George Williamson, a physician residing at 61 Pratt Street, Baltimore, began his professional studies in Richmond under James Currie and completed them in Philadelphia, where he met TJ in 1792 (PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 31 vols. description ends , 24:582; William Fry, The Baltimore Directory for 1810 [Baltimore, 1810], 190).

The enclosed prospectus, not found, may have been an early promotion for Williamson’s translation of the second edition of Étienne Tourtelle’s Élémens d’hygiène (Paris, 1802), which Williamson eventually published as The Principles of Health [Elements of Hygiene;] or, A Treatise on the influence of physical and moral causes on Man, and on the means of preserving health, 2 vols. (Baltimore, 1819; Poor, Jefferson’s Library description begins Nathaniel P. Poor, Catalogue. President Jefferson’s Library [1829] description ends , 5 [no. 185]). See also Williamson to TJ, 5 July 1819, and TJ to Williamson, 11 July 1819. TJ knew Samuel Latham mitchill, a prominent New York City physician and scientist then touring Canada, from his service in Congress during TJ’s presidency and their shared intellectual interests (Some of the Memorable Events and Occurrences in the Life of Samuel L. Mitchill of New-York from the year 1786–1828 [ca. 1828], 3).