# American Medical Biographies/Potter, Jared

​Potter, Jared (1742–1810)
An army surgeon during the Revolution and a physician of eminence in his day, Jared Potter was born in East Haven, September 25, 1742; fifth in descent from John Potter, an original settler of New Haven, who signed the "Plantation Covenant."
In 1760 he graduated from Yale College, and immediately after began to study medicine. He devoted the next three years of his life to this, dividing the time equally between Dr. Harpin of Melford and the renowned Rev. Jared Eliot of Killingworth. Then he returned to East Haven and soon acquired an extensive practice. Yielding to some pressing invitations he removed, about 1770, to New Haven, where his "business and popularity as a physician rapidly increased." The ominous signs of an impending struggle between Great Britain and the colonies led him, apprehensive of danger, to remove, in 1772, to Wallingford, because further inland.
He was one of the founders and incorporators of the Connecticut Medical Society in 1792, serving as its first secretary and later, in 1804–05, as its vice-president. He was also a fellow from New Haven County for eleven years and acted as a member of important committees. He declined to become a candidate for the presidency. In 1798 the society conferred upon him the honorary degree of M. D.
During the first year of the Revolution he served as surgeon to the first of the six regiments raised by order of the General Assembly of Connecticut, and in this capacity took part in the expedition against Quebec. In subsequent years he used to describe those terrible times, and the torture he endured on account of his helplessness in the midst of so much misery. At the expiration of two years' service he became surgeon to Col. William Douglas' regiment, in July, 1776, and was present through the campaign around New York City. He was mustered out with the regiment, on December 29, 1776, and then returned home to resume practice. His health, however, was much impaired during the next two years, by what he had undergone.
He was greatly interested in politics, and was a member of the Lower House of the General Assembly for eighteen sessions (1780– 1809). On one occasion he was nominated for the upper house, but was defeated. In his political views he strongly allied himself with the Jeffersonian Democracy, while in his religious belief he was a Universalist. This attitude in politics and religion placed him at variance with the prevailing sentiments of his alma mater, and caused him to speak derogatory words against her.
In the zenith of his fame he was probably the most celebrated and popular physician in the state. And rightly, for he strove by buying the latest books on medicine to keep himself well abreast of the times. This helped, also, to make him a famous medical teacher. The celebrated Dr. Lemuel Hopkins (q. v.) of Hartford was his first student. His consultation practice was very extensive and carried him over most of the state. For "he was an excellent judge of symptoms and specially skilled in diagnosis." "In practice he was particularly fond of alkalies and alkaline earths. The famous 'Porter's powder,' as used by him, was composed of chalk, carbonate of ammonia, camphor and charcoal. He used it largely in dyspeptic and other gastric complaints."
He married Sarah Forbes, on April 19, 1764, and had two daughters. These daughters married two brothers, the younger girl was the mother of Jared P. Kirkland, a physician of Ohio.
His death, which occurred on July 30, 1810, was due to a peculiar accident. As he passed a field of rye on his farm he plucked a head of ripe grain and, on shelling it, threw the kernels into his mouth. Unfortunately, a beard lodged on the uvula, causing inflammatory gangrene and, shortly after, death.