EDWARD STEVENS  : GASTRIC PHYSIOLOGIST, PHYSICIAN and AMERICAN STATESMAN
Subtitle: With a Complete Translation of his Inaugural Dissertation "De Alimentorum Concoctione" and Interpretive Notes on Gastric Digestion along with Certain Other Selected and Diplomatic Papers
By: Includes Diplomatic and Consular Papers  by Edward Stevens as Consul General of the United States in Santo Domingo
Contributors: Latin Thesis submitted to the University of Edinburgh by Edward Stevens in absolution of the M.D. Degree, 1777
Edition: Copyright As An Unpublished Work, Canada, 1968
Publisher: Cultural and Educational Productions, Montreal, Quebec
Published: 1969
Place of publication: Montreal, Quebec
Language: eng
Format: Library Bound
Number of pages: 179
Subjects: Physiology of Gastric Digestion; Yellow Fever Plague - Philadelphia; Letters - American Statesmen; Diplomatic Papers Department of State, United States; Edward Stevens M.D.
Genres: History of Medicine; University of Edinburgh Theses (Latin); Letters and Despatches - United States; Caribbean Politics 1800
First sentence: Ten years ago when I first read the Dissertatio Inauguralis de Alimentorum Concoctione, written at Edinburgh in 1777, I could find little information about either the manuscript or the author. Indeed one authority, for whom I have very high regard, wrote me that he did "NOT THINK IT POSSIBLE FOR ANYONE TO FURNISH ANY SUBSTANTIAL ACCOUNT OF (Edward Stevens)". It was clear to me that over the years this most interesting text had received casual mention but it was equally clear that it had never engaged the considered attention of any investigator devoted to the subject of gastric digestion. Stevens himself had not excited interest and no formal historian seems to have investigated the strange and fascinating lifelong accord and circumstances that relate the lives of the distinguished American Statesman Alexander Hamilton and Edward Stevens.
Description: The life and background of Edward Stevens had excited little curiousity or interest prior to this study. That Stevens' researches as a young man laid the keystone to the correct understanding of the process of gastric digestion was little appreciated. Of his life apparently nothing was known. For Professor Fulton, Historian of Yale, he was  "an obscure physician of Edinburgh". In fact he was one of the most notable contributors to the growth of the infant American Republic; a close associate of Alexander Hamilton; a Consul General of the United States to Santo Domingo; a contemporary of Benjamin Rush during the Great Yellow Fever Plague in Philadelphia in 1793; and can fairly be claimed as one of the first American Physiologists and Physicians of note. There is a presumption from the Pickering Manuscripts in Boston that Alexander Hamilton and Stevens may have shared a kinship of some sort (?). The whole impact of Stevens' life indicates that he is an important figure in American History and his relationship with Adams, Washington, Pickering, Toussaint L'Ouverture, warrants further scholarly study and examination.
Notes: Facsimile signature of Edward Stevens on the front Dust Jacket cover. Rear Dust Jacket cover presents a facsimile letter signed by Stevens, addressed from Philadelphia October 16th, 1803 (By kind permission of the Massachusetts Historical Society).National Archives and Records, Washington D.C., titled with mission descriptions - Instruction: U.S. Ministers; Domestic Letters; Despatches, Cape Haitien, and such. Memoranda from Jefferson, Pickering, Washington and other Statesmen are detailed in text.Photograph of author page 179.
Table of contents: title: Acknowledgements
pagenum: 9; label: Part 1
title: A Biographical Note On The Life Of Dr Edward Stevens Including Observations Relating Possibilities Of His Kinship With Alexander Hamilton
pagenum: 17; label: Part 11
title: The Inaugural Dissertation Of Edward Stevens Entitled Dissertatio De Alimentorum Concoctione (Edinburgh 1777) Rendered Into English Translation
pagenum: 41; title: Edward Stevens' Thesis As Abstracted By Friedrich August Weis In 1782
pagenum: 62; title: Notes On Gastric Digestion
pagenum: 64; label: Part 111
title: Letters Relating To The Yellow Fever Including Exchanges That Occurred Between Edward Stevens And Benjamin Rush During The Great Epidemic Of 1793
pagenum: 79; label: Part 1v
title: Edward Stevens As Consul General Of The United States In Santo Domingo
pagenum: 93; title: In Closing
pagenum: 170; title: Edward Stevens As Recorded In Manuscripts Extant - Illustrations 1 - v
pagenum: 173