Dr. John Walton, Yale 1720 / Ernest Caulfield.

  • Caulfield, Ernest, 1893-
Date:
[1937]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. John Walton, Yale 1720 / Ernest Caulfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Vol. 9, No. 4, March, 1937 a ERNEST CAULFIELD Among the rare books in the Sterling Memorial Library 1s a small volume which has been entirely overlooked by medical his- torians and yet should be of some interest because it is the first medical publication by a graduate of Yale. Otherwise the book has little to commend it, for it contains no original case descriptions, no startling discoveries, no experimental observations. Indeed, it 1s merely a scholastic exposition of an old medical theory which had already been discarded long before the book was written. Nor was the author himself of very great importance, and it may be ques- tioned if he ever will be claimed as an illustrious son of Yale. Though equipped with some unusual talents and a good education, he was afflicted with an awkward vanity and an unattractive wilful- ness and, as a consequence, his life was a succession of failures in many different professions. Sometimes commendable, more often infam- ous, never dull, he was an unusually interesting man, possibly because of his failures and his unpredictable reactions to them. But let it be said to his credit that when past middle age he seemed to sense his own weaknesses, was finally able to adapt himself to his social environment, to achieve distinction, and to command the respect of his fellow men. It would be easy to over-emphasize Walton’s imperfections and present him in an entirely unfavorable light, but I propose to deal with him as sympathetically as I can, not as a scientific genius nor a paragon of virtue, but simply as an intensely human character who is entitled to a little attention, at least, if only because he was the first of all the Yale men who have written on disease. John Walton, Bachelor of Arts John Walton, by far the most noteworthy of the host of Waltons that swarmed over New London and Windham Counties in the eighteenth century, was born on June 19, 1694, on a lonely back- woods farm in the north parish of Preston, now Griswold Township. His father, Laurence Walton, was an unobtrusive settler whose name cannot be found in the public records except as the husband * Read before the Beaumont Medical Club, Oct. 9, 1936. YALE JOURNAL OF BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE, VOL. 9, No. 4 a emrmenar ne I setene nent mame erta wees! ~ OI
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