“There is not a living soul who knows the least iota of Natural History” – Carols Linneaus on Dr. Alexander Garden
Dr. Alexander Garden of Scotland was the first person to finish their medical doctorate in the colony of South Carolina and discovered the Gardenia flower which is a variation of his name. Garden is known as the forefather to the Furman family, biologically he was the great grandfather of Richard Wood Furman the founder of Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. Garden is also known for his relationship with famed scientist/botanist/zoologist Carols Linneaus of Sweden who is called the father of taxonomy and the creator of binomial nomenclature and the reason that Garden’s name appears so much in botanical catalogues published during the mid to late 1700’s. Garden had part in establishing the Royal Society of Edinburgh and achieving fellowship in the Royal Society of London; both of which are academic societies of letters and sciences that act as charities for the country that act for public benefit through their different initiatives lead by selected fellows. Garden’s botanical contributions and discoveries were published posthumously and he rose through South Carolina’s upper echelons of society with his talents to heal. Garden’s medicine knowledge was primarily plant based, he was not primarily surgeon nor was he trained as a doctor of modern medicine. He had a botanical/horticultural training with a focus on plants beneficial to health. After acting as a surgeons assistant for two years during his teen years and a growing interest in plants that had stayed with him from his childhood to his young adult years, Garden decided to combine these into a general medical degree. Garden received his medical degree from Marischal College (a medical school under the umbrella of Edinburgh University of Scotland) in 1754 after completing a 2 year residency in Charleston.
Garden often traveled the countryside of the colonies and even sailed back to England on occasion to meet with his colleagues and trade seeds and plants he had found. His primary residence when in North America was Charleston and he would stay in Charleston for 8 months to a 18 months at a time. It was not until Garden met and married Elizabeth Perrianu in 1755 that he officially settled in Charleston; they had five children. Garden is best known for his personal and professional relationship with the Bakers of Charleston. The Bakers were an established, well known plantation family outside of Charleston, in present day North Charleston. Garden met, the patriarch Richard Bohun Baker, known through his personal letters only as “Baker” or “dear friend” through circles that the founding members of the Charleston Agricultural Society were apart of and his distant relative Rev. Alexander Garden who was a practicing minister in Charleston. It has been noted that Garden’s patients included the Baker family and their friends as well as the Baker slaves.
Mr. Baker was Garden’s greatest confidant and below is a transcribed recipe from one of their letters. Mr. Baker’s wife had been suffering stomach pains for 4 months and there seemed to be nothing that could get her comfortable, Garden prescribed:
“6 cloves of garlic”
“thistle leaves”
“lavender buds”
“all boiled in saltwater to make a paste. Press into pills to be taken four times a day at four pills each time to absolve her abdominal discomfort”
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Garden created a bit of a controversy with these next letters about the work of his rival botanist Catesby. Mark Catesby was a naturalist who came to Charleston and started his work in 1722. He died in 1749, in 1755 Garden was still heavily criticizing Catesby’s work and influence on Charleston.
March 1755
“Mr. Catesby, your friend was an Ingenious Man but that he drew with Exactness I scarce can think for I have lately had occasion to look him over with some care & I find him Erring in a very Essential part I mean leaves; Surely he never knew or rather did not attend to use of the Leaves in determining the species- Indeed they are so far from being well done that most of tham are unnaturall- I don’t know but the copy that I have seen may have been none of his Best works & I really wish it may be so, as I’m certain, if I know anything of my own mind, I am far from choosing to speak against Character especially a Naturalist without great Causes”
This following letter is from January 1, 1760 to Carols Linnaeus about Catesby :
”Please to observe the Albuls. our Mullet; and you will immediately perceive that he had not only forgotten to count and express the rays of the fins, but that he has, which is hardly credible, left our the pectorial fins entirely, and overlooked one of the ventral ones. So he has done in most other instances. It is suffciently evident that his sole object was to make showy figures of the productions of Nature, rather to invent than to describe. It is indulging fancies of his own brain, instead of contemplating and observing the beautiful works of God.”
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This is a letter written to Garden by Benjamin Franklin, it is a testament to the influence Garden had throughout the colonies.
Dr. Garden
Sir
New York, April 14 1757
I am here waiting the Departure of the Pacquet in which I am about to embark for London, and by that means have Leisure to write a little to my Friends, which the distracted State of our Province, and the Hurry of Affairs I have been engag’d in, for some time prevented. I wish now that I had brought some of your ingenious Letters with me, that I might have consider’d them fully: particularly what relates to the Element of Fire, and the Quantity receiv’d by the Earth from the Sun, I have touch’d a little on this Subject of Fire, in mine of this Date to Dr. Lining, to which I beg Leave to refer you. But Fire is full of Wonders, and as yet we know little of its Nature. I forwarded your Pacquet and Letter to Mr. Clayton as desired, and free of Charge to him. I purpose, God willing, to return from England by way of Carolina, when I promise myself the Pleasure of seeing and conversing with your Friends in Charlestown.
Col. Bouquet, who does me the favour to deliver this to you, is a Gentleman whose Conversation you must be pleas’d with, and I am sure a Stranger, of Learning, Ingenuity and Politeness will not fail of your Civilities. I therefore only take the Liberty of Introducing him to you, and leave the rest to your self.
I am, with great Esteem and Respect,
Sir Your most obedient humble Servant
B. Franklin