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married Elizabeth, daughter of George M. Dallas, subsequently vice-president of the United States. With a number of friends Tucker founded the Franklyn Medical College, in which he took the chairof obstetrics, to which branch he had devoted particular attention during his studies in Paris. A few years later Tucker accepted the chair of theory and practice of medicine in the Medical College of Richmond. In this city he soon acquired a name as one of its most distinguished practitioners. In his later life he suf- fered from ill health and his vision became seriously impaired. He died March 17, 1871.
Tucker possessed a brilliant mind and profound learning. He was sincere and true in his friendship and singularly frank and candid in his manners. A. A.
Trans. Am. Med. Assoc, Phila., 1872, xxiii. "Incidents of my Life," T. A. Emmet.
Tufts, Cotton (1734-1815).
Cotton Tufts was the eldest son of Dr. Simon and Abigail (Smith) Tufts, and born in Medford, the thirtieth of May, 1734.
Early in life Cotton evinced a studious disposition and was admitted to Harvard College when only fourteen years old. Here he took his A. B. in 1749, and in 1785 the college conferred on him her honorary M. D. Thacher says he went through a regular course of medical education and settled in Weymouth.
He married Lucy, daughter of Col. John Quincy, of Braintree, and had a large practice in and about Quincy. It is related that he introduced a new and original treatment for the putrid sore throat, which was very prevalent and mortal. This was most successful and helped to increase his popularity and extend his fame.
He was an original member of the Massachusetts Medical Society and its fourth president from 1787 to 1795. In 1780 he was one of the incorporators of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention. In 1765 he
TUFTS
wrote the spirited and patriotic instruc-
tions to the representatives of the town
of Weymouth against the Stamp Act.
For more than forty years he was deacon
of the church.
His death occurred the eighth of De- cember, 1815. A very quaint portrait of Dr. Tufts is in the Fifield Room in the Boston Medical Library.
W. L. B.
American Medical Biog., 1828, James
Thacher.
Biographical Dictionary of the First Settlers
of N. E., John Eliot, 1809.
Tufts, Simon, Sr. (1700-1747).
Simon Tufts, Sr., the earliest physician in Medford, was born the thirty-first of January, 1700, in Medford, the youngest son of Peter Tufts the second, son of Peter Tufts the first, who came to Charles- town from England in 1650. Simon was the ninth child of Peter and his second wife, Mary, daughter of the Rev. Seaborn Cotton. As there were twelve children by this wife and four by the first it is plain that there was no aiding of race suicide in this family.
He graduated A. B. from Harvard College in 1724, probably studying medicine at the same time, for he began practice in Medford the year of his graduation.
He married Abigail Smith and had seven children, the fourth child being the eminent Cotton Tufts, M. D.
He had an extensive practice and was called often to visit the sick at Harvard College, refusing to receive fees, however, from the students. The doctor was a justice of the peace and a special justice.
He died on his birthday, the thirty-first of January, 1747. Funeral sermons were preached in his honor in Medford, Boston, Cambridge and Charlestown.
W. L. B.
A Genealog. Diet, of First Settlers of N. E.,
James Savage, 1860.
Early Physicians of Medford, C. M. Green,
1898.
Amer. Med. Biog. James Thacher, M. D.,
1828.
