{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,4]],"date-time":"2026-05-04T00:44:31Z","timestamp":1777855471647,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2016,9,15]],"date-time":"2016-09-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1473897600000},"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":[[2019,2]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>While the vocation of Cotton Mather (1663\u20131728) was his ministry in Boston, he made important contributions to medicine, most famously in helping to introduce variolation to New England in 1721\u201322 and in writing The Angel of Bethesda (1724), the first medical treatise produced in Colonial North America. This article, however, focuses on an earlier initiative, Mather\u2019s efforts to quell the epidemic of measles that struck Boston in 1713, killing among many others his wife and three children. Historians have devoted little attention to this episode or to measles in general, even though the disease was highly mortal during the colonial period. To help victims, Mather published a \u2018letter\u2019 on treating measles. Such a specific discussion of treatment would have been rare in Europe and it was unprecedented in America. The therapy that Mather proposed not only reflected popular medicine but also incorporated newer practices, notably those associated with Thomas Sydenham. In contrast to heroic therapies for measles, which were often dangerous but became more popular across the eighteenth century, Mather\u2019s recommendations were moderate.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/0967772016662166","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2016,9,15]],"date-time":"2016-09-15T22:13:16Z","timestamp":1473977596000},"page":"30-37","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Cotton Mather's medicine, with particular reference to measles"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"27","author":[{"given":"Paul E","family":"Kopperman","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Oregon State University, School of History, Philosophy and Religion, Corvallis, OR, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jeanne","family":"Abrams","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,9,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-0967772016662166","unstructured":"The most thorough treatment of Mather\u2019s work in medicine is Beall OT and Shryock RH,\n                      Cotton Mather: first significant figure in American medicine.\n                      Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1954."},{"key":"#cr-split#-bibr2-0967772016662166.1","unstructured":"On 20 February 1724, Mather noted in his diary, 'The Angel of Bethesda, is now finished\u2009\u2026\u2009I must now apply myself both to Heaven and Earth, to bring on the publication of it': Mather, Diary of Cotton Mather. New York: Frederick Ungar [1911], II, 698-699. He may have been discouraged by the cost of publication and expressed pessimism on this score in a letter to John Winthrop on 17 April 1721: Mather, In: Silverman K"},{"key":"#cr-split#-bibr2-0967772016662166.2","unstructured":"(ed) Selected Letters of Cotton Mather. Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 1971, p.336. Only chapter 5, which dealt with 'nishmath-chajim,' was published during Mather's lifetime, under the title The Angel of Bethesda, visiting the invalids of a miserable world: Guerra F, comp. American medical bibliography 1639-1783. New York, NY: Harper, Inc., 1962, p.57."},{"key":"bibr3-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Henry F Dobyns speculates that aside from smallpox \u2018Measles may have been the\u2009\u2026\u2009largest killer of Native Americans among Old World pathogens\u2019:\n                      Their numbers grow thinned: Native American population dynamics in eastern North America.\n                      Knoxville, TN: Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1983, pp.16\u201317."},{"key":"bibr4-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Puritan personal writings: diaries.\n                      New York, NY: AMS Press, reprint, 1982, pp.147, 181."},{"key":"bibr5-0967772016662166","first-page":"534","volume":"16","author":"Caulfield E","year":"1943","journal-title":"Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine"},{"key":"bibr6-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Duffy J.\n                      Epidemics in Colonial America.\n                      Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 1953, p.167."},{"key":"bibr7-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, 248\u2013249."},{"key":"bibr8-0967772016662166","unstructured":"On the illness of Abigail Mather and the children, see Levin D.\n                      Cotton Mather: The young life of the Lord\u2019s Remembrancer, 1663\u20131703.\n                      Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1978, pp.304\u2013307."},{"key":"bibr9-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, 249, 250, 251, 252."},{"key":"bibr10-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, p.261. The death of Elizabeth Mather is noted in\n                      Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, p.255; of the servant,\n                      Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, p.257; and of the twins,\n                      Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, p.260, entries for 17\/18 November and 20 November."},{"key":"bibr11-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, p.257."},{"key":"bibr12-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Entry for 23 November 1713;\n                      Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, p.263."},{"key":"bibr13-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, p.256."},{"key":"bibr14-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, p.272."},{"key":"bibr15-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Selected letters of Cotton Mather\n                      , pp.145\u2013146."},{"key":"bibr16-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, 590\u201391. Entry for 6 February 1719."},{"key":"bibr17-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Mather himself bemoaned the decline of the preacher\u2013physician. In his biographical sketch of Charles Cha[u]ncey (1592\u20131672), a minister and president of Harvard, he reported that Chancey\u2019s sons, \u2018like their excellent father before them, had an eminent skill in\n                      physick\n                      added unto their other accomplishments; which, like them, they used for the good of many; as indeed it is well known that, until two hundred years ago,\n                      physick\n                      in England was no profession distinct from\n                      divinity\n                      \u2019:\n                      Magnalia Christi Americana, or the ecclesiastical history of New England.\n                      New York, NY: Russell & Russell, 1967 (reproduction of 1852 ed.; first published 1702), I, 475. He lauded particularly New England clergy for maintaining the \u2018\n                      angelical conjunction\n                      \u2019 of serving both the religious and physical needs of the poor, \u2018To supply the want of able physicians among them\u2019:\n                      Magnalia Christi Americana, or the ecclesiastical history of New England.\n                      New York, NY: Russell & Russell, 1967, p.493."},{"key":"bibr18-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, 274."},{"key":"bibr19-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Bosco RA (ed)\n                      Paterna: the autobiography of Cotton Mather\n                      . Delmar, NY: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1976, pp.7\u20138."},{"key":"bibr20-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Bosco RA (ed)\n                      Paterna: the autobiography of Cotton Mather.\n                      Delmar, NY: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1976, p.8."},{"key":"bibr21-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Mather S.\n                      The life of the very reverend and learned Cotton Mather.\n                      Boston, 1729, p.26. Regarding this episode, see also Levin, pp.35, 37\u201339."},{"key":"bibr22-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Julius Herbert Tuttle includes this in his inventory of the Mather family collections: The Libraries of the Mathers.\n                      Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society\n                      , 1910; 20: 350."},{"key":"bibr23-0967772016662166","unstructured":"In his entry of 28 August 1683, Mather reported consulting Salmon.\n                      Diary\n                      , I, 72, 72n."},{"key":"bibr24-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, 698 (entry for 20 February 1724)."},{"key":"bibr25-0967772016662166","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"John B Blake designates Thacher\u2019s \u2018Rule\u2019 as the earliest medical publication in Colonial America: Early American medical literature.\n                      Clio Medica\n                      1976; 11: 149\u2013150. He also briefly discusses Mather\u2019s \u2018Letter\u2019 (p.150).","DOI":"10.1163\/9789004418233_037"},{"key":"bibr26-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Acclaiming Thacher an \u2018\n                      excellent physician\n                      ,\u2019 Mather lauded him for tending to the medical needs of Bostonians:\n                      Magnalia Christi Americana\n                      , I, 493\u201394."},{"key":"bibr27-0967772016662166","unstructured":"While the treatment that Thacher recommended for smallpox (and, by extension, for measles), owed much to Sydenham, notably in his condemnation of the \u2018hot method\u2019 of treatment, he also saw danger in \u2018preposterous cooling,\u2019 by bloodletting, or cooling medicines: \u2018A Brief Rule To guide the Common People of\n                      New England\n                      how to order themselves & theirs in the Small-Pocks, or Measels\u2019. Boston, 1702, p.2."},{"key":"bibr28-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Pechey J (ed)\n                      The whole works of that excellent practical physician, Dr. Thomas Sydenham\n                      . 6th ed. London: R. Wellington, 1715, p.132."},{"key":"bibr29-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Pechey J (ed)\n                      The whole works of that excellent practical physician, Dr. Thomas Sydenham\n                      . 6th ed. London: R. Wellington, 1715, p.134."},{"key":"bibr30-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Pechey J (ed)\n                      The whole works of that excellent practical physician, Dr. Thomas Sydenham\n                      . 6th ed. London: R. Wellington, 1715, pp.133\u2013134."},{"key":"bibr31-0967772016662166","unstructured":"\u2018A Letter, about a good management under the distemper of the MEASLES, at this time spreading in the country. Here published for the benefit of the poor, and such as may want the help of Able Physicians.\u2019 Boston, MA: s.n., 1713, p.1."},{"key":"bibr32-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, 272."},{"key":"bibr33-0967772016662166","unstructured":"\u2018A Letter,\u2019 p.4."},{"key":"bibr34-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Similarly, on 20 December, Mather had written, \u2018doubtless my Action may expose me to some Invectives, yet my Conformity to my dear Saviour, in what He did for the sick, will be my inexpressible Consolation\u2019:\n                      Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, 272."},{"key":"bibr35-0967772016662166","unstructured":"This elixir is the only officinal drug mentioned in Mather\u2019s letter."},{"key":"bibr36-0967772016662166","unstructured":"This Biblical reference (2 Kings 4:40) may be an attempt at humor, Mather\u2019s point being that patients should not consume drinks that were too hot."},{"key":"bibr37-0967772016662166","unstructured":"The whole works\n                      , p.134. Elsewhere in his writings (\n                      The whole works\n                      , p.220), he noted that he occasionally administered laudanum in treating measles and he defended this practice against those who questioned it."},{"key":"bibr38-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Mather, In: Jones GW (ed)\n                      The Angel of Bethesda: An essay upon the common maladies of mankind\n                      . Barre, MA: American Antiquarian Society and Barre Publishers, 1972, p.100."},{"key":"bibr39-0967772016662166","unstructured":"The whole works\n                      , p.135."},{"key":"bibr40-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Mather criticized Alexander Pitcairn for being \u2018Too Universal\u2019 in advocating venesection for treating fever in smallpox, but added that physicians should decide when to bleed:\n                      Angel of Bethesda\n                      , p.104. He ascribed his son Samuel\u2019s recovery from fever to a \u2018critical bleeding\u2019:\n                      Diary of Cotton Mather\n                      , II, 486 (entry for 9 November 1717)."},{"key":"bibr41-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Quoted in Duffy,\n                      Epidemics in Colonial America\n                      , p.166."},{"key":"bibr42-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Sydenham, In: Rush (ed)\n                      The works of Thomas Sydenham, M.D., on acute and chronic diseases; with their histories and modes of cure\n                      . Philadelphia, PA: Benjamin and Thomas Kite, 1809, p.166n."},{"key":"bibr43-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Two major examples, both of which Mather recommended at several points in his letter, were saffron and sage. According to Salmon, saffron \u2018[drove] forth the measles, and small-pox\u2019:\n                      Pharmacopoeia Londinensis\n                      , p.120. Sage was celebrated as a febrifuge; John Hill noted, \u2018An infusion of it made in the manner of Tea, has long been famous, as the Common Drink of People in Fevers\u2019:\n                      A history of the Materia Medica.\n                      London: T. Longman, 1751, pp.371\u2013372. Like other herbs, however, both saffron and sage lost popularity with medical professionals during the latter half of the eighteenth century; note, e.g. William Cullen,\n                      A treatise of the Materia Medica.\n                      New York, NY: J Crukshank et\u00a0al., 1789, II, 103\u2013104, 214\u2013215."},{"key":"bibr44-0967772016662166","unstructured":"Cristobal Silva asserts that by the end of the variolation controversy the clerical practice model was \u2018replaced by a new era that increasingly privileged specialization and professionalization,\u2019 reflecting a growing rift between theology and science:\n                      Miraculous plagues: An epidemiology of early New England narrative\n                      . New York, NY: Oxford, 2011, pp.146, 153\u2013154."}],"container-title":["Journal of Medical Biography"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/0967772016662166","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1177\/0967772016662166","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/0967772016662166","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T23:25:29Z","timestamp":1777505129000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/0967772016662166"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2016,9,15]]},"references-count":45,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,2]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1177\/0967772016662166"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0967772016662166","relation":{},"ISSN":["0967-7720","1758-1087"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0967-7720","type":"print"},{"value":"1758-1087","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2016,9,15]]}}}