Reynell Coates

Who was Reynell Coates?

Reynell Coates was an American physician, scientist, teacher, and poet.

Reynell Coates was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the youngest son of philanthropist Samuel and Amy Coates, and grandson of Samuel and Mary Coates. At an early age, he became proficient in mathematics and languages, and studied medicine and surgery at Pennsylvania Hospital, where at age fifteen he became an apprentice of Dr. Benjamin Rush. He was graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1823 with a thesis on "Fractures of Inferior Extremities", and became resident physician at the hospital. The same year he voyaged to India as a ship's surgeon and made an extended entomological tour. In 1829 he accepted the chair of natural sciences at Allegheny College. Joining the U.S. Navy as surgeon, he made during a cruise a collection that furnished the material for a large volume. He was a member of the scientific corps of the first South Sea expedition under Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones in 1835-36, and had charge of the department of comparative anatomy, but left the service on the return of the expedition.