mouth, where he became and continued a practitioner till his death.

In early life he married Miss Hannah Whipple, sister of the late Gen. Whipple, and of the present Collector of this port, who lives to mourn the kindest of husbands,

On the 30th of October, 1783, he was chosen an honorary member of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He was one of the nineteen who first formed a similar institution in the State of New-Hampshire, for which an act of incorporation was obtained in 1791. In the year 1792 he was complimented, at his alma mater, with a medical doctorate. On the 19th of June, 1793, he succeeded his excellency, the late Hon. Josiah Bartlett, Esq. M. D. in the presidency of the NewHampshire Medical Society, and, by repeated elections, continued in this office till the 15th of May, 1799, when, in consequence of his declining state of health, he resigned it. He had previously presented the society with one hundred and forty-three volumes of valuable books, as the foundation of a medical library. On retiring from the presidency, he received an address, which handsomely expressed the respectful acknowledgments of this society for his diligent and friendly attention to its interests, and his liberal donation to it.

Dr. Brackett had interested himself on the subject of a Professorship for Natural History and Botany at the University in Cambridge. He told the writer of this memoir, not many weeks before his death, that it was a subject which had much engrossed his mind for thirty years. Before his decease, a plan had been adopted for carrying so useful an establishment into effect, and donations for that purpose, to the amount of several thousand dollars, had been subscribed. It is pleasing to add, he left the request with his surviving consort, that a certain property, of the value of fifteen hundred dollars, when she should have done with it, might be conveyed to the Corporation of Harvard College for the afore-mentioned important design. The author of this communication is happy to state, that Mrs. Brackett says, to adopt her affectionate and respectful language, that" she shall hold his every wish on the subject sacred as a word from Heaven."

At

Dr. Brackett was much distinguished for his activity and zeal in the cause of American independence. He was one of the Committee of Safety during the revolutionary war. an early period of it he was appointed Judge of the Court Maritime in New-Hampshire, and sustained that office with re

putation till the necessity of it was precluded by the establishment of the District Courts.

His profession, however, in which he shone with eminence, was his peculiar delight, as the native bias of his soul led him to the relief of those wants and distresses which it continually presented to his view. To increase his knowledge and usefulness in it, his reading, which was uncommonly extensive, his observations, which were accurate, and his reflections, which were judicious, were principally directed.

He was extremely attentive to his patients, and spared no pains to investigate the cause and the nature of their malady, and to afford relief. In arte obstetrica valde peritus fuit, nulla fæmina, sub ejus cura, labore parturiendi, unquam moriente. While a happy success attended his professional ministrations, his tenderness and sympathy with the sons and daughters of disease and distress were striking traits in his character, and have greatly endeared his memory.

The Doctor occasionally made minutes of important cases which came under his care, and of the measures pursued; but as these were merely for his own use, few of them have been found in a finished state.

He also kept, for twenty-five years before his death, a thermometrical and meteorological registry, which would be a valuable acquisition to the cabinet of some literary society.

He was mild in his temper, of an affable turn, amiable in his disposition, unassuming in his deportment, and was sincerely beloved and highly respected in the social walks of life.

He was a man of staunch integrity, sincere friendship, and great benevolence. He was an enemy to flattery, and no one was less ambitious of popular applause.

Humanity was a most distinguished trait in his character. It ought to be recorded that, in his professional labours, he was peculiarly kind to the poor, and never made a charge where he had reason to think the payment would occasion the smallest embarrassment. This was a conduct not unworthy of the Man of Ross.

For a considerable time before his death, he found that his constitution was under a gradual and general decay, through a disease in the region of the heart, as to the nature of which he could never be fully satisfied. At length he determined to try the efficacy of the Saratoga waters, for which purpose he set out from Portsmouth on the 23d of June, 1802. Having arrived at the springs, he continued there but

a few days; for he found that his disorder must bring him to the grave; and, feeling a consciousness that the time of his departure was at hand, he hastened his return, that he might be among his friends before the closing scene. He reached home on Friday, the 9th of July, visited several patients, and continued to walk out till the Tuesday following. From that time he was confined to his house till his death, which took place on Saturday, the 17th of July, at two in the morning. On the ensuing Monday the remains of this lamented philanthropist and physician were interred with great respect, and the tears of the widow and the orphan watered his grave.

On the monument erected to the memory of Dr. Brackett is the following inscription, which was prepared by another hand.

Here rest the remains

of

Dr. JOSHUA BRACKETT,
Late President

Of the New-Hampshire Medical Society;
Who, in full belief of the restoration of all things,
Calmly resigned his breath,

17th July, A. D. 1802,

In the 69th year

of his age.

Appointed by the State of New-Hampshire
Judge of the Maritime Court

At the time she assumed her sovereign rights,
He sustained the office with honour and integrity,
Until the adoption of the Federal Compact.
He was in judgment sound,

In friendship firm,

In sentiment liberal,

And in benevolence unbounded,

Nov. 22, 1803.

APPENDIX.

Measures taken by the Government of the United States to lessen the Rigours of Quarantine in Foreign Ports, and thereby to avoid, in some degree, the Inconveniences of a suspended Commerce.

No. 1.

In 'N the beginning of August, 1801, Mr. Madison, Secretary of State, addressed the following directions on the subject of quarantine, in a circular letter, to the Consuls and Commercial Agents of the United States residing in foreign parts.

"In many of the ports of Europe our vessels have been subjected to a ruinous and oppressive quarantine. It has generally been imposed without much attention to the state of health in the port of the vessel's departure in the United States. Thus, whilst the port of Charleston, South-Carolina, may be unhealthy, a vessel arriving from Boston, where good health may prevail, is subjected to an indiscriminating quarantine. In the winter months, also, it is considered impossible that a vessel can carry from this country any dangerously infectious disorder; the epidemics which have, within these eight years past, been so fatal in some of our sea-ports, breaking out about midsummer, and totally disappearing with the setting in of the frost in November.

"We are encouraged to expect, that by sending with our vessels authentic certificates of health, granted by the most respectable municipal officers of our ports, under a vigilant precaution, and with a scrupulous regard to truth, we shall experience a relaxation of this burthensome imposition. Accordingly, the Secretary of the Treasury has given directions to the Collectors of the Customs to carry this plan into effect. Certificates of health will therefore be occasionally sent to the Consuls in Europe, who, after communicating them to the officer or board in the place of their residence, charged with the superintendence of health, will transmit copies, or, if needful, the original, to the American Minister, if any such is established in the country.

"Enclosed are copies of the circular letter addressed to the Collectors of the Customs, on this occasion, by the Secretary of the Treasury, and of the form of a certificate of health. It is proper for me here to mention to you, that there are but

thirteen ports, viz. Portsmouth, (N. H.) Newbury-port, Salem, Boston, New-port, Providence, New-York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Wilmington, (N. C.) Charleston, (S. C.) and Savannah, in which Naval-officers are esta blished by law; and that in all other ports the bill of health can only be certified by the Collector; a circumstance with which perhaps foreign agents, to whom the circular may be communicated, should be acquainted, in order to prevent any injury abroad to vessels sailing from these ports, on account of the unavoidable omission of a Naval-officer's signature.

"Whilst we are led to expect a benefit from this arrangement, we think it will not be confined to ourselves. When real danger exists, other nations will be timely and candidly alarmed; and when there is none, they as well as we will be absolved from the disadvantages of a suspended intercourse.

"As it becomes us as well as others to guard against contagion, I have to request you, and more especially those who reside in the West-Indies, and on the Mediterranean, to report to this department, as often as it may be necessary, the most speedy information of the prevalence of epidemics in the ports of your districts. As soon as they have subsided, you will give information of it."

No. 2.

The circular letter from Mr. Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, to the Collectors of the Customs, was prepared in July, 1801, and intended to be sent abroad for the sake of informing foreign residents of the arrangements made at home.

"SIR,

"The quarantine laws of some European nations have proven so oppressive to our commerce, that it has become necessary to adopt every measure which may induce a reasonable relaxation.

"In order to produce that desirable effect, it seems requisite to impress a conviction, that the most strict adherence to truth always characterizes the certificates of health which may be granted to our ships; and to attach to those certificates the forms which are most usual in other countries, and such attestations as may give them the highest degree of authenticity.

"It cannot be too strongly impressed, that no temporary cause should, at any time, induce a concealment of any circumstance whatever, however unpleasant an acknowledgment of any contagious disease may be to the officer obliged to cer