in the United States. He attempted to maintain a monopoly over the cowpox vaccine, for both financial reasons and to protect the vaccine from incompetent or fraudulent physicians. Waterhouse made the first vaccinations in the United States on four of his children. He commissioned a controlled experiment at the Boston Board of Health in which 19 vaccinated and 2 unvaccinated boys were exposed to the smallpox virus. The vaccinated boys demonstrated immunity, and both unvaccinated boys succumbed to the disease. Personal life In 1788, he married Elizabeth Oliver, with whom he had six children. She died in childbirth in 1815. In 1819, he married Louisa Lee; no children resulted from this marriage. Waterhouse was a prickly character, with a tendency to become involved in controversy. Military service Waterhouse had a commission in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812 in the days before military physicians were accorded rank. Waterhouse was assigned to a Navy Frigate that was eventually captured by the Royal Navy. Waterhouse along with the surviving crew members was held in a British prison ship in under harsh conditions until the end of the war. After he was repatriated to the United States, Waterhouse published a critical account of the British POW system. Choosing to remain in the military after the war, Waterhouse held the position of "Hospital Surgeon", in 1818 he was promoted to "Post Surgeon", and in 1821 he was honorably discharged. Final years and death Throughout the 1820s, Waterhouse was a strong supporter of Samuel Thomson's medical system. He died in his home in Cambridge on October 6, 1846, and was survived by his wife Louisa. He is interred at Mount Auburn Cemetery, where Louisa erected a small monument in his honor. Legacy Waterhouse was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1791. Waterhouse is the subject of a 2006 biography entitled Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse: A Life in Medicine and Public Service (1754—1846) by Philip Cash. His portrait hangs at the Harvard Medical School and his house on Waterhouse Street near Cambridge Common bears a plaque commemorating his introduction of the smallpox vaccine in the United States. The Countway Medical Library has a silver watch inscribed to Waterhouse by Edward Jenner. Waterhouse's work with the smallpox vaccine was dramatized in a 1964 episode of the historical anthology series The Great Adventure. He was portrayed by Robert Cummings. Works A Synopsis of a Course on