View source for Nathaniel Chapman

{{Short description|American physician 1780–1853}}
{{distinguish|Nathaniel Chipman}}
[[File:Nathaniel Chapman.jpg|thumb|1846 engraving by Welch & Walters from a daguerreotype by M. P. Simmons]]
'''Nathaniel Chapman''' (28 May 1780 – 1 July 1853) was an American [[physician]].<ref name=AMB>{{Cite AMB1920|wstitle=Chapman, Nathaniel}}</ref> He was the founding president of the [[American Medical Association]] in 1847.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-history/full-list-annual-meetings-presidents.page|title=Full List of Annual Meetings and Presidents|work=American Medical Association|accessdate=25 November 2012}}</ref> Chapman founded the ''[[American Journal of the Medical Sciences]]'' in 1820 and served as its editor for some years, and also served as President of both the [[Philadelphia Medical Society]] and the [[American Philosophical Society]] (elected 1807).<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Nathaniel+Chapman&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-02|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

==Early life==
Chapman was born in Summer Hill, located north of [[Four Mile Run]] in present-day [[Arlington County, Virginia|Arlington County]], [[Virginia]], son of George Chapman and Amelia MacRae.<ref>A History of Chapman and Alexander Families, by Sigismunda Mary Francis Chapman, The Dietz Printing Company, Richmond, VA 1947, p. 22, https://archive.org/details/historyofchapman00chap/page/22</ref> He received his early education in six years at the classical academy of [[Alexandria, Virginia|Alexandria]]. He later attended two colleges for a short time, before moving to [[Philadelphia]] in 1797, where he began studying under [[Benjamin Rush]] and attending lectures at the [[University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine]]. He earned his [[Doctor of Medicine|M.D.]] in 1800, with a thesis on [[rabies|hydrophobia]].

===Personal life===
[[File:Mrs. Nathaniel Chapman (Rebekah Biddle).jpg|thumb|His wife, Rebekah Biddle, painted by [[Benjamin Trott (painter)|Benjamin Trott]] (ca. 1815)]]
In 1808, he married Rebekah Biddle (1782-1870), the daughter of [[Clement Biddle]] and Rebekah Cornell of Philadelphia.<ref>{{cite web|title=Benjamin Trott {{!}} Mrs. Nathaniel Chapman (Rebekah Biddle) {{!}} The Met|url=http://metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/12818|website=metmuseum.org|publisher=[[The Metropolitan Museum of Art]]|accessdate=11 February 2017}}</ref>

==Career==
Upon his graduation, Chapman traveled to the [[United Kingdom]] in 1801, spending a year in [[London]] as a pupil of [[John Abernethy (surgeon)|John Abernethy]], and three in [[Edinburgh]], where he attended lectures at the medical school of the [[University of Edinburgh]]. While in Edinburgh he became acquainted with a number of well-known people, including [[Dugald Stewart]], the [[David Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan|Earl of Buchan]], and [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Henry Brougham]].

Chapman returned to the United States in 1804, and established a medical practice in Philadelphia. He gave a private course of lectures on [[obstetrics]] in the same year, which proved so popular that, in 1806 at age 26, he was elected adjunct to the Professor of [[Midwifery]] at the University of Pennsylvania, and soon thereafter was made chair of [[Materia Medica]]. Upon the death of Benjamin Rush in 1813, he was transferred to the chair of Theory and Practice of Medicine (after [[Benjamin Smith Barton]] held the post for a brief time. Chapman gained the post in 1815.), which he would retain for nearly forty years, until his retirement in 1850. In addition to his lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, he also gave annual lectures at the [[Philadelphia Alms House]] and the [[Medical Institute of Philadelphia]].

Of his published works, the most popular were ''Select Speeches, Forensic and Parliamentary'' (1804), touching on both medical and political matters, and ''Therapeutics'' (1817), a work on what was then termed ''[[materia medica]]'' that went through seven editions.

==Selected works==
* [http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/2545067R ''An essay on the canine state of fever'' (dissertation) (1801)]
* [http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/63340440R ''Lectures on the more important eruptive fevers, haemorrhages and dropsies, and on gout and rheumatism'' (1844)]

==Notes==
<references />

==References==
* {{cite journal | title = Death of Nathaniel Chapman, M.D. | journal = [[The Medical Examiner]] | volume = 9 | pages = 532–535 | year = 1853 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=khYCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA532 | publisher = Lindsay & Blakiston}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline}}
*{{Internet Archive author|sname=Nathaniel Chapman}}

{{American Medical Association Presidents}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapman, Nathaniel}}
[[Category:1780 births]]
[[Category:1853 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American physicians]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Medical Association]]
[[Category:People from Arlington County, Virginia]]
[[Category:Physicians from Virginia]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni]]
[[Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Philosophical Society]]