On the principle of vitality, a discourse delivered in the First Church of Boston, Tuesday, June 8th, 1790. Before the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Boston: Thomas and John Fleet, 1790. FIRST EDITION. Original wrappers; worn, partially torn, staining and paper repairs to a few leaves and general browning due to paper stock. First edition; it was later reprinted as part of his work The Botanist in 1811. Waterhouse provides an overview of the principles surrounding vitality, animation and life, as opposed to specifically defining the ways to treat persons “apparently dead.” Vitality is the capacity to live, grow, or develop, the property of having The perception of vitality is regarded as a basic psychological drive and, in philosophy, a component to the will to live. We learn here of the ancient approach to vitality, from Greece to Rome, and the medical men who wrote of biological survival. Through the ages, we move to the subject of animation as defined by contemporary physicians and philosophers. Much of the consideration dealing with vitality is based on physiology and how the body is affected by everything from heat and cold to the liquids and solids that are put into the body. Of particular interest is his discussion of the condition of the soul and how it might motivate the vital reflex. Of course God and religion become part of the discussion in the end.

Waterhouse (1754-1846) was a co-founder of Harvard Medical School and was the first professor of medicine at Harvard. He was also a co-founder of the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. “After some friction with other founding members, he gave a discourse, June 8, 1790, on The Principle of Vitality, showing the importance of long-continued artificial respiration” (DAB).

Austin 2011; Dictionary of American Biography, X, pp. 529-532; Evans 23038; Sabin 102061.