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5. John W. Francis
John Wakefield Francis (1789-1861) was born in New York City, the son of a German immigrant who had established himself as a grocer. The elder Francis died in 1795, and early in life his son found employment with a printer; many years later he recalled that he had set all the type for the first American edition of The Lady of the Lake.(1) After receiving instruction from private tutors, he entered Columbia College with advanced standing in 1807. Following his graduation in 1809 he began the [page 119:] study of medicine at the recently established College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. Soon after receiving the M. D. degree in 1811 he was invited to share the practice of his former instructor, Dr. David Hosack; Francis accepted the offer and the partnership lasted until 1820.
In 1813 Francis received an appointment as lecturer in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and soon afterward, when that institution united with the medical school of Columbia College, he became Professor of Materia Medica. Following a year of study abroad in 1816-1817 he also held the chairs of medical jurisprudence and obstetrics. In 1826 he helped to establish the Rutgers Medical College and taught there until the school was dissolved in 1830. In that year he retired from teaching to a lucrative private practice. In 1829 he married Eliza Cutler, a sister of Julia Ward Howe's mother. In later life Francis aided in the establishment of the New York Academy of Medicine, the Woman's Hospital, and the State Inebriate Asylum. Shortly before his death he returned to teaching as an instructor at Bellevue Hospital.
From 1810 until 1814 Francis was co-editor with Hosack of the American Medical and Philosophical Register and in the early 1830's he helped to edit the short-lived New-York Medical and Physical Journal. His writings were varied and numerous. Of his many medical papers, the “Letter on Febrile Contagion” (1816), the “Letter on the Cholera Asphyxia” (1832), and the “Observations on the Avon Mineral Waters” (1834) attracted wide interest. His biographical studies of distinguished physicians [page 120:] and statesmen include sketches of Benjamin Rush, Samuel L. Mitchill, and Robert R. Livingston. In 1857, by which date he was regarded as an authority on the history of the city, he published his recollections of notable persons and events in Old New York; or Reminiscences of the Past Sixty Years.
The amiable physician was one of New York's best known and best loved citizens, and at his home on fashionable Bond Street he entertained many of the celebrities of the time. He was a member of many scientific and civic societies and was frequently called upon to deliver occasional addresses and to assist in municipal affairs. A friend attributed to Francis the “genial weakness of believing himself to look like [Benjamin] Franklin” and admitted that “indeed, he did resemble that great philosopher not only in his outward appearance, but in the character of his intellect.”(2) Julia Ward Howe described her uncle by marriage as “florid in complexion and mercurial in temperament. His fine head was crowned with an abundance of silken curly hair. He always wore gold-bowed glasses, being very near-sighted, was a born humorist, and delighted in jest and hyperbole.”(3) [page 121:]
Poe's “Literati” sketch of Francis, his only article on the man, contains little literary opinion other than the observation some of Francis's non-professional works “are ... models of fine writing just sufficiently toned down by an indomitable common sense.” Most of the sketch is given to a detailed and highly commendatory delineation of the doctor's personality and appearance.(4)
The rather scanty evidence concerning the relationship of Poe and Francis is insufficient to establish the intimate association which Poe's friendly “Literati” sketch seems to imply. It is enough, however, to show that Poe knew Francis both socially and. professionally.
On at least one occasion Poe was a guest in Francis's home. Julia Ward Howe recalled the introduction of the Poet to a group that had gathered in her uncle's drawing room:
When Edgar Allan Poe first became known in New York. Dr. Francis invited him to the house. It was one of Auntie's [Mrs. Francis's] good evenings and her room was filled with company. The Poet arrived just at a moment when the doctor was obliged to answer the call of a patient. He accordingly opened the parlor door, and pushed Mr. Poe into the room, saying, “Eliza, my dear, the Raven!” after which he immediately withdrew. Auntie had not heard of the poem, and was entirely at a loss to understand this introduction of the new-comer.(5) [page 122:]
From this account one surmises that the visit occurred early in 1845.
Nothing further is definitely known of the association of Francis until early in 1846, when Poe became involved in the affair of Mrs. Ellet's letters. Griswold, in the “Memoir,” reported that Francis carried Poe's retraction and apology to Mrs. Ellet's brother.(6) The fact that Poe chose Francis for this mission may indicate that by this time the two were more than acquaintances. In connection with the same affair Poe implied that he had been under Francis's professional care. In his reply to English he stated that he might have demonstrated “by testimony of Dr. Francis and other medical men” that his intemperance was the effect, not the cause, of a physical illness.(7) After Poe's death, but while Francis was still living, Griswold dismissed this statement with the assertion that “Dr. Francis never gave any such testimony.”(8)
There is more positive evidence that Francis saw Poe as a patient at a later date. Mrs. Marie Louise Shew recorded that in the summer of 1848 Poe was a guest in her home during an illness. On January 23, 1875, Mrs. Shew, then Mrs. Houghton, wrote of this matter to John Ingram: “I called in old Dr Francis who was one of our neighbours he said ‘he had heart disease and would [page 123:] die early in life according to the storms or sunshine of his environment.”(9)
Poe and Francis may have been more intimately acquainted than these few facts suggest. Francis lived only a few blocks from Poe's residence at 85 Amity Street, and may have entertained, the poet on more than one evening. The doctor's home was also conveniently near 116 Waverly Place, where Miss Lynch held her receptions, and it is not unlikely, in view of Francis's social proclivities, that he occasionally attended these affairs.
[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 118:]
1 Literary World, IV, 84 (January 27, 1849).
[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 120:]
2 Alvan F. Sanborn, ed., The Reminiscences of Richard Lathers, New York, 1907, p. 39.
[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 120, running to the bottom of page 121:]
3 Reminiscences, 1819-1899, p.36. The biographical data also rely upon Edward Preble's sketch of Francis in the Dictionary of American Biography; the sketch in James B. Longacre and James Harring, eds., The National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, Philadelphia. 1834-1839, IV (the pages in each sketch are numbered separately); “Professor John W. Francis, M. D.,” New-England Magazine, VII. 210-218 (September, 1834); the Duyckincks' Cyclopaedia, (1880), I, 820-825; Appletons' Cyclopaedia; the National Cyclopaedia, I, 393; Lossing, op. cit., pp. 431-432; [page 121:] Wilson, Bryant and His Friends, pp. 388-389; and Maud Howe Ellison, Uncle Sam Ward and His Circle, New York, 1938.
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 121:]
[The following footnotes appear at the bottom of page 122:]
6 Literati (1850), p. xxiv. In the Mirror for June 23, 1846, English identified the bearer of Poe's note of apology only as a “physician” (Works, XVII, 237).
7 Works, XVII, 242.
8 Literati (1850), p. xxiii.
[The following footnote appears at the bottom of page 123:]
9 MS in the Poe-Ingram Papers of the Alderman Library, University of Virginia.
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Notes:
None.
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[S:0 - PNYL, 1954] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Bookshelf - Poe and the New York Literati (Reece)