Note 83 — {93} CHAPTER VII {V}

Sylvanus Fancher (called "Doctor" by courtesy) was a native of Plymouth, Connecticut. An eccentric, uneducated character, his notoriety was due to the fact that he embraced the vaccine theory before it was adopted by regular physicians. His operations in the unoccupied field of New England were for a few years remunerative; but his improvidence prevented the accumulation of a competence, and as medical men took up the practice of vaccination, his means of livelihood declined. He died in Hartford in abject poverty. See sketch in Anderson, Town and City of Waterbury, Connecticut (New Haven, 1896), iii, p. 831.—Ed.