The Biographical Dictionary of America/Bard, Samuel

BARD, Samuel, physician, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., April 1, 1742; son of John Bard. His paternal grandfather was driven to America by the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and settling at Burlington, N. J., became one of the judges of the supreme court. Samuel Bard entered King's college at the age of fourteen. In 1861 he went to Europe to complete his education, and was graduated at Edinburgh in 1865 with high honors. He then practised medicine in New York city, and within a year established a medical school in connection with King's college, in which he held the chair of the theory and practice of physics. At the first commencement of Columbia college (formerly King's) in 1769, Dr. Bard delivered an address to the graduates which moved influential men to establish the New York hospital. His work was somewhat interrupted by the revolutionary war, but he soon regained his large practice, and was the family physician of General Washington during his stay in New York. In 1792 he became professor of natural philosophy in Columbia college, and in 1798 retired from active professional life, residing at Hyde Park on the Hudson, where he built an Episcopal church and contributed largely to its support. He was much interested in agriculture, being instrumental in forming the agricultural society of Dutchess county, of which he was elected president in 1806. In 1811 he was elected an honorary member of the college of physicians and surgeons in Philadelphia, and in the same year was made president of the New York college of physicians and surgeons. In 1816 Princeton college conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. The titles of his books include: "De Viribus Opii (1765); "A Compendium of the Theory and Practice of Midwifery" (1807, 5th ed., 1819),and "The Shepherd's Guide." He died in Hyde Park, N. Y., May 24, 1821.