To Thomas Jefferson from William S. Jacobs, 18 November 1802
From William S. Jacobs
Philadelphia Novr. 18th 1802.
Sir
I take the liberty of sending you my Inaugural Dissertation, With a Copy of “the Students Chemical Pocket Companion.” In doing this, I am directed More by a desire of evincing to you, the grateful sensations created by a recollection of the politeness you shew me, When I had the honor of living With Doctor Wistar, than a desire of praise, if there should be any real merit in the performance—
I am With Much esteem
W. S. Jacobs
RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 24 Nov. and so recorded in SJL with notation “with 2. books.” Enclosures: (1) Jacobs, Experiments and Observations on Urinary and Intestinal Calculi with dedication to Caspar Wistar, adjunct professor of anatomy, surgery, and midwifery at the University of Pennsylvania, “as a mark of respect and gratitude, for numerous favours conferred upon his obliged friend” (Philadelphia, 1801; No. 850). (2) Jacobs, The Student’s Chemical Pocket Companion (Philadelphia, 1802; No. 849).
William Stephen Jacobs (1772–1843), a native of Brabant, Belgium, studied medicine in Austria, was drafted into the French army, and served in European military hospitals before sailing to America in 1794. He became a dissector at the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, where he took his degree in 1801. His chalk drawings of the claws of the megalonyx became engravings for TJ’s paper on the subject published by the American Philosophical Society. In addition to election to the in 1802, Jacobs was a member and librarian of the Chemical Society of Philadelphia and an honorary member of the Philadelphia Medical Society. In 1803, he moved to St. Croix where he remained until his death (Wyndham Miles, “William Stephen Jacobs,” Journal of Chemical Education, 24 [1947], 249–50; Vol. 29:xxxix, 300n).