A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 
JOSHUA FISHER, M. D. 
Uatr uf tije Massachusetts Mc^ual <Sotfet£- 
FROM THE ANNUAL DISCOURSE DELIVERED BEFORE THE SOCIETY, 
JUNE 6th, 1833. 
BY WALTER CHANNING, M.D. M.M.S. A BRIEF MEMOIR 
JOSHUA FISHER, M. D. 
BY WALTER CHANNING, M. D. M 
Dr. Joshua Fisher died in Beverly on the 26th 
of March last, at the advanced age of 84. He was 
born in Dedham in May 1749. His ancestors were 
respected and wealthy farmers. He was second 
cousin to Fisher Ames. He began the preparatory 
studies for the University at six years of age, and was 
graduated at Harvard in 1766. His parents designed 
him for the ministry, but after teaching a school in 
Beverly for two years, he was seized with disease of 
the lungs, which, being followed by cough, this pur- 
pose was abandoned, and in 1770 he began the study 
of medicine under the direction of Dr. Lincoln of 
Hingham, brother of General Lincoln. He always 
spoke of his preceptor as a man of rare talent, and 
much in advance of his profession. He began 
practice in Ipswich,-practised also for a time in 
Salem, and finally removed to Beverly, where he 
passed the remainder of his life. 2 
The times in which Dr. Fisher entered on his pro- 
fessional career, possessed extraordinary interest. 
The great question of the future government of the 
country had begun deeply to agitate the whole land. 
It addressed itself to every individual, and the deep- 
est interest was felt by each and by all in the decision. 
It was this fact in the history of the revolution, which 
gave to it character, and ultimate success. Dr. 
Fisher, either under the direct influence of the times, 
considerations of health, or from a view to profit, 
probably from all these motives, took an active part 
in the scene before him, and we find him leaving the 
quiet of village practice, and entering a private-armed 
vessel as surgeon. He sailed from Marblehead ; a 
valuable prize was captured and sent into Salem. 
We next find him in the British Channel, where, 
after cruising some time, the vessel was surrounded 
by English vessels of war. Escape being impossible, 
the privateer was run ashore, the crew hoping to 
secrete themselves on the land. It seems their pur- 
pose was anticipated, and they were soon discovered. 
Two men pursued Dr. Fisher, and at length seized 
him. He suddenly availed himself of an opportunity 
to free himself from them, threw them to the ground, 
and escaped. He had prepared for the emergencies 
of his future situation by filling his pockets with all 
the treasure within his reach before leaving the 
captured vessel. This he entrusted to some one 
who had obtained his confidence; he turned out 
however, to be a false friend, for he never returned him 
a farthing. He succeeded through the assistance 3 
of others whom he made friends, in escaping to 
France where he entered another privateer; being 
successful in this cruise, he next took passage in a 
letter of marque bound to Boston, where he arrived 
after a most perilous voyage. His public and enter- 
prising spirit next led him to take an active part in 
establishing a cotton factory. This project was un- 
successful ; and after much loss, this, one of the first 
attempts at domestic manufacture of cotton, was 
abandoned. 
We are now to consider the character of the de- 
ceased in those relations which are always the most 
important, and which in the case of Dr. Fisher, present 
points of great interest. He was a physician, and he 
was largely gifted with those moral and intellectual 
qualities which give honor and usefulness to this pro- 
fession. He does not seem to have looked for or de- 
sired a very extensive practice, nor does it appear 
that he had such. He was early taught by serious 
illness that his constitution was a feeble one, and 
that he was to be cautious as to the demands he made 
upon it. A portion of this conviction was possibly 
imaginary, or at least less well-founded than he be- 
lieved. But it doubtless produced some effect, in 
diminishing his zeal in a direction in which it is 
not generally wanting, namely, in gathering around 
him a large circle of patients. What he did see how- 
ever was thoroughly investigated. He brought to 
every case his whole mind. He was possessed of 
extraordinary powers of observation and reflection, 
and he understood with wonderful tact just what was 4 
most worthy consideration. All this gave to single, 
I may say, independent facts, a value, which the ob- 
server of a multitude of the similar, or the same, might 
have regarded with less interest. But by Dr. Fish- 
er they were looked to as the sure basis of his theo- 
ries. He knew what he sawr, for he studied it all 
deeply, and his generalizations only wanted to others 
the authority of a more varied and wider observation. 
For himself, they were all sufficient, and his prac- 
tice rested upon them. He employed but few 
remedies, but these were selected from amongst the 
most powerful. His treatment of inflammation, whe- 
ther of the serous, mucous, or other tissues, difler- 
red from that of his brethren. He rarely or never 
bled, but attempted at once to relieve pain by opium; 
and then, by large doses of calomel, to subdue the 
morbid processes on wzhich the existence of the dis- 
ease depended. " When driving a nail," he would 
ask, " why strike it with a timid and useless blow ? 
Nothing is to be gained by that; use at once the force 
required, and the object is accomplished." Such 
was the kind, and the illustration of his practice. 
One can hardly fail to trace a striking resemblance 
between it, and the practice of some late foreign 
physicians, who advise a much earlier and freer use 
of opium in inflammatory and febrile diseases than 
was formerly thought safe. The independence as 
well as originality discovered in all this, belonged to 
Dr. Fisher's mind after a manner which distinguished 
all he did. He could not be seduced by the mere 
pretensions of novelty from what he had ascertained 5 
to be true in principle and correct in practice, and 
his respect for authority never so far blinded him as 
to disturb his confidence in what, as he believed, his 
own sound and accurate observation had established. 
How far the experience of others has justified his par- 
ticular practice in inflammatory disease, I am not 
fully apprised. 
Dr. Fisher was from disposition, and the consti- 
tution of his mind, a retiring, I may add, diffident 
man. This however was true only of his intercourse 
with the mass, the multitude,-with the few he was 
wholly unreserved. He was singularly acute in dis- 
covering character, and he loved to study the indi- 
vidual. This was in perfect harmony with what was 
so peculiar to him in the study of disease. It was, 
as it has been observed, the individual case, which 
had to him the greatest interest in his study of dis- 
ease, and the same was true of his intercourse with 
men. He took great pleasure in hearing from 
those with whom he thus familiarly associated all 
they could impart, and he communicated in turn 
what the occasion most required. If he was retiring 
then in public, it was because there was confusion 
in the elements that compose the multitude; and he 
took no interest in arranging them, because the re- 
ward might be far less than the trouble ; and again, 
he was always anxious to be useful, and this he felt 
he could best be with a few. He loved knowledge 
from his earliest years, and he loved it to the last. 
His interest continued unabated in all the true sources 
of information, and of intellectual and moral gratifi- 6 
cation. This was discovered remarkably in the 
pleasure he derived from the current literature to the 
latest period of his long life. He was truly hon- 
oured and beloved' by his patients. His reputation 
was great, and this brought him forward as a con- 
sulting physician over a very wide circuit. 
Dr. Fisher possessed one moral and intellectual 
quality, which is especially remembered by those 
who best knew him. This was purity, purity of 
mind and of heart. This it was which gave to his 
intellectual nature its great beauty, its power, and its 
attractiveness. It constituted the tone of his mind, 
-it was the atmosphere in which it expanded, and 
by which it was invigorated. It was this which 
gave their character to his thinking powers, and 
made him so perceptive of the truth wherever it lay 
before him. It caused him to shrink from moral 
taint as from something abhorrent to his whole na- 
ture, and to love the good in every thing in which it 
existed. It made him most sensible of its opposite, 
of vice, as that might be presented in others ; but 
his native kindliness made him pity w7hat he was 
called upon to condemn. The moral dignity of such 
a character, if we may not attain to, we may love ; 
and so diffusive is it in its very nature that the con- 
templation of it cannot but make its observer better. 
Such a mind was admirably fitted for the study of 
nature, and few amongst us have felt and acknow- 
ledged a deeper interest in natural history than Dr. 
Fisher. His strong powers of observing, comparing, 
and remembering, singularly fitted him for this branch 7 
of science, and he devoted himself to it whenever 
and wherever opportunity served. He had a genuine 
love of nature. He felt its beauty in its truth and 
whole amount, and derived perpetual pleasure from 
the perception of it. It has been said, that if his 
means had originally allowed it, he would have de- 
voted himself to natural science as a profession ; and 
his success would have been great. The only time 
I had the pleasure to pass a few hours in his compa- 
ny with two or three friends, wTas almost wholly 
filled with conversation on natural history, and I shall 
not forget how great was his interest in the subject. 
There is a witness however to his zeal in this cause 
which cannot be lost. I allude to his munificent 
endowment of the Professorship of Natural History in 
our University. He has in a sense in this way per- 
petuated his own mind amongst us. He has at least 
provided the means by which one of his most cher- 
ished objects shall be perpetually promoted. The 
munificence of our brethren we may well record, 
and cannot too much honour. It is an example, and 
one which may safely be followed. Its direction in 
this particular instance is just what it should have 
been. 
It may not be out of place to urge here the claims 
of our Society on its members for a similar patronage. 
Though so extensive in its numbers, so large in its 
wealth, and designed to exert so important an in- 
fluence on the community, it asks, for its surer and 
more rapid progress, an accommodation which it has 
never obtained. We want a " local habitation " as 8 
well as a name, where we may resort as to our own 
dwelling place, and there collect the means of im- 
provement and gratification, and feel that they are 
safe. We would lay now to-day, were it possible, 
and is it not so ?-the foundation of a magnificent 
and most valuable museum ; collect together a libra- 
ry, and in this our common property find an equal 
interest, and a common end. We should in this way 
feel too closely united to think of division, and the 
power of union would be felt and acknowledged by 
all. Few anniversaries have found this Society so 
large, so united, so efficient, as the present. May it 
not be its still greater, and let me add, illustrious dis- 
tinction, to begin that work, which if begun will be 
more than half finished ? 
In speaking of Dr. Fisher, I have confined myself 
to a brief sketch of his professional character, and to 
his intellectual habits and powers. I have spoken 
of the high estimation in which he was held by his 
profession, his patients, and his friends. He was 
also in an important sense a public man. Though he 
shrunk from general society, he never did from pub- 
lic duty. He took an active part in politics, and was 
the intimate associate and friend of the late Hon. 
George Cabot. His connexion with Fisher Ames, 
and the harmony of their political views established 
similar relations between them. I have named two 
of the most honored men of our State. It were suffi- 
cient praise to have been their associate and their 
friend. Dr. Fisher sustained important public offices. 
He was a Senator of Massachusetts,-President of 9 
this Society ; President of the Beverly Bank ; and 
President of the Beverly Charitable Society. He was 
the projector of the latter, and having largely added 
to its funds during his life, left it a munificent bequest 
in his will. 
He retained his intellectual energy after a remark- 
able manner to the close of life. But he was not 
unobservant of the effect of time upon some of his 
faculties. He noticed especially the decay of mem- 
ory. How strange is this power of the human intel- 
lect, looking upon its own faculties as on its instru- 
ments, and discovering at once with a distinctness no 
one else can, where the machinery is wearing away, 
while it feels how powerless it is to repair it. Does 
not this teach that the mind is something else, and 
distinct from its faculties,-that these last are merely 
necessary to its present mode of being, and that in 
another state, it will lay these aside, and in itself, its 
own proper nature, possess the means of intercourse 
with the Supreme mind and with the inferior intelli- 
gences with which it will then be brought into direct 
communion ? In Dr. Fisher, the power above refer- 
red to was very striking. I know of few things more 
interesting in the contemplation of a really vigorous 
mind, than this single fact. Such a mind was his. 
This was acknowledged by all who came within its 
reach, and could apprehend its power. His affections 
were strong, for his moral faculties were vigorous, 
and in constant exercise. His religious sentiment 
was pure and elevated, and he looked upon death as 
an event in life, the appointment of God, as were all 
other events, and he submitted to it humbly, but with 
a bright hope, and the fullest trust.