{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,4]],"date-time":"2026-05-04T00:44:17Z","timestamp":1777855457843,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2013,9,16]],"date-time":"2013-09-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1379289600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["J Med Biogr"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2015,2]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Samuel Holden Parsons Lee practised medicine at a time when the germ theory of disease had not yet been proposed and antibiotics remained undiscovered. In 1798 he served selflessly as the only physician in town who was willing to battle the Yellow Fever outbreak of New London, Connecticut. Because he practised at the dawn of the age of patent medicine, unfortunately his name also came to be associated with medical quackery. We argue that his contributions have been grossly underestimated. He compounded and vended medications \u2013 including bilious pills and bitters \u2013 that were gold standards of the day. Moreover, one preparation for treatment of kidney stones led to his sub-specialization in this field and was met with such success that its sale continued for nearly 100 years after his death. While a talented medical man, Lee also had a knack for business, finding success in trading, whaling and real estate.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/0967772013479275","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2013,9,16]],"date-time":"2013-09-16T23:03:39Z","timestamp":1379372619000},"page":"19-27","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Samuel Holden Parsons Lee (1772\u20131863): American physician, entrepreneur and selfless fighter of the 1798 Yellow Fever epidemic of New London, Connecticut"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"23","author":[{"suffix":"Jr","given":"James K","family":"Mattie","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Consultant Anaesthetist, Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, New Jersey, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sukumar P","family":"Desai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital, Boston, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2013,9,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-0967772013479275","volume-title":"Genealogical table of the Lee family: from the first emigration to America in 1641, brought down to the year 1851","author":"Hill WH","year":"1851"},{"key":"bibr2-0967772013479275","first-page":"114","volume-title":"The heritage of Connecticut medicine","author":"Labensky A","year":"1942"},{"key":"bibr3-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Dictionary of American Fighting Ships. www.history.navy.mil\/danfs\/t9\/turtle-i.htm (2011, accessed 21 June 2013). Washington, DC: Navy Historical Center, Department of the Navy, 3 March 2012."},{"key":"bibr4-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Lee E.\n                      Letter to General David Humphreys\n                      (original copy with Yale University), 20 February 1815."},{"key":"bibr5-0967772013479275","volume-title":"A short history of the American revolution","author":"Tomlinson ET","year":"1901"},{"key":"bibr6-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Ezra Lee's Obituary. Commercial Advisor, 15 November 1821. Commercial Advisor."},{"key":"bibr7-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Beckwith W. Early Lee family of Lyme and East Lyme Connecticut, East Lyme, CT: East Lyme Historical Society, 2010, pp. iii\u2013iii."},{"key":"bibr8-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Lee SHP.\n                      Remarks on financing Early Years\n                      , copied by SHP Lee, Jr. [1801]. 1801."},{"key":"bibr9-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Columbia College Admission Ticket to Anatomy Course, fall 1792, signed by surgeon Dr Bayley, 1792."},{"key":"bibr10-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Diploma from Columbia College, signed by Samuel Bard, Dean of Faculty, 1793."},{"key":"bibr11-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Brown C. Vital Records, New London County, Connecticut 1646\u20131854. Compiled by Lucious Barbour. 1921."},{"key":"bibr12-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Caulkins FM. History of New London, Connecticut: from the first survey of the coast in 1612 to 1852, Hartford, CT: Tiffany and Co, 1852, pp. 479\u2013479."},{"key":"bibr13-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Chapman FW. The Chapman Family: or the descendents of Robert Chapman, one of the first settlers of Say-Brook, Connecticut, Hartford, CT: Case, Tiffany and Company, 1854, pp. 273\u2013273."},{"key":"bibr14-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Holt C. A short account of the yellow fever, as it appeared in New London, in August, September, and October 1798, with an accurate list of those who died of the disease, the donations, & etc, New London, Connecticut: The Bee Office, 1798, pp. 5\u20135."},{"key":"bibr15-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Hurd DH. History of New London, Connecticut: with biographical sketches of its pioneers and prominent men, Philadelphia: JW Lewis & Co., 1882, pp. 213\u2013213."},{"key":"bibr16-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Lee SHP. Autumnal bilious fevers."},{"key":"bibr17-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Duffy J. From humors to medical science: a history of American medicine, Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1993, pp. 7\u20137."},{"key":"bibr18-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Byrne JP. Encyclopedia of pestilence, pandemics, and plagues, Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Company, 2008, pp. 295\u2013296."},{"key":"bibr19-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Lee SHP. Letter to Dr. David Hosack, 25 May 1799."},{"key":"bibr20-0967772013479275","volume-title":"Medical inquiries and observations","author":"Rush B","year":"1805"},{"key":"bibr21-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Rush B. An account of the bilious remitting yellow fever, as it appeared in the city of Philadelphia in the year 1793, Philadelphia: Thomson Dobson, 1794, pp. 98\u201398."},{"key":"bibr22-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Lee SHP. Interesting to all seafaring people (an advertisement)."},{"key":"bibr23-0967772013479275","first-page":"280","volume":"14","author":"Drake WW","year":"1959","journal-title":"Journal of the History of Medicine"},{"key":"bibr24-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Higby G.\n                      Discovering Lewis and Clark\u2013Rush's bilious pills\n                      , http:\/\/lewis-clark.org\/content\/content-article.asp?ArticleID=2564 (2006, accessed 1 February 2012)."},{"key":"bibr25-0967772013479275","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/27757117"},{"key":"bibr26-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Lewis W. The new dispensatory, 4th ed. Dublin: James Potts, 1778, pp. 155\u2013155."},{"key":"bibr27-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Grieve M. A modern herbal. The medicinal, culinary, cosmetic and economic properties, cultivation and folk lore of herbs, grasses, fungi, shrubs and trees with their modern scientific uses, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1971, pp. 342\u2013342."},{"key":"bibr28-0967772013479275","volume-title":"The toadstool Millionaires: a social history of patent medicines in America before federal regulation","author":"Young JH","year":"1972"},{"key":"bibr29-0967772013479275","volume-title":"The medical messiahs: a social history of medical quackery in twentieth-century America","author":"Young JH","year":"1992"},{"key":"bibr30-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Connecticut State Medical Society. Proceedings of the president and fellows of the Connecticut State Medical Society,\n                      Annual Convention in New Haven, 17 October 1804\n                      , Hartford, CT: Case, Lockwood, and Brainard Company, 1804, pp. 113\u2013113."},{"key":"bibr31-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Barton BS. Professor Cullen's treatise of the Materia Medica, with large additions including many new articles wholly omitted in the original work, Philadelphia: Edward Parker, 1812, pp. 69\u201369."},{"key":"bibr32-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Lee SHP. German bitters (an advertisement, circa 1800)."},{"key":"bibr33-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Lee FH. Letter to Mr. Wagner, explaining name change to Littentreptic. Mr Wagner, 28 May 1931."},{"key":"bibr34-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Lee FH. Letter to Samuel Harris. Samuel Harris, 20 June 1934."},{"key":"bibr35-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Lee SHP. Remarks on the stone and gravel, in the kidneys and bladder, with an account of the discovery of a solvent remedy now used with universal success, and commonly known as Dr. Lee's Gravel Specific (a pamphlet, 1st ed, publisher unlisted), 1839."},{"key":"bibr36-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Unknown. Dr. Lee's Gravel Specific or Lithontriptic (a pamphlet, author and year of publication unknown). New York, Chas A Crittenton Company."},{"key":"bibr37-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Dorias R. Letter about closure of company, and small testimonial. Lee FH, 23 March 1954."},{"key":"bibr38-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Lee FH. Littentriptic Recipe, 1940."},{"key":"bibr39-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Lee SHP. Littentriptic Label, with instructions for use and diet, 1940."},{"key":"bibr40-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Marshall BT. A modern history of New London county, Connecticut, Vol 1, New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1922, pp. 391\u2013391."},{"key":"bibr41-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Photograph of SHP Lee's house, with transcription on the reverse side (date unknown), 1801."},{"key":"bibr42-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Manwaring D. Paperwork documenting the sale of Bank and Golden street properties by David Manwaring to SHP Lee (a legal document), 1 March 1800."},{"key":"bibr43-0967772013479275","first-page":"215","volume":"3","author":"Holloway CM","year":"1897","journal-title":"The Connecticut Quarterly"},{"key":"bibr44-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Lee SHP. Medical advice to Seamen, New London, Connecticut: Samuel Green, 1795, pp. 2\u20132."},{"key":"bibr45-0967772013479275","unstructured":"Hurd HM, Drewry WF, Dewey R, The institutional care of the insane in the US and Canada, Vol. 2, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1916, pp. 76\u201376."}],"container-title":["Journal of Medical Biography"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/0967772013479275","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1177\/0967772013479275","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/0967772013479275","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T23:24:48Z","timestamp":1777505088000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/0967772013479275"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2013,9,16]]},"references-count":45,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2015,2]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1177\/0967772013479275"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0967772013479275","relation":{},"ISSN":["0967-7720","1758-1087"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0967-7720","type":"print"},{"value":"1758-1087","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2013,9,16]]}}}