1st ed. Philadelphia; Privately printed, 1814.
*Croskey, JW. "History of Blockley: A History of the Philadelphia General Hospital from its Inception, 1731-1928".
*Gross, Samuel D. A speech to the Alumni Association at Thomas Jefferson Medical College, 11 March 1871.
*Langley, HD. "A History of Medicine in the Early U.S. Navy". Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, MD. 1995.
*Philadelphia Museum of Art. William P.C. Barton, W1919-2-1. Fact Sheet.
*Pleadwell, FL CAPT. William Paul Crillon Barton (1786-1856), Surgeon, United States Navy—A Pioneer in American Naval Medicine. "The Military Surgeon" 46 (1920): 241-281.
*Pleadwell, FL CAPT. Edward Cutbush, M.D.: The Nestor of the Medical Corps of the Navy.” "Annals of Medical History" 5 (1923): 337-86.

Miscellaneous

*Dr. Barton was married to Esther Sergeant the grand daughter of David Rittenhouse, the great American astronomer and President of the American Philosophical Society. Esther Barton colored many of Dr. Barton’s botanical drawings.
*The Philadelphia Botanical Club publishes a journal named after Dr. Barton called the Bartonia. The publication publishes articles about original research in plant systematics, plant ecology, and plant conservation biology. For more information see [http://www.acnatsci.org/hosted/botany_club/bartonia.html Bartonia]
*W.P.C. Barton’s brother John Rhea Barton (1796-1871) is the originator of corrective osteotomy for joint ankylosis.
*The "Barton bandage" (figure eight bandage that provides support below and anterior to the lower jaw), and Barton forceps (obstetrical forceps with one fixed, curved blade and lunged anterior blade for application to a high transverse position of the head) are named after Dr. John Rhea Barton.
*Barton Collection at Boston Public Library is named after Thomas Pennant Barton (1803-1869), W.P.C. Barton’s first cousin. It comprises one of largest and most valuable Shakespeare collections in the world.
*In 1803, before his famous expedition, Meriwether Lewis went to Philadelphia and met with Benjamin Smith Barton. Barton helped to increase Lewis’ botanical knowledge and collection skills which obviously worked. Lewis returned with 226 plants. They are preserved today at the Lewis and Clark Herbarium at the Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia.

Barton Bibliography

*"A Dissertation on Chymical Properties and Exhilarating Effects of Nitrous Oxide Gas and Its Application to Pneumatick Medicine"(1808)
*"A Treatise Containing a Plan for the Internal Organization and Government of Marine Hospitals in the United States: Together with A Scheme for Amending and Systematizing the Medical Department of the United States Navy"(1814)
*"Vegetable Materia Medica of the United States"(1817)
*"Compedium Florae Philadelphicae"(1818)
*"A Flora of North America"(1821)
*"Hints for Medical Officers Cruising in the West Indies"(1830)
*"A Polemical Remonstrance Against the Project of Creating the New Office of Surgeon General in the Navy of the United States"(1838)