COATES 231 COATES ing in the spring of 1818, with a thesis on "Blisters." Before his graduation he was for several years a "medical apprentice" at the Pennsylvania Hospital. Such apprentices were indentured to Hospitals for five years to learn "the art and mystery of medicine," ■often graduating before their term expired. They were the pupils of all the attending physicians. Coates was thus indentured to George Fisher, Z. Collins, and Thomas P. Cope for five years to serve and obey them. He was bound not to commit fornication, nor to marry, nor to play at cards, dice or any other unlawful game; nor to haunt ale houses, taverns or playhouses. If he absented him- self, he was to pay one hundred pounds a year for every year absent. He was further to provide himself with a feather bed, which he was to leave in the hospital when he quit it. He was also to care for the books in the Library and the Museum. He was to be instructed in the trade or mystery of an apothecary and physician. Coates began practice at Front and Walnut Streets and met with much success. He was elected attendant physician of the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1828, and continued there as physician and clinical lecturer until 1841. Dr. Thomas S. Kirkbride (q. v.) was an interne under him, and says that he delivered the address at the laying of the cornerstone of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, June 22, 1836. Coates became Fellow of the Philadelphia College of Physicians in 1827, and was presi- dent of the Philadelphia County Medical Society; he was, also, a member of the Academy of Natural Science, and was one •of the "Tea and Toast Club" with Bache, Bond, Hodge, Wood, and Meigs. He was active in the American Philosophical Society and long its senior vice-president; vice-presi- dent of the Historical Society of Pennsyl- vania, as well as, conjointly with Dr. Caspar Wistar (q. v.) and five others, its founder. Altogether he held his membership for 57 years. He belonged to the Society of Friends. He was a ready and prolific writer, and his knowledge seemed to his friends encyclo- pedic. He was a contributor to Chapman's Medical Journal, 1819-26, and co-editor of the North American Medical and Surgical Jour- nal, 1826-31, of which he was a founder. Courses of lectures on physiology, the prac- tice of medicine and clinical courses in medi- cine were given by him in the Pennsylvania Hospital (1828-1841) ; physiological experi- ments on the absorbing power of the veins and lymphatics were made with Doctors Lawrence and Harlan. He devised a mechan- ical bed for fractures, wrote on gangrene of the mouth of children, also a "Biographical sketch of the late Thomas Say," the naturalist, and a description of a hydrostatic balance. He issued a report of Committee on the epidemic of cholera in 1832. He wrote also on the larva of the Hessian fly, and on effects of secluded and gloomy imprisonment on individuals of the African variety of man- kind in the production of disease. Dr. Coates never married. He died October 16, 1881. Howard A. Kelly. Benjamin Hornor Coates, one of the Founders of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, by James J. Levick, M.D. Coates, Reynell (1802-1886) Reynell Coates, physician, writer, son of Samuel Henry Coates, was born in Philadel- phia, December 10, 1802. His grandfather, Samuel Coates, was a Friend, and a philan- thropist of social position and of fortune. Reynell's brother was Benjamin Hornor Coates (q. v.). Young Coates's early education was had in Philadelphia and at West Town near Phila- delphia. He graduated in Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1823 with a thesis on "Fractures of Inferior Extremities." A few months later he was appointed sur- geon to an East Indiaman and made a voy- age to India, being in Calcutta when the Burmese war broke out ; he returned in 1824 and began practice in Philadelphia. In 1828 Coates married Margaretta, daugh- ter of William Abbott; there were two chil- dren, who died early, and he lost his wife in 1835. In 1829 he was made professor of natural science at Alleghany College at Meadville, Pennsylvania, but a year later went to Bristol in the same state, practising for two years, then returning to Philadelphia, to give up general practice and take to writing. He was connected with the publication of- Hays's "American Encyclopedia of Practical Medi- cine and Surgery," 2 vols., 1834-36, contributing several articles ; he wrote "Popular Medicine or Family Adviser" . . . 614 pp., Phila., 1838 ; his "First Lines of Physiology" . . . (6th edition, 340 pp., 1847), was used in public and private schools. His writings were not confined to medical subjects, his poem, "The Gambler's Wife" was widely known; he con- tributed largely to the Philadelphia Medical Journal, formerly Chapman's Journal, and to
