Originally a slave in Philadelphia, was sold by his master to a
physician, who employed him in his shop as assistant in the preparation
of drugs. During the war between America and England he was sold to a
surgeon, and by that surgeon to Dr. Robert Dove, of New Orleans. He
learned the English, French, and Spanish languages, so as to speak them
with ease.
He was received a member of the English church; and in the year 1788,
when he was about twenty-one years of age, he became one of the most
distinguished physicians in New Orleans. "I conversed with him on
medicine," says Dr. Rush, and "found him very learned. I thought I
could give _him_ information concerning the treatment of diseases, but
I learned more from him than he could expect from me."
The Pennsylvania Society, established in favor of the people of color,
thought it their duty, in 1789, to publish these facts, which are also
related by Dickson, page 184. In the Domestic Medicine of Buchan, and
in a work of Duplaint, we find accounts of a cure for the bite of the
rattlesnake. I know not whether Derham was its discoverer, but it is a
well-known fact that one of his color did make such a discovery, for
which he received, from the General Assembly of Carolina, his freedom
and an annuity of a hundred pounds sterling.