A
SHORT  BIOGRAPHY
ROBERT  M.  PATTERSON, M.D.
                    BY        ^
          SAMUEL  BRECK,
              PRESIDENT OF THE
Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind,
PEEPAEED FOE
THE MANAGERS OE THAT INSTITUTION,
ACCOEDING TO THEIE EEQTJEST.
Printed by order of the Board of Managers.
       PHILADELPHIA:
JOHN C. CLARK & SON, PRINTERS, 68 DOCK STREET.
           1854. 
^v
 
   At a Meeting of the Board of Managers of the Pennsylvania Institution
for the Instruction of the Blind, held on the 7th of September, it was—
   "Resolved, out of respect to the memory of Dr.  Patterson, to adjourn,
without transaction of business, until Monday next, 11th inst., at 4, P. M."
   On motion, it was further unanimously—
   "Resolved, That the President be requested to prepare for the Board an
appropriate minute, expressive^pf the feelings of this Board, in view of the
loss which this Institution and this  community have sustained in the decease
of Dr. Patterson."
   And at a Meeting of the Board, held on the 5th of October, the following
resolution was adopted:
   "Resolved, That the thanks of the Board be presented to the President,
for his  truthful and  eloquent  tribute to the memory of our 'late associate,
Dr. It. M. Patterson,  and that it be printed under the direction of the Chair-
man of the Committee on Instruction." 
 
                   OF

DR.  ROBERT M.  PATTERSON.
  The President of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction
of the Blind, submits to the Board of Managers the following brief
Memoir  of the late Dr. Robert M. Patterson, prepared at their re-
quest:—

  Death  has taken from us an esteemed colleague and
beloved companion; one who, for sixteen years, gave to
this Institution a generous portion of his time and ta-
lents;  who was endeared to us, by his kind and cour-
teous deportment; his mild and unobtrusive manners;
whose  reputation, in every vocation of life,  was unim-
peached, and, who, when in charge of public business
of the highest trust, fulfilled its duties  for many years
without reproach.
  It is my purpose to take a concise view of the well-
spent life  of this good man; to endeavour to make that
retrospection a source of consolation for his  loss; to
make it even a pleasing occupation to recall,  in affec-
tionate remembrance, the friendly converse  of  our past
intercourse;  to acknowledge,  with a sense  of justice,
the useful and abiding influence of his counsel; to ex-
tol, in  terms of suitable praise, his  assistance in the
management of this Institution; his ready co-operation
in dispensing comfort and relief to its afflicted  inmates;
his pre-eminent agency in procuring  them instruction; 
G
and, as a consequence, in giving them contentment and
happiness.
  This is the feeling with which I shall  speak of the
man, who, in Christian charity, moved  along with this
school, step by step,  from its feeble  beginning, as it
were, up to  the  period of its present solid  and pros-
perous condition.
  Dr. Patterson was elected  a Manager, March 5th,
1838, and became immediately a constant and zealous
participant in the business of the Board  and its Com-
mittees.
  The standing Committees at that time were Finance,
Admission and Discharge, and Executive.  The Com-
mittee on Instruction  had been discontinued after the
first year, at  the request of Mr. Friedlander.   It was
again reorganized  temporarily  in  July, 1837;  but  in
the  revision of the by-laws in March, 1838, a  short
time after Dr. Patterson's election, it was again dis-
continued.
  For the first year, being a new member, he was not
put upon any Committee; but on March 30th,  1839,
after  the death  of  Mr. Friedlander, he  brought for-
ward a resolution in  these words,  which was  unani-
mously adopted:—"That a Committee of Instruction
be appointed to supervise that department, and  to as-
certain what  measures are rendered necessary  by the
death of the Principal."
  In  August following, this  Committee  was made a
regular standing Committee, and has so continued ever
since.  To Dr.  Patterson, therefore, must be awarded
the  merit of originating  that highly important  Com-
mittee.  He  was a member of it, from its  organization,
until his recent resignation as a manager.   But he was
not always  its  chairman: for in March, 1841, after
having served as such  during two years, he voluntarily 
7
and courteously relinquished  the  post,  for the  pur-
pose of putting his friend Alexander D. Bache in it:
that worthy and distinguished gentleman, having been
then re-elected to the Board.
  In March, 1844, on Professor Bache's retiring from
the Board, Dr. Patterson was again made chairman of
the Committee of Instruction;  and so continued until
March, 1853, when, in consequence of declining health,
he resigned his membership altogether;  but the Board
could not consent to part with him.   He was solicited
to remain with us and continue a member of the Com-
mittee, over which  he had so  faithfully presided for
nearly ten years.  The labour,  however, of chairman
was transferred to Dr. Dunglison.
  Dr. Patterson was elected Vice  President of the In-
stitution  in March, 1842, and  continued  by  annual
election, to  occupy that place, until  his  final resigna-
tion in March, 1854.  He was senior Vice President
from March, 1843;  and presided at the Board  during
the absence of President Richards in Europe.
  Dr. Patterson was a member of the  Committee of
Organization, which, in 1842-3, remodelled the Insti-
tution in all its departments, and suggested  the system
of classification and division of labour in the govern-
ment  thereof, which still forms the mode of adminis-
tering all our affairs.
  Dr.  Patterson,  when complaint  was occasionally
made  of  the  inconvenience  of attending  the stated
meetings at the  Institution, then so remote from  the
centre of the City, requested the members to assemble
at the Philosophical Hall or at the  Mint.  I  myself
have sat with  the Board at both those  places; and it
was in his office at  the latter place, that the  new sys-
tem was finally discussed and agreed upon.
  In his attendance at the meetings of the Board and 
8
of his Committee, he  was among the most  punctual;
and in  each was prominent in zeal, intelligence and
industry.   His eminent  services deserve  our applause
and thanks; and merit a higher testimonial of gratitude
than my feeble pen can inscribe.  I shall, nevertheless,
proceed to speak of him, in the few following pages,
devoted to the principal passages of his life, in the
language of friendship and truth; trusting that another
biographer,  more intimately connected with him, will
supply my deficiency, and pourtray in  more polished
phrase,  the virtues that adorned the subject of this
memoir.
  The life of Dr. Patterson, was not exposed to many
vicissitudes ; and yet it had its lights and shades ; not,
however, in very  strong contrast.  On  the contrary,
they were  so pleasantly blended, that the bright far out-
shone the  sombre,  and produced, humanly speaking, a
reasonable measure of happiness, in nearly every stage
of his. earthly journey.
  Robert  Maskell  Patterson was born in Philadelphia,
March 23, 1787.   He was  the  son of Professor Rob-
ert Patterson,  who  belonged for  many years to the
faculty of Arts in the  University of Pennsylvania; and
who filled the office of Director of the Mint  for nearly
twenty years.
  Young  Robert's disposition  for study was  first de-
veloped at the preparatory school of the University,
which received him as a  favour,  when quite a child, and
gave him  his English education, even  from  the  very-
alphabet.   Latin  and Greek  followed with  good pro-
gress.   He gave, however, a decided preference to the
study of mathematics.
  His father, who  was  rather  reserved in  his family,
perceiving in him, an absence of boyish mischief, and
the development of a temper, mild, amiable and affec- 
9
tionate, bestowed upon him his favour, and, indeed, his
companionship, even at this early period.
   At the age of seventeen (1804), Robert took his first
degree in the Arts, at the University of Pennsylvania.
A school-fellow and class-mate (Dr. S. Jackson) says he
witnessed the commencement of his career in life, and
testifies to his quiet disposition, by informing us that
he was never known as the leader of tumultuous frolic
or athletic game; but was rather the leader of classical
exercises in school, where he  bore away the palm in
the themes of his class.   Yet his  success inspired no
envy, for it was always borne without conceit or pre-
sumption.  His first occupation, when  freed from his
collegiate studies, was one of filial duty and love.  He
took his father's  place as instructer, in order to give
him an opportunity to  attend to other business tempo-
rarily, and to  relieve him  from the irksome toil of
teaching.
   He chose medicine as a profession, and pursued his
studies  under Dr. Benjamin  S. Barton  (an eminent
physician in the early part of  this century); and took
his degree of M.D. in April, 1808.
   Anxious to perfect his medical education,  he sought
for further instruction in the  schools of Paris, where
he spent  two years.   This was during the  height of
Napoleon's power and grandeur.   The great events,
then of daily  occurrence, furnished  constant topics for
his observant mind, and were well  suited to  store his
memory with a pleasing and useful fund of thought and
reflection  in after-life.   His letters  of that  wonderful
period have been preserved, and may, on some future
occasion, be made public.
   While at Paris at this period, an  incident, arising
from the name of Patterson, being the same as that of
the lady of Baltimore, whom  Jerome,  the brother of
      B 
10
the Emperor, had married, came near to cause some
inconvenience to our young doctor; and  affords an in-
stance of the bluntness and  inconsistency of the Em-
peror Napoleon.
   General  Armstrong,  the  American  Envoy,  was
about to  leave Paris; and as there  was no  Consul-
General in that City, he requested Mr.  Patterson to
take that office temporarily.  The Emperor's consent
was necessary.  When  the  name  was  presented  to
him, he thought of his brother's American  wife; and
in a spirit of self-contradiction and  haughty irony, re-
fused the exequatur, because  he  would not consent to
have a Patterson condescend to hold the office of Con-
sul-General!  It  was strange, indeed, to  see the man
who had arbitrarily  annulled the  marriage of Miss
Patterson, because of her plebeian birth;  who forbade
her  to  enter France, and who  drove her to  seek an
asylum  in England, for  the purpose of giving birth to
his brother's legitimate  child, refuse  to  allow the  ex-
ercise  of an honourable office,  created  by  a foreign
power, because it was not of a grade sufficiently eleva-
ted for one bearing her name!   The pretence was false,
and  the denial capricious.   But to show,  moreover,
that the refusal of the exequatur was the mere whim
of transient recollection; that it was  a  decision that
could not be  insisted  on, even  by his stern  temper,
Mr.  Patterson  was silently permitted  to exercise  the
functions of the  office, and  receive  the  emoluments
thereof,  without  troubling his  imperial  majesty any
further.   Had Napoleon been in  earnest, this never
could have happened.
  The period of our young friend's residence at Paris
was  one of lively action—of extraordinary excitement.
  In a letter to his brother, he writes:—"Napoleon is
now in Paris with five kings;  some others are coming. 
11
Every thing is to  be  magnificent  this winter.   I  in-
tend, from  curiosity, to see their  several  majesties;
but I do not think they will excite in me more interest
than Hai'iy, the first instructer of .the blind.   They are
not, Napoleon himself excepted, greater men."
   A.merica  was  the dear country of his  heart.   Nor
did  he  cease to  represent, amid the great events that
surrounded him, the happy condition of his  own coun-
trymen; and strive to  show to the  people of both
England and France, their  superior comforts as hus-
bandmen and mechanics.  He writes to his brother on
this subject:—"I have frequently described, in England
particularly, the character of an American  farmer.  I
did not exaggerate, but I was not believed."  "Why,
sir,  you would  persuade us that  they  are lords!"
"Pardon  me, sir,  they  are  kings."  His letter con-
cludes in these words :  "Farewell!  It makes the warm
blood hasten through my veins with redoubled ardour,
to write to my friends, and about my country."
   Dr. Patterson left Paris in 1811  for London,  where
he spent a year, and heard the last  course of lectures
delivered  by the distinguished  Sir Humphry Davy;
and  in 1812 he  returned home.  His  wishes, his stu-
dies, his view of  permanent settlement in life, all pre-
pared him to adopt the medical profession, and he now
expressed his intention to engage in its practice.  But
an unexpected  event changed his  plan, and gave an
entirely different direction to his  subsequent occupa-
tion.   In  1813 he was appointed professor  of natural
philosophy  in the  medical department of the Univer-
sity  of Pennsylvania, and a year after  (March, 1814,)
was  elected to  the chair of mathematics,  chemistry,
and natural philosophy, in the faculty of arts. In this
last he was  successor to  his father.   A month later he
was made vice-provost.
  In 1813,  during  the short war with England, that 
12
  country sent a marauding army along our coast, which
  gave occasion to erect temporary fortifications  around
  our city.  Dr. Patterson volunteered his aid, and  re-
  ceived the appointment of chief superintendent of the
  several works in  hand.  For this service he received,
  also, from the Committee of Safety a vote of thanks.
    On the 20th of April, 1814, he was married to Miss
  Helen  Hamilton  Leiper; a lady remarkable for per-
  sonal attractions in that day of her youth; and,  during
  her wedded  life  of nearly forty years, equally distin-
  guished for kindness, hospitality and benevolence.   In
 the exercise of these,  she performed for many years
 the duty of visiting member of the  lady's Committee
 of this  Institution.
   During  fourteen years, Dr. Patterson continued an
 uninterrupted  course of college instruction in natural
 philosophy;  while, without lessening  his diligence  in
 this his paramount duty, he became  an active and use-
 ful adjunct to various other institutions of science and
 mechanic  arts.  Among them  may be mentioned the
 Franklin Institute.   These again were diversified  by
 the presidency of a Life Insurance Company, and of the
 Musical Fund establishment.  Of this  latter,  in the
 organization of which he  was among the  chief agents,
 we, as Philadelphians, may be proud of having origi-
 nated a society for the double  purpose of amusement
 and charity, which  has been  extensively copied  in
 other cities.
   But with no  institution  was he  so fully identified, to
 none so warmly devoted, as to  the American Philoso-
 phical Society.  His membership began in 1809, when
 he was  only twenty-two years of age, and continued
 to the day  of his death: during which period,  he held
there the  very laborious  office  of  Secretary,  then
 Vice President, and finally President. 
13
  In 1826, Governor  Schultz appointed him upon a
Commission to  select  a route for the State canal; an
honour that I introduce here, for the purpose of show-
ing the high esteem in which he was held by the rulers
of his native  State.
  That State, however, he was called upon  to  leave
two years after; the University of Virginia having, in
1828, elected  him  Professor of Natural Philosophy.
  His  numerous  friends were determined to honour
his departure by  a public testimony of respect and
affection; for this purpose a farewell dinner was  given
to him at Head's  hotel, at which the celebrated  Du
Ponceau presided.  On this occasion, the overflowing
of  friendship, however mingled with the conviviality
of a joyous festival, was acknowledged by him in lan-
guage of sadness and regret at the separation  from his
cherished associates.
  Dr.  Patterson  removed  with  his family  to Char-
lottesville, where  he  continued  to reside  for  seven
years,  fulfilling  faithfully and satisfactorily the profes-
sorial  duties  of his station;  and  receiving  from  the
Board of Visiters  of the University, when, at the end
of that period his  connexion with it was dissolved, the
following expression of the sentiment of its members:
" Dr. R. M. Patterson having resigned the professor-
ship of Natural  Philosophy, which for the  last seven
years he has  filled with such distinguished ability and
success, the Board of  Visiters cannot permit his con-
nexion with  the  Institution  of which they are  the
guardians to close, without expressing the high  sense
they entertain of the valuable services  he  has render-
ed it, tendering him  the cordial sentiments  of esteem
and  respect,  with which  his character and conduct
have inspired them—and assuring him of the lively in-
terest they will  continue to take in his prosperity and 
14
 happiness, wheresoever his  duties and  the  course of
 events may call him."
   The cause of his  resignation  was an invitation by
 President Jackson, to accept the office of Director of
 the Mint.  An affirmative answer was  given, and he
 returned to his native city in July, 1835.
   At this period he  had been giving, for twenty-two
 years, his services as a teacher.   His new station, in
 a great national trust, was in some measure a reward
 for those services.   His father had received from Mr.
 Jefferson, a  similar relief.   The  post which Dr. Pat-
 terson was now called upon to occupy, required an in-
 cumbent from the ranks of  science;  one conversant
 with the standards  and relative  values  of metallic
 money;  the  legitimate  metal of  circulating  mediums,
 and laws of coinage.   These  he  may  be supposed to
 have acquired during the  Directorship of his father,
 which lasted nineteen years.
   The  business of the Mint had no doubt grown in
 the  thirty years,  since  the senior  Patterson  took
 charge of it, in the same proportion as the  commerce
 of the country;  and indeed there was room for growth,
 if we  may judge of its insignificance  in 1805, when
 President Jefferson announced to  the appointee of that
 date in a postscript to his letter, "  that the duties of the
 Mint will easily admit your devoting the ordinary col-
 lege hours to  the  University of Pennsylvania," (of
 which the elder Doctor was  then a professor).   "In-
 deed," continues Mr.  Jefferson, "it is so  possible that
 the Mint may some time or other be discontinued, that I
 eould not advise a permanent living to be given up for
 it."
   Short-sighted mortals may be found among the most
sagacious!  Even the discernment of the astute Jeffer-
son, could not penetrate to the future wants  of a vast 
15
home currency; and  much  less did he, or  any other
statesman of his day, think of the  subsequent period,
when the son of the then director should succeed to his
office, and  send forth from the Institution  under his
care a coinage in gold alone, and in a single year, of
more than  fifty millions of dollars!!
   The second I^atterson administered these momentous
concerns, with universal  applause.  He digested  and
consolidated a code cff Mint laws, which was approved
by Congress; superintended  with  suitable  efficiency,
the three southern branches; and retired, after sixteen
years' faithful service, in July, 1851, on account of his
declining health.
   Although he  held to the Jeffersonian or democratic
school, he  was always moderate; and too unambitious
to accept a  nomination to  Congress, even  before his
removal to Virginia;  and thus the bitterness  of political
conflict never disturbed him : hence  his long continu-
ance in  office,  notwithstanding  the  accession to the
Presidency, during that period, of several individuals of
the Whig  party;  none of whom ever  sought to  dis-
place him.
   Doctor  Patterson  never  published much; and yet
he held  an able pen, as may  be  seen in  some of his
writings that have occasionally been  printed; particu-
larly in his history of the Philosophical Society, which
he embodied in a discourse  delivered at  the Musical
Fund Hall in May, 1843, when the 100th Anniversary
of that Society was publicly celebrated.
  Dr. Patterson  enjoyed, for the greater part of his
life, a vigorous constitution; sustained in  strength and
health by temperate  living; by  active  habits in busi-
ness; by a  calm, contented mind;  "calm and  rich
content,  that  sums up in that  alone every bliss  that
man, in any station, may wish to share." 
16
  In concluding this very imperfect sketch of our de-
parted colleague and friend, I may be permitted, per-
haps,  to associate myself with  him personally  in one
passage of his life, which was to me as honourable  as
it was afflictive to himself.   On the retirement of Mr.
Richards from the  Presidency of  this Institution, we
all looked to Dr. Patterson  as his  successor; particu-
larly as he was the senior Vice President;  but  he de-
clined.  Soon after, in the adjdlning parlour, where
several  members of the  Board were assembled, he
asked their permission, as  I am told, to nominate a
candidate for the vacant post; and on his uttering my
name therefor, he gave, for the first time, unmistakeable
manifestations of the disease which lingered about him
for two years, and finally caused  his  death.  I have
been often painfully affected, when reflecting upon this
sad coincidence; and  found my heart warmed with  a
sentiment of affection arising therefrom, which has
given  to the feeling of high regard and esteem I always
entertained  for him before,  a sensation of  augmented
fervour, amounting to the liveliest love and respect for
his memory.
  Unite then with  me, gentlemen, in the prayer, that
his pure and christian spirit  may be blessed  at the
great  Fountain  of Mercy!  and "be  wafted  thence,
through ways of light, to the bright Source of all."