Seth Pancoast
Dr. Seth Pancoast, M.D., of Philadelphia was a professor of medicine, mystic, and occultist. He was one of the founding members of the Theosophical Society.
Personal life and career
Seth Pancoast was born to Stephen and Ann Pancoast in Darby, Pennsylvania on July 28, 1823.[1][2] His was a Quaker family; he was descended from one of three Pancoast brothers who accompanied William Penn in establishing the colony of Pennsylvania.[3]
After a classical education, Pancoast engaged in business in 1843, and then studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He was graduated in 1852. The new doctor became a professor of anatomy in a "female college" in 1853, and the next year was named a professor of "Microscopic Anatomy and Physiology" at the Institute of Medicine at Penn Medical University in Philadelphia.[4][5] After five years he entered private practice and was given emeritus status. He wrote medical books and articles, including one on "the therapeutic and occult properties of the blue and red rays of the spectrum."
He was apparently married three times, to Sarah Saunders Osborn, Susan George Osborn, and finally, Carrie. Pancoast had at least five daughters and one son.[6]
His personal library was described as "the finest private collection of works on the occult sciences in the United States."[7] One of the books was Cabala, Speculum Artis Et Naturae, in Alchemia printed by Andrea Erffurt in Augusburg Germany in 1654.[8]
He died on December 16, 1889 and was buried in the Darby Friends Cemetery in Philadelphia.[9]
Theosophical Society involvement
Col. Olcott described Dr. Pancoast as "a most erudite Kabbalist". The doctor was present at meeting of September 7, 1875, that eventually lead to the forming of the Theosophical Society.[10] Although his name is not among the sixteen people that the next day met to form the Society, he was elected as Vice-President on the meeting held on October 30, previous to the inaugural one on November 17.[11]
According to Josephine Ransom,
DR. SETH PANCOAST, of Philadelphia, was a theistic mystic and a great alchemist... He was present at Felt's lecture and questioned him closely. H.P.B. always spoke with great respect of his erudition But when it came to putting theory to the test by evoking the unseen elemental races which guard the threshold of knowledge, he confessed he lacked courage, though H.P.B. frequently offered to assist in the ceremonies and, if necessary, face the worst of the phantoms alone. Under the names of "Lex" and "Lex et Lux" he wrote for the Spiritualistic papers on kabalistic and other matters. He remained a member till he passed away in 1889.[12]
He was also present at the cremation of Baron de Palm.
Writings
- "Curability of Consumption".
- "Boyhood's Perils and Man's Curse".
- Blue and Red Light, or, Light and Its Rays as Medicine. Philadelphia: Stoddart, 1877. Subtitled: showing that light is the original and sole source of life, as it is the source of all the physical and vital forces of nature, and that light is nature's own and only remedy for disease, and explaining how to apply the red and blue rays in curing the sick and feeble: together with a chapter on light in the vegetable kingdom." 312 pages.
- The Ladies' Medical Guide. Philadelphia: John E. Potter, 1865. Sixth 1865 edition available at Hathitrust and also at University of Michigan. Published 1869 under title: The Ladies' medical guide and marriage friend. Includes a portrait of the author. 1869 edition available at Wellcome Library. 1875 edition was subtitled: "a complete instructor and counsellor, embracing a full and exhaustive account of the structure and functions of the reproductive organs, the diseases of females and children, with their causes, symptoms and treatment, the toilet considered in reference to female health, beauty and longevity, etc., etc., etc., with an appendix containing startling facts in plain words for mothers and the young." According the 1865 sixth edition, Dr. Pancoast applied for copyright in 1859. Other editions were published in St. Louis and San Francisco.
Biographies and other resources
- Herringshaw, Thomas William. "Pancoast, Seth" in Herringshaw's national library of American biography: contains thirty-five thousand biographies of the acknowledged leaders of life and thought of the United States V4.. Chicago: American Publishers' Association, 1914. Illustrated with three thousand vignette portraits.
- Austin, Benjamin W. Autograph Collection, 1885-1894. "Collection assembled by Benjamin W. Austin as secretary of Trinity Historical Society, Dallas, Tex., 1885-1894, includes letters from physicians, several eclectic or homeopathic, accepting honorary or non-resident membership in society."
Notes
- ↑ Darby Friends Cemetery records in U.S. Find A Grave Index.
- ↑ Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Births and Death, 1827-1903. U.S. Quaker Meeting Records.
- ↑ "Seth Pancoast" in Appletons' Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1600-1889. Volume IV, page 642.
- ↑ Title page of his book The Ladies' Medical Guide, 1865 sixth edition.
- ↑ Appletons' Cyclopedia.
- ↑ U.S. Census, 1860, 1870 and 1880.
- ↑ Appletons' Cyclopedia.
- ↑ Email to Janet Kerschner from a bookseller. December 5, 2016.
- ↑ Darby Friends Cemetery records in U.S. Find A Grave Index.
- ↑ Henry Steel Olcott, Old Diary Leaves First Series (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1974), 116.
- ↑ Henry Steel Olcott, Old Diary Leaves First Series (Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1974), 135.
- ↑ Josephine Ransom, 113-114.