John Redman Coxe

Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Coxe, was reportedly descended from a long line of medical and surgical ancestors, several of whom, at different periods, were physicians to the kings and queens of England. Redman seems to have liked English methods best, for he sent his grandson to English schools and on to the University of Edinburgh when Coxe was sixteen to begin classical studies under a chosen teacher. There the surgeon with whom he boarded induced him to attend the hospital lectures. In his autobiography Coxe wrote: "After fifteen months in Edinburgh I returned to London in 1789 and attended two courses of anatomy and chemistry at the London Hospital and in 1790 left England to more directly study medicine under Dr. Benjamin Rush, and stayed with him until I obtained my degree in the University of Pennsylvania of doctor of medicine in 1794". During the 1793 Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic so great was the number of patients that he fought the plague side by side with Dr. Rush and seldom saw fewer than thirty to fifty a day. For "his skill, fortitude, patience and perseverance, and humanity" during that hard time, Dr. Rush gave him a "Commentary on Boerhaave". In 1794 he returned to Europe, spending two years studying in the hospitals of London, Edinburgh and Paris. He then returned to Philadelphia in 1796 or 1797, to enter into practice. ==Career==

In 1798, Coxe filled the position of Port Physician. He was a physician of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and for five years Physician of the Philadelphia Dispensary. During this time, Coxe was also an editor of The American Dispensary, and a medical dictionary. Despite his lengthy tenure as a professor, the University of Pennsylvania medical faculty "found the subject of materia medica and pharmacy to be of secondary interest" and "had little respect for Coxe's abilities as a teacher", leading to the termination of his teaching position in 1835. Coxe was also among the first American scientists attracted to the study of electrical phenomena, and it has been claimed that "[h]is familiarity with the science of electricity led him to anticipate the alleged discoveries of Morse many years afterward". In a letter written to an English friend, published in Thomas Thompson's Annals of Philosophy, Coxe wrote: ==Publications==

His writings included: • "Inaugural Essay on Inflammation" (1794). • "An inquiry into the comparative effects of the Opium officianarum extracted from the Papaver somniferum, a White Poppy of Linnarus, and of that procured from the Lactuca Sativa, a common Cultivated lettuce of America", read before the American Philosophical Society (November 24, 1797). • "Pamphlet giving a short view of the importance and respectability of the science of Medicine. Observations on Combustion and Acidification, with a Theory of These Processes founded on the Phlogistic and Antiphlogistic Doctrines" (1801). • Practical Observations on Vaccination, Philadelphia (1802). • Medical Museum (eight volumes; 1804-1812). • American Dispensatory (1806, '10, '14, '18, '30, '31). • Philadelphia Medical Dictionary (1808-1817). • Emporium of Arts and Sciences (five volumes; 1812). • "Refutation of Harvey's claims to the discovery of the circulation of the blood" (1827). • "Origin of the Circulation of the Blood", Philadelphia (1834). • "An appeal to the Medical Public from the Proceedings of the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania vacating the Chair of Materia Medica and Pharmacy", (1835). • "Cato", Bost. Med. & Surg. Jour. (1849), vol. xli, p. 156–159. ==Personal life==

He married Sarah Cox, daughter of Colonel John Cox, and they had six children. the Batavian Society of Sciences at Harlem, the Royal Medical Society of London, the Royal Society of Sciences of Copenhagen. He took great interest in both St. Andrew's and St. Luke's Episcopal Churches, having been one of the early founders and vestrymen in each: in St. Andrew's, when living at the corner of Ninth and Walnut Streets; in St. Luke's, when residing in the house he built, surrounded by a large garden, at Broad and Pine Streets. It was in this house that Dr. Coxe died at the age of 90, "never having been sick in his life; never having had a headache; never going to the dentist". He was buried in Woodlands Cemetery. ==References==