ALS 1838 Document US Navy Medical Mahlon Dickerson /Surgeon William P. C. Barton

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ALS 1838 Document US Navy Medical Mahlon Dickerson /Surgeon William P. C. Barton:
$50.00

ALS Letter From Mahlon Dickerson , to William Paul Crillon Barton , 1838Fantastic Authentic , Historic Letter , US Navy MedicalOffered here at a great price9.75 X 8 inchesSingle sheet / Manuscript

Mahlon Dickerson (April 17, 1770 – October 5, 1853) was an American judge and politician. He was elected Governor of New Jersey as well as United States Senator from that state. He was twice appointed Secretary of the Navy – under Presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin van Buren. He was the elder brother of New Jersey Governor Philemon Dickerson

After his militia service, he settled in Philadelphia, and began practicing in Pennsylvania courts in 1797. He served as a Judge of the Mayor\'s Court, and as a member of the Philadelphia Common Council in 1799. He was named state commissioner of bankruptcy in 1802, served as adjutant general of Pennsylvania from 1805 to 1808, attorney general of Pennsylvania from 1808 to 1809, and as Philadelphia city recorder from 1808 to 1810.

He returned to New Jersey, settling in Morris County in 1810. Elected to the New Jersey General Assembly in 1811, he served one term. He was law reporter for the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1813 to 1814, and a justice of the same from 1813 to 1815. He was elected Governor of New Jersey in 1815 and served until 1817, having been elected as a Democratic-Republican to the United States Senate in 1816.

Dickerson served in the Senate from March 4, 1817 to January 30, 1829, when he resigned, but he was immediately reelected to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Ephraim Bateman and served from January 30, 1829, to March 4, 1833, for a total of 16 years of service. Dickerson served as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Library during the 15th Congress, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce and Manufactures for the 16th through 18th Congresses and the U.S. Senate Committee on Manufactures from the 19th through 22nd Congresses.

In 1833, upon leaving the Senate, he was elected Member of the New Jersey Legislative Council for Morris County and served as Vice President for that term. In 1834 he declined appointment as Minister to Russia. In June of that year, he was appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Andrew Jackson and was reappointed by President Martin Van Buren, serving until June 1838. As Secretary of the Navy, Dickerson was involved in resolving the 1835 Washington Navy Yard labor strike. The destroyer USS Dickerson was named in his honor.

William Paul Crillon Barton (November 17, 1786 – March 27, 1856), was a medical botanist, physician, professor, naval surgeon, and botanical illustratorAt the age of 23, Barton chose to enter the U.S. Navy as a surgeon. He received his commission on April 10, 1809, and less than week later commissioned the famous Thomas Sully to paint his portrait for a sum of $50. This painting, now in the Wilstach Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, shows a young Barton in uniform – a blue coat with gold braid, and hands gloved. Barton wrote, “I was overwhelmed with the difficulties I had to encounter in the performance of professional duties, where every species of inconvenience and disadvantage that can be imagined was opposed to the exertions of the surgeon.” Ultimately, Barton was not one to accept inadequacies, but rather to fight for reform.
Barton fought to tighten the controls of shipboard medical supplies. He called for the introduction of lemons and limes aboard Navy ships long before the U.S. Navy accepted the importance of an antiscorbutic treatment for vitamin C deficiency or scurvy. Barton went as far as to send a bottle of lime juice to the Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton with the instructions to drink it in the form of lemonade. His outspoken manner angered many of his colleagues. Barton, of necessity, became familiar with the administration of hospitals.
In February, 1811, Congress passed an act establishing naval hospitals. Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton later asked Barton to compose a set of regulations for governing these hospitals. Barton was well aware of the shortcomings in Navy medical care. Shipboard facilities were primitive, and there were no permanent hospitals ashore, only temporary facilities in Navy yards.
Barton began by drafting rules for governing naval hospitals. In 1812, the Navy Department submitted them to Congress. \"Each hospital accommodating at least one hundred men should maintain a staff including a surgeon, who must be a college or university graduate; two surgeon\'s mates; a steward; a matron; a wardmaster; four permanent nurses; and a variety of servants.\"Not satisfied with the hastily drafted suggestions, Barton expanded his theories in a treatise published in 1814.
He was the first to promote the idea of employing female nurses in the U.S. Navy. He described the \"matron\'s characteristics: she should be \"discreet ... reputable ... capable ... neat, cleanly, and tidy in her dress, and urbane and tender in her deportment.\" She would supervise the nurses and other attendants as well as those working in the laundry, larder, and kitchen, but her main function was to ensure that patients were clean, well-fed, and comfortable.William Barton serves on naval board, June 11, 1824By 1824, Barton served on the first board to examine candidates for the Navy\'s medical service. The intent of the board was to examine Surgeon\'s Mates, \"preparatory to their promotion to the rank of Surgeons.\" The board was also authorized to examine applicants for Commissions as Surgeons\' Mates and report upon their fitness.
In 1830 he became the commanding officer at Naval Hospital Norfolk, VA. He was involved in the development of the Philadelphia Naval Hospital when it was located in the Naval Asylum. Today, this gothic structure, that also served as the first home of the U.S. Naval Academy, stands in Grays Ferry.
President John Tyler appointed Barton to the office of first head of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery on September 2, 1842. (The post of Navy Surgeon General was created in March 1871). His time as Chief clerk was active, but short. Among his recommendations were the adoption of a supply table so that drugs and medical supplies could be properly procured and accounted for; the abolition of a venereal fee; uniform standards for recruits; higher professional standards for Navy physicians; standardizations and administrations of naval hospitals; and strict control over the use of liquor on board ships. He was a vehement prohibitionist, and had a “liquor circular” pasted on boxes of whisky identifying the contents as medical supplies which required stringent accounting, a step which was not popular in the fleet.

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