Nathaniel Chapman (1780-1853) First President of the American Medical Association

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Abstract
Nathaniel Chapman was born at Summer Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia, on the banks of the Potomac, into a family of means.1He received his early education at the Classical Academy of Alexandria, founded by George Washington. At the age of 15, Nathaniel began his apprenticeship in medicine. He read first with John Weems of Georgetown, Md, and later with Dick of Alexandria, Va, who was often called by George Washington and stood at his bedside in death. By then Chapman had shown a fondness for literature and displayed poetic talents evidenced by paraphrasing selected odes of Horace. In 1797, he began formal medical training in the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania and became a private pupil of Benjamin Rush. He studied the classics as well as read medicine and completed the regular course of study by 1801 when he graduated with honors. Chapman's inaugural essay concerned hydrophobia,

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