It was not until 1721, however, that England recorded its first case of inoculation. ===Early New England=== Smallpox was a serious threat in colonial America, most devastating to Native Americans, but also to Anglo-American settlers.
Mather then declared, in a letter to Dr John Woodward of Gresham College in London, that he planned to press Boston's doctors to adopt the practice of inoculation should smallpox reach the colony again. By 1721, a whole generation of young Bostonians was vulnerable and memories of the last epidemic's horrors had by and large disappeared.
The death toll reached 101 in September, and the Selectmen, powerless to stop it, "severely limited the length of time funeral bells could toll." As one response, legislators delegated a thousand pounds from the treasury to help the people who, under these conditions, could no longer support their families. On June 6, 1721, Mather sent an abstract of reports on inoculation by Timonius and Jacobus Pylarinus to local physicians, urging them to consult about the matter.
The epidemic peaked in October 1721, with 411 deaths; by February 26, 1722, Boston was again free from smallpox.
The total number of cases since April 1721 came to 5,889, with 844 deaths—more than three-quarters of all the deaths in Boston during 1721.
(Douglass was exceptional at the time for holding a medical degree from Europe.) At the extreme, in November 1721, someone hurled a lighted grenade into Mather's home. ====Medical opposition==== Several opponents of smallpox inoculation, among them Rev.
One important change in the practice after 1721 was regulated quarantine of innoculees. ===The aftermath=== Although Mather and Boylston were able to demonstrate the efficacy of the practice, the debate over inoculation would continue even beyond the epidemic of 1721–22.
However, other critics have praised Mather's work, citing it as one of the best efforts at properly documenting the establishment of America and growth of the people. ===The Christian Philosopher=== In 1721, Mather published The Christian Philosopher, the first systematic book on science published in America.
The epidemic peaked in October 1721, with 411 deaths; by February 26, 1722, Boston was again free from smallpox.
He also promoted the new Newtonian science in America and sent many scientific reports to the Royal Society of London, which formally elected him as a fellow in 1723.
A Sermon Preached in Boston, May 31, 1724, In the Hearing and at the Desire of certain Pirates; A Brief Discourse occasioned by a Tragical Spectacle of a Number of Miserables under Sentence of Death for Piracy; Useful Remarks.
After overcoming considerable difficulty and achieving notable success, Boylston traveled to London in 1725, where he published his results and was elected to the Royal Society in 1726, with Mather formally receiving the honor two years prior. ==Sermons against pirates and piracy== Throughout his career Mather was also keen to minister to convicted pirates.
After overcoming considerable difficulty and achieving notable success, Boylston traveled to London in 1725, where he published his results and was elected to the Royal Society in 1726, with Mather formally receiving the honor two years prior. ==Sermons against pirates and piracy== Throughout his career Mather was also keen to minister to convicted pirates.
Chandler, 1726. . . Felker, Christopher D.
Cotton Mather (February 12, 1663 – February 13, 1728) was a New England Puritan minister, prolific author, and pamphleteer.
Biblia Americana is incredibly large, and Mather worked on it from 1693 until 1728, when he died.
It came out in 1867 and cites numerous criticisms of Mather by Robert Calef. William Frederick Poole defended Mather from these criticisms. In 1869, Poole quoted from various school textbooks of the time demonstrating they were in agreement on Cotton Mather's role in the Witch Trial If anyone imagines that we are stating the case too strongly, let him try an experiment with the first bright boy he meets by asking,... 'Who got up Salem Witchcraft?'...
It came out in 1867 and cites numerous criticisms of Mather by Robert Calef. William Frederick Poole defended Mather from these criticisms. In 1869, Poole quoted from various school textbooks of the time demonstrating they were in agreement on Cotton Mather's role in the Witch Trial If anyone imagines that we are stating the case too strongly, let him try an experiment with the first bright boy he meets by asking,... 'Who got up Salem Witchcraft?'...
In 1891, Harvard English professor Barrett Wendall wrote Cotton Mather, The Puritan Priest.
"[Cotton Mather] gave utterance to many hasty things not always consistent with fact or with each other…" And some pages later: "[Robert] Calef's temper was that of the rational Eighteenth century; the Mathers belonged rather to the Sixteenth, the age of passionate religious enthusiasm." In 1907, George Lyman Kittredge published an essay that would become foundational to a major change in the 20th-century view of witchcraft and Mather culpability therein.
Unlike Poole and Upham, Burr avoids forwarding his previous debate with Kittredge directly into his book and mentions Kittredge only once, briefly in a footnote citing both of their essays from 1907 and 1911, but without further comment.
Unlike Poole and Upham, Burr avoids forwarding his previous debate with Kittredge directly into his book and mentions Kittredge only once, briefly in a footnote citing both of their essays from 1907 and 1911, but without further comment.
Murdock's father was a banker hired in 1920 to run the Harvard Press and he published his son's dissertation as a handsome volume in 1925: Increase Mather, The Foremost American Puritan (Harvard University Press).
In 1924, Holmes wrote an essay for the Bibliographical Society of America identifying himself as part of the Poole-Kittredge lineage and citing Kenneth B.
Murdock's father was a banker hired in 1920 to run the Harvard Press and he published his son's dissertation as a handsome volume in 1925: Increase Mather, The Foremost American Puritan (Harvard University Press).
Holmes' work also includes Cotton Mather's October 20, 1692 letter (see above) to his uncle opposing an end to the trials. 1930 Samuel Eliot Morison published Builders of the Bay Colony.
Morison's view seems to have evolved over the course of the 1930s, as can be seen in Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century (1936) published while Kittredge ran the Harvard press, and in a year that coincided with the tercentary of the college: "Since the appearance of Professor Kittredge's work, it is not necessary to argue that a man of learning…" of that era should be judged on his view of witchcraft.
In 1932 Holmes published a bibliography of Increase Mather followed by Cotton Mather, A Bibliography (1940).
Writing an introduction to a facsimile of Robert Calef's book in 1972, Hansen compares Robert Calef to Joseph Goebbels, and also explains that, in Hansen's opinion, women "are more subject to hysteria than men." 1971 The Admirable Cotton Mather by James Playsted Wood.
Reinventing Cotton Mather in the American Renaissance: Magnalia Christi Americana in Hawthorne, Stowe, and Stoddard (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1993); . . . . , xiv, 162 pp. . Mather, Increase (1692) Cases of Conscience from University of Virginia Special Collections Library. . Middlekauff, Robert.
Mather's short treatise on the Lord's Supper was later translated by his cousin Josiah Cotton. ==Bibliography== . . . . ==In popular culture== The Handsome Family's 2006 album Last Days of Wonder is named in reference to Mather's 1693 book Wonders of the Invisible World, which lyricist Rennie Sparks found intriguing because of what she called its "madness brimming under the surface of things." ==See also== John Ratcliff ==References== ==Sources== . . . Boylston, Zabdiel.
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