Submitted by Temlakos on
Cotton Mather (1662-1727) was, like his father, a clergyman, theologian and president of Harvard. He also studied medicine and was probably the first American to publish original contributions in science, with many publications in the Transactions of the Royal Society. Among other things, he studied "animalcules" as a cause of smallpox, and was effective in routing it from the colonies.
Excerpted from Men of Science, Men of God by Henry M. Morris. Copyright 1982, 1988 by Henry M. Morris. Used by permission.