by Larry Smith
The American doctor whose 1824 diary of life among Nassau's social elite formed the basis of my article last week also wrote an account of his stay in Paris in 1828.
This diary was published for the first time in the 1951 edition of the Journal of the History of Medicine, a copy of which was loaned to me by COB librarian Virginia Ballance. It features an introductory biography of Dr Townsend, written by George Rosen.
"Wherever Townsend went, and he visited almost every hospital and educational institution in Paris, he recorded these experiences in his diary. As a result, his record contains a very detailed and vivid picture of medical conditions and establishments...Paris was the mecca of medicine during the first half of the 19th century."
Townsend was born in New York in 1796. His father served several terms in the New York legislature. After attending Columbia College he studied medicine as a private pupil of a practising physician, earning his MD from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1816 with a dissertation on the Influence of the Passions in the Production and Modification of Disease.
For the next half dozen years he took an active part in the medical and scientific life of New York and was a founder of the Lyceum of Natural History. He also wrote an account of a yellow fever outbreak in the city in 1822, which gained him a reputation as an expert in epidemic diseases.
Ill health, probably due to tuberculosis, led Townsend to move to the Bahamas in December 1823 to seek a more congenial climate. In addition to his diary of the year he spent in Nassau as the guest of the Honourable James Moss, he also wrote a memoir on the Topography, Weather and Diseases of the Bahama Islands. And his Bahamas sojourn was followed by trips to Europe.
In the 1830s Townsend became involved in New York politics and wrote on political matters for the Evening Star newspaper. Following this period of political activity he resumed his private practice. He died of tuberculosis on March 26, 1849.
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