Joseph Adams (physician)

Joseph Adams M.D. F.L.S. (1756—20 June 1818) was a British physician and surgeon. His father was a practising apothecary in London, a rigid dissenter, whose religious scruples would not permit him to allow his son to graduate at either of the universities of Oxford or Cambridge. He, however, received a good classical education; and having been apprenticed to his father, became a member of the Society of Apothecaries. He studied under Dr. Pitcairn and Mr. Pott at St. Bartholomew's, Dr. Saunders at Guy's, and Mr. John Hunter at St. George's hospitals. In 1790, he became a member of the Corporation of Surgeons, and in 1795 published a small volume on Morbid Poisons, which being sent to the university of Aberdeen, he thereby obtained a diploma of M.D., and in the following year left London for Madeira, where he resided for eight years, engaged in much practice, and occupied in medical researches. He visited the lazaretto near Funchal, and made himself acquainted with leprosy, yaws, &c.; the information respecting which, he printed in the second edition of his work on Morbid Poisons, by which he is principally known to the medical profession. He has the merit of having introduced the cowpox into Madeira.

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He returned to England in 1805, was admitted an extra-licentiate (without examination) of the London Royal College of Physicians; and Dr. Woodville dying in 1806, he succeeded him as physician at the Smallpox Hospital. At this time, the practice of vaccination was slowly recovering from the effects of numerous unfounded attacks by which it had been assailed. A general report was formed under the inspection of Dr. Adams, and circulated by the committee of the hospital, to remove alarm and inspire confidence. This, together with a second report, was communicated to the College of Physicians, printed and circulated, and passed through thirteen editions. The produce of the sale was appropriated to the hospital; a net balance of cash, amounting to 1517l. 16s. 8d., being invested and made available for the general purposes of the institution.

Dr. Adams was a great advocate of the opinion that cowpox and smallpox are one and the same disease. This was the opinion of Dr. Jenner, and has been well established. Dr. Adams drew his arguments in favour of their identity from the near resemblance of the most favourable kinds of smallpox to the cowpox, and presumptive proofs deduced from the laws of other morbid poisons, that the variolous and vaccine is the same. He contended that the character of the disease might be changed by a selection of the pustule from which the inoculation should take place; and that thus selecting cases of what he denominated pearl small-pox, and inoculating from these, similar mild affections ensued, so that it was exceedingly difficult to distinguish these cases from those of cowpox.

Having received in 1804 an accession of private fortune, Dr. Adams was enabled to indulge his taste for study, and also his philanthropy towards his more indigent fellow-creatures. His attachment to his profession was very ardent: besides delivering several courses of lectures, be edited the London Medical and Physical Journal, for many years, with great credit. His death followed a compound fracture of the leg, and took place suddenly and unexpectedly on the 20th June, 1818, at the age of 62. He was buried in Bunhill-fields, with the simple motto of "Vir Justus et bonus," inscribed on his tomb.

Works

He published the following works:

• Observations on Morbid Poisons, Phagedaena, and Cancer. Lond. 8vo. Second edit. 1807. 4to. The singular title of this work is derived from Mr. Hunter's division of poisons into the natural and the diseased;—those belonging to an animal in health, capable of affecting others, but producing no noxious effect on the animal by which it is formed; and those which are the result of diseased action, and capable of exciting a similar condition in other individuals. He treats, among other diseases of Leprosy, or the Elephantiasis of the ancients, the Elephantiasis of the moderns, or the Barbadoes Leg, and the Lepra Graecorum, &c. He also gives an account of the Acarus Syro (Exulcerans of Linnaeus) by some considered as the Itch Insect. During these researches, he inoculated himself and part of his family with the insect, to prove that the itch and the disease from the Acarus were distinct from each other. To comprehend more precisely the nature of the Sibbens or Sivvens, he made a journey into Dumfries-shire, &c.; and he has given a good summary of all that is known upon this subject.

• Observations on the Cancerous Breast. Lond. 1801. 8vo. Second edit. 1805. He regards the existence of cysts or hydatids, possessed of a life independent of the subject in which they grow, as constituting the true essential character of the true carcinoma. Dr. Baron has since carried the matter farther, and affirms that all tumours take their origin from hydatids.

• Guide to Madeira. Lond. 1801. 8vo. Second edit. 1808.

• Answers to all the Objections hitherto made against Cow-pox. Lond. 1805. 8vo.

• A popular View of Vaccine Inoculation. Lond. 1807. 12mo.

• Reports of the Royal College of Physicians in London, Dublin, and Edinburgh, on Vaccination; with introductory Remarks, and other Papers. Lond. 1809. 8vo. These being addressed rather to the public than to the profession, are written in a popular style, and served in a measure to allay the anxiety naturally entertained on such an important subject.

• An Inquiry into the Laws of Epidemics. Lond. 1809. 8vo. In this work, Dr. Adams assists in marking the distinction between contagious and infectious diseases. The first proposal for the establishment of savings banks appears in this volume, Appendix, No. 4.

• A Republication of one of John Hunter's Treatises, with a Commentary, which possesses no particular claims to notice.

• Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on the Institutes and Practice of Medicine. Lond. 1811. 12mo.

• A Philosophical Treatise on the Hereditary Peculiarities of the Human Race: with Notes illustrative of the subject, particularly in Gout, Scrofula and Madness. Lond. 1814. 8vo. Second edit. 1815. To the latter is attached an Appendix on the Goitres and Cretins of the Alps and Pyrenees, which was originally printed in the London Medical and Physical Journal.

• An Illustration of Mr. Hunter's Doctrine, particularly concerning the Life of the Blood. Lond. 1811. 8vo. His enthusiastic advocacy of the doctrines of John Hunter, led Dr. Adams to publish this reply to the observations in the Edinburgh Review on Mr. Abernethy's Physiological Lectures.

• Memoirs of the Life and Doctrines of the late John Hunter, Esq. Lond. 1817. 8vo. Second edit. 1818.

• On Epilepsy. Lond. 1817. 8vo. This paper, (which is inserted in the Memoirs of the Medical Society of London,) forms a good statement of the imperfection of medical science as it regards epilepsy, its causes, modes of treatment, &c. His success in the cure of acute epilepsy has not been confirmed by subsequent experience.

References

1. Rose, Hugh James [1853] (1857). A New General Biographical Dictionary, London: B. Fellowes et al.