Alexander ″Alick″ Joy Cartwright Jr. was a founding member of the New York Knickerbockers Base Ball Club in the 1840s. Although he was an inductee of the Baseball Hall of Fame and he was sometimes referred to as a "father of baseball," the importance of his role in the development of the game has been disputed; the rules of the modern game were long considered to have been based on the Knickerbocker Rules developed in 1845 by Cartwright and a committee from the Knickerbockers. However research called this scenario into question. After the myth of Abner Doubleday having invented baseball in Cooperstown in 1839 was debunked, Cartwright was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a pioneering contributor, 46 years after his death. Although it has been stated that Cartwright was declared the inventor of the modern game of baseball by the 83rd United States Congress on June 3, 1953, the Congressional Record, the House Journal, the Senate Journal from June 3, 1953, did not mention Cartwright. Cartwright was born in 1820 to Alexander Cartwright Sr. a merchant sea captain, Esther Rebecca Burlock Cartwright.

Alexander Jr. had six siblings. He first worked at the age of 16 in 1836 as a clerk for a Wall Street broker doing clerical work at the Union Bank of New York. After hours, he played bat-and-ball games in the streets of Manhattan with volunteer firefighters. Cartwright himself was a volunteer, first with Oceana Hose Company No. 36, Knickerbocker Engine Company No. 12. Cartwright's ancestor Thomas Cartwright, of Aynho Park, Northamptonshire was an English landowner and Tory politician, who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1695 and 1748; as the longest serving Member he became Father of the House. A fire destroyed the Union Bank in 1845, he became a bookseller with Alfred. One of the earliest known established clubs was the Gotham Base Ball Club, who played a brand of bat-and-ball game called "town ball" or "round ball," but in New York more "base ball," somewhat similar to but not identical to the English sport of rounders, on a field at 4th Avenue and 27th Street. In 1837, Gotham member William R. Wheaton drew up rules converting this playground game into a more elaborate and interesting sport to be played by adults.

In 1842, Cartwright led the establishment of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, a breakaway group from the Gothams. In 1845, a committee from the new club including Wheaton drew up rules resembling those of the Gothams; the major precepts included the stipulations that foul territories were to be introduced for the first time, the practice of retiring a runner by hitting him with a thrown ball was forbidden. Cartwright is erroneously credited for introducing flat bases at uniform distances, three strikes per batter, nine players in the outfield. However, modern scholarship has cast doubt on the originality of these rules, as information has come to light about the New York clubs that predated the Knickerbockers, in particular the rules devised by William R. Wheaton for the Gotham Club in 1837. Baseball historian Jeffrey Kittel has concluded that none of the Knickerbocker Rules of 1845 was original, with the possible exception of three-out innings; as MLB's Official Historian John Thorn wrote, Cartwright has "a plaque in the Baseball Hall of Fame on which every word of substance is false.

Alex Cartwright did not set the base paths at ninety feet, the sides at nine men, or the game at nine innings.". The first documented match between two baseball clubs under these rules took place on June 19, 1846, at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey. In this match, the Knickerbockers lost to the "New York nine" by a score of 23 to 1; some authors have questioned the supposed "first game" under the new rules. The Knickerbockers' scorebook shows intra-club games during 1845; those who have studied the score-book have concluded that the differences in the games of 1845 and 1846, compared with the specifications of the Knickerbocker rules, are minimal. In 1849, Cartwright headed to California for the gold rush, continued on to work and live in the Kingdom of Hawaii, his family came to join him in 1851: wife Eliza Van Wie, son DeWitt, daughter Mary, daughter Catherine Lee. In Hawaii, sons Bruce Cartwright and Alexander Joy Cartwright III were born; some secondary sources claim Cartwright set up a baseball field on the island of Oahu at Makiki Field in 1852, but Nucciarone states that before 1866, the modern game of baseball was not known or played in Honolulu.

She states that during Cartwright's lifetime he was not declared or documented as an originator of baseball in Hawaii. Cartwright served as fire chief of Honolulu from 1850 through June 30, 1863, he was an advisor to King David Queen Emma. Cartwright died on July 12, 1892, six months before the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893. One of the leaders of the overthrow movement was Lorrin A. Thurston, who played baseball with classmate Alexander Cartwright III at Punahou School. Cartwright was buried in Oahu Cemetery. After about two decades of controversy, invention of America's "national game" of baseball was attributed to Abner Doubleday by the Mills Commission; some baseball historians promptly cried foul and others joined throughout the 20th

Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle was an 18th-century French botanist and civil servant. Born into an affluent upper-class Parisian family, connections with the French Royal Court secured him the position of Superintendent of Parisian Waters and Forests at the age of twenty-six. In this capacity, L'Héritier conducted various studies of native trees and shrubs gaining interest in exotic flora; the standard author abbreviation L'Hér. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name. The abbreviation L'Herit. is used. Apart from what is stated above, little is known of his early life before his first employment, he appears to have been self-taught in botany, after taking up the superintendency. In 1775 L'Héritier was appointed a magistrate in the Cour des Aides in Paris; this was a court which dealt with tax offences, but under its president Malesherbes it became the only French government institution to protect ordinary citizens against a corrupt state. Malesherbes himself was a keen botanist, but in the same year he was forced out of office because he published a scheme to reform the tax system.

In 1775, L'Héritier married Thérèse-Valère Doré. They had five children in the 19 years. With his private wealth and public income, L'Héritier was enabled to pursue his botanical interests as a wealthy amateur, he was a strict follower of the Linnaean system of plant classification. The most influential French botanists of the time - Jussieu and others - advocated a more natural system of classification, meaning beauty. L'Héritier soon clashed with them, although he was friends with other scholars such as Georges Cuvier, Pierre Marie Auguste Broussonet and André Thouin. Through these contacts, he corresponded with other botanists such as Joseph Banks and James Edward Smith, in the Linnaean stronghold of England. Around 1783 he conceived the idea of publishing papers on new plant species. To Banks he wrote: "I am still keeping my project secret, in order that this type of work cannot be claimed by our professors" and it is said that he had paid informers among the professional gardeners of Paris in order to be alerted whenever a new species came into flower.

Such was the rivalry among botanists at that time. The first fascicle of Stirpes Novae came out in March 1785, the second in January 1786, a third in March 1786. Other fascicles made an appearance in 1788 and later; these were published at his own expense, like all his botanical works, included a full-page plate illustrating each new species. From the second volume on, the plates were drawn by Pierre-Joseph Redouté, who gave L'Héritier the credit for starting him on his career and fame. Joseph Dombey, a young French adventurer, was given permission by the Spanish government to collect botanical specimens in its South American colonies, under strict conditions; that half was lost to Spain when the British captured the ship carrying it, more was lost by delays in customs at Cadiz, by the time Dombey reached Paris his collection was much reduced. French botanists considered that its new species should be published, against the conditions imposed by Spain. L'Héritier offered to describe and publish at his own expense, the collection was handed over to him in 1786.

The Spanish government objected, requested the remaining collection be remitted to them, which the French government agreed to do. However, L'Héritier was at court at Versailles, he hurried home, packed the collection and left post-haste for England, while giving it out that he had gone to his country-house on holiday. He stayed around London for 15 months, until things had quietened down. On his return to Paris he published Sertum Anglicum; the Dombey collection remained in his herbarium until his death. As a magistrate of a respected court, holding liberal political ideas himself, L'Héritier was at first not at risk when the French Revolution began in 1789, he was one of few former magistrates to be appointed judge of a revolutionary tribunal. In October 1789, he was appointed commander of his district's National Guard. Acting under his orders, his troops prevented the massacre of the King's bodyguard when the Parisian mob removed the King from Versailles to Paris. In 1790 he was elected to the Academy of Sciences as an associate member in spite of de Jussieu and Lamarck voting against him.

During this phase of the revolution he continued to publish botanical papers. In late 1792, the Reign of Terror began and it is said that L'Héritier was imprisoned for a time, in danger of execution, but some of his botanist friends got him released, his former patron, went to the guillotine. About the time the Reign of Terror of ended in 1794, L'Héritier's wife Thérèse-Valère died; the eldest son, left home and seems to have become estranged. L'Héritier did not remarry. L'Héritier was ruined by the Revolution, had to take a low paid job at the Justice ministry, although he was a member of the Commission on Agriculture and the Arts and was involved in the publication of several agricultural reports. In 1795 t

For others named Joseph Adams, see the Joseph Adams navigation pageJoseph Adams, F. L. S. was surgeon. He was born in 1756, his father was a practising apothecary in London, a rigid dissenter who, because of his religious beliefs, would not allow his son to attend Oxford or Cambridge. He, received a good classical education and, having been apprenticed to his father, became a member of the Society of Apothecaries, he studied under Dr. Pitcairn and Mr. Pott at St Bartholomew’s, Dr. Saunders at Guy's, Mr. John Hunter at St. George's hospitals. In 1790, he became a member of the Corporation of Surgeons, in 1795 published a small volume on Morbid Poisons. On the basis of that work, the University of Aberdeen awarded him an M. D; the following year, he left London for Madeira, where he resided for eight years, practising medicine and conducting research. He visited the lazaretto near Funchal, learned about leprosy and other diseases; this work contributed to the second edition of his work on Morbid Poisons, which he is principally known for.

He has the merit of having introduced the cowpox into Madeira. He returned to England in 1805, was admitted as an extra-licentiate to the London Royal College of Physicians; when Dr. Woodville died in 1806, he succeeded him as physician at the Smallpox Hospital. At this time, the practice of vaccination was recovering from numerous unfounded attacks. A general report authored under Adams' inspection and circulated by the committee of the hospital, helped remove alarm and inspire confidence. This, with a second report, was communicated to the College of Physicians and circulated, passed through thirteen editions; the produce of the sale was given with a net balance of cash, amounting to 1517l. 16s. 8d. Being invested. Dr. Adams believed that smallpox were the same disease; this opinion was shared by Dr. Edward Jenner. Dr. Adams drew his arguments in favour of their identity from the near resemblance of the most favourable kinds of smallpox to the cowpox, presumptive proofs deduced from the laws of other morbid poisons, that the variolous and vaccine is the same.

He contended that the character of the disease might change depending on the pustule used as a vaccine source, that inoculations from cases of what he called pearl smallpox caused mild affections difficult to distinguish from those cowpox. In 1804, Adams received an inheritance that allowed him to indulge his taste for study, philanthropy, his attachment to his profession was ardent. He delivered several lecture courses, edited the London Medical and Physical Journal for many years, he died on 20 June 1818, at the age following a compound fracture of the leg. He is buried with the simple motto, "Vir Justus et bonus," inscribed on his tomb. Adams has been described by science historians as a forgotten founder of medical genetics and the first clinical geneticist. In 1814, he authored A Treatise on the Supposed Hereditary Properties of Diseases, based on years of clinical research. Adams was an early anticipator of evolution. Anthropologist Kenneth M. Weiss has written: Darwin and Wallace were, to the best of my knowledge, wholly unaware of Adams, though in many ways he was ahead of them in time.

He had a clearer understanding of the nature of the hereditary mechanisms underpinning evolution if, as a physician, he did not discuss the transmutation of species. He published the following works: Observations on Morbid Poisons and Cancer. Lond. 8vo. Second edit. 1807. 4to. The singular title of this work derives from Mr. Hunter's division of poisons into the natural and the diseased—those that belong to a healthy animal with no ill effect to that animal, those that result from disease and can spread to other individuals, he treats, among other diseases of Leprosy, or the Elephantiasis of the ancients, the Elephantiasis of the moderns, or the Barbadoes Leg, the Lepra Graecorum, &c. He gives an account of the Acarus Syro, called the Itch Insect by some. During this research, he inoculated himself and family members with the insect to prove the itch and the disease from the Acarus were distinct from each other. To comprehend more the nature of the Sibbens or Sivvens, he made a journey into Dumfries-shire and produced a good summary on the subject.

Observations on the Cancerous Breast. Lond. 1801. 8vo. Second edit. 1805. He regards the existence of cysts or hydatids, possessed of a life independent of the subject they grow in, as constituting the true essential character of the true carcinoma. Dr. Baron has since carried the matter farther, affirms that all tumours take their origin from hydatids. Guide to Madeira. Lond. 1801. 8vo. Second edit. 1808. Answers to all the Objections hitherto made against Cow-pox. Lond. 1805. 8vo. A popular View of Vaccine Inoculation. Lond. 1807. 12mo. Reports of the Royal College of Physicians in London and Edinburgh, on Vaccination. Lond. 1809. 8vo. These being addressed rather to the public than to the profession, are written in a popular style, served in a measure to allay the anxiety entertained on such an important subject. An Inquiry into the Laws of Epidemics. Lond. 1809. 8vo. In this work, Dr. Adams assists in marking the distinction between contagious and infectious diseases; the first proposal for the establishment of savings banks appears in this volume, Appendix, No. 4.

A Republication of one of John Hunter's Treatises, with a Commentary, which possesses no particular claims to notice. An Illustration of Mr. Hunter's Doctrine concerning the Life of the Blood. Lond. 1811. 8vo