About Dr. Edward Miller and His Patient Book

Samuel Miller, a Presbyterian theologian, Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government at Princeton Theological Seminary, and founding member of the institution, often takes the spotlight for his career and dedication to the Seminary. He maintained a very close relationship with his brother, acclaimed physician Dr. Edward Miller. Dr. Miller held many positions throughout his professional career, his most prestigious from the last ten years of his life. In addition, Dr. Miller attended to many private patients in their homes in the last years before his death. This is the exact purpose for this exhibit: at Princeton Theological Seminary, in the depths of the archives, we have Dr. Edward Miller’s personal diary that consists of records of visits and consultations between the years of 1810 and 1811 in New York City, one year prior to his death.

Scholars of medical history and of the Miller family as well as the general public will find valuable information and data in his digitized patient book. This content may be freely downloaded and reproduced for personal or non-commercial use. Commercial use requires permission from Princeton Theological Seminary. If you wish to do so, please contact the Curator of Special Collections for more information regarding commercial use.

Biography

Dr. Edward Miller was born in Dover, Delaware in 1760. He was the son of Rev. John and Margaret Miller, who headed the Presbyterian Church in Dover. Both Edward and his younger brother, Samuel, were astute scholars and well versed in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek languages. Before concluding his studies at Newark Academy, Delaware, Edward entered the army as surgeon’s mate and later became a surgeon to an army ship.

Upon his return home, he resumed his studies at the University of Pennsylvania, graduated with his degree in medicine in 1785 and returned to Sussex County to enter the field of medicine.

Dr. Miller achieved excellence throughout his work and was an outstanding public speaker. He captured the ears of many with various speeches for a number of societies, including his first, the inaugural address at the Delaware Medical Society, only five years post-graduation. In 1793, Dr. Miller prepared a paper defending the theory of the domestic origin of yellow fever. Dr. Benjamin Rush, on receiving a copy of it, declared its author second to no physician in the United States at the time.

As various papers written by Dr. Miller began to circulate, he moved to New York City in 1796 and, in with Dr. Mitchell and Dr. Elihu Smith, established what would be the United States’ first medical journal: The Medical Repository. Dr. Edward Miller’s genius is evident in his papers through his style, arguments, originality, and his growing body of knowledge.

During his time in New York, Dr. Miller became a port physician of New York, a Professor of the Practice of Physic in the University of New York, a physician at New York Hospital, now known as New York-Presbyterian, and an active member of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. Both his flourishing reputation and respected published works brought about worldly connections with the most eminent men of the age in Great Britain, Germany, and France.

In the Medical Repository, Dr. Miller published observations on cholera. He recommended calomel and opium in a form very different from what his peers recommended because he correctly believed the liver to be a material factor in the course of the disease. He continued to assert that opiates and aromatics alone were merely temporizing remedies and suggested the additional use of calomel.

Dr. Miller retired in 1810, serving only private patients in their homes in New York City.

Dr. Edward Miller died March, 17 1812, at the age of 55. Dr. Rush wrote a touching memorial of his life, as did other notable physicians of that time.

Dr. Miller’s Patient Book

Unfortunately, no record exists of how Princeton Theological Seminary obtained Dr. Edward Miller’s book. It may have been kept with Samuel Miller’s papers. We do know that the book keeps records of his personal visits beginning in September 1, 1810 and concluding in June 9, 1811. From September of 1810 to December of 1810, the lists are organized within the bound pages of his private book. From January 1811 to June 1811, his lists of patients are documents on loose pages that have been placed in groups inside the bound book. Perhaps, Dr. Miller had lost his journal during his last year of practice. We are unsure. Dr. Miller would visit between three and seventeen patients in a single day.

We have happily digitized his appointment book for open use and research with this unique resource. Dr. Miller possessed great influence on the medical world, and we are pleased to open this material to the public.

Dr. Miller’s Affiliations

• Edward Miller graduated from the University of Pennsylvania “Penn Med” in 1789.
• In 1797, Edward Miller, in conjunction with Elihu Smith and Samuel Mitchell, published America’s first medical journal: The Medical Repository.
• In 1803, he was appointed resident physician of New York City.
• In 1807, he was elected professor of the practice of physic in the new College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University.
• In 1809, Dr. Miller became one of the physicians of the New York Hospital and was named clinical lecturer shortly afterwards.
• Dr. Miller was a member of the American Mineralogical Society and the American Philosophical Society.

Sources

• Allibone, Samuel Austin., and John F. Kirk. A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1891. Web. https://catalog.ptsem.edu/record=b1002573~S1
• The Edward Miller alumni file from the Alumni Records collection. Office of Alumni Records, Biographical Records. University Archives and Records Center; University of Pennsylvania.
• The Samuel Miller Manuscript Collection. Special Collections, Princeton Theological Seminary Library. https://princetonseminaryarchives.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/resources/619
• White, James T., Raymond D. McGill, and H. A. Harvey. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Being the History of United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women Who Are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time. New York: J.T. White, 1900. Web.