James Woodhouse
James Woodhouse (17 November 1770, Philadelphia – 4 June 1809, Philadelphia) was an American surgeon and chemist. Biography. He was the son of English emigrants to the United States. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1787, and from its medical department in 1792. In 1791 he served as a surgeon in General Arthur St. Clair's expedition against the western Indians. When Joseph Priestley declined to accept the chair of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania in 1795, Woodhouse received the appointment, which he held until his death. He is said to have been the first to  demonstrate the superiority of the Lehigh anthracite coal in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, over the bituminous coals of Virginia for intensity and regularity of heating power. He also studied potassium, nitrous oxide, identification of basalt, starch and bread making. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society, and contributed to its transactions, to Samuel L. Mitchell's "Medical Repository", and to John R. Coxe's "Medical Museum". He edited: