User talk:CononOfSamos

Username CononOfSamos on English Wikipedia was created Saturday, October 17, 2009.
 * CononOfSamos (talk) 19:54, 17 October 2009 (UTC)


 * “He who dares not offend, cannot be honest.” ~ Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

Poor Richard's Almanack : Initial Publication Date
The Wikipedia article for Poor Richard's Almanack states ( in the History Section ) that 'Franklin began publishing Poor Richard's Almanack on December 28, 1732'; the cite note associated with this assertion, and the Resources section that follows the Notes, both list The Independence Hall Association (of Philadelphia) as the source for this information, and specifically provide a link to the "Benjamin Franklin Timeline" on their website, where you will find the following line in the 1732 section: 'Publishes the first edition of "Poor Richard's Almanack" on December 28'. I am confident that this information is incorrect, and offer the following to replace it: “Jared Sparks, in his edition of Franklin’s works, gives the advertisement of the first number, printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette, Dec. 19, 1732, as follows: ‘Just Published, for 1733, an Almanac, containing [list] By Richard Saunders, Philomath. Printed and sold by B. Franklin.’” ; from The Encyclopedia Brittanica: a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature : Supplement (1892), Volume 1, Brittanica Publishing Company p. 211. Let me add further that the ushistory(dot)org website also contains this line (from the short biography of Franklin in the "Signers of the Declaration of Independence" section) : "In 1741 he began publishing Poor Richard's Almanac, a very popular and influential magazine." Thus far, I am not impressed by the accuracy of the information contained on this site. CononOfSamos (talk) 21:58, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Thomas Fuller ( 1654 - 1734 )
I am not sure that Thomas_Fuller_(writer) is the correct name for this page.

Allow me to explain further :

At the moment, there are 7 (seven) individuals named Thomas Fuller for whom pages exist on Wikipedia. Two of these individuals also have pages on Wikiquote.

Here is a list of the seven Thomas Fullers, with dates of birth and death, and (very) brief occupation info.

Name, Dates, and occupational description ; On Wikipedia ; On Wikiquote

T. F. (1608-1661) ; Eng. cleric/writer (historian) ; Thomas_Fuller ; Thomas_Fuller

T. F. (1654-1734) ; Eng. physician/writer (aphorist) ; Thomas_Fuller_(writer) ; Thomas_Fuller_(writer)

T. F. (1710-1790) ; Amer. slave/mathematician ; Thomas_Fuller_(slave) ; no WQ page

T. F. (1808-1876) ; Amer. Congressman ; Thomas_Fuller_(Maine) ; no WQ page

T. F. (1832-1901) ; Amer. Federal Judge ; Thomas_Charles_Fuller ; no WQ page

T. F. (1823-1898) ; Canadian architect (pere) ; Thomas_Fuller_(architect) ; no WQ page

T. F. (1865-1951) ; Canadian architect (fils) ; Thomas_W._Fuller ; no WQ page

Also, we can look at middles names / initials --

Thomas_Charles_Fuller (1832-1901) ; same above

Thomas_Horace_Fuller (1816-1861) ; Canadian politician; not on above list

Thomas_J._D._Fuller (1808-1876) ; same as Thomas_Fuller_(Maine)

Thomas_W._Fuller (1865-1951) ; same above

There is a Lieutenant Thomas Fuller House (Lieut._Thomas_Fuller_House) in Middleton, Massachusetts, built in 1684, which is on the National Historic Register, and which seems to be named after yet another Thomas Fuller for whom no Wikipedia page currently exists.

Then we have the following pages :

Thomas_Fuller_(Maine) on Wikipedia redirects to Thomas_J._D._Fuller on Wikipedia.

Thomas_Fuller_(physician) on Wikiquote redirects to Thomas_Fuller_(writer) on Wikiquote.

Thomas_Fuller_(disambiguation) on Wikipedia lists the initial seven Thomas Fullers above ( but not Thomas Horace Fuller ).

There is no Thomas Fuller disambiguation page on Wikiquote at present.

Some additional notes :

Thomas W. Fuller (1865-1951) has a son, Thomas G. Fuller, for whom no Wikipedia page currently exists : he is the founder of Fuller Construction, which built many public buildings in Ottawa, and was awarded a 2002 contract to renovate the Canadian Library of Parliament.

There is also a Wikipedia page for T. O. Fuller State Park ( T._O._Fuller_State_Park ), which is named in honor of Thomas Oscar Fuller (1867-1942), a prominent African American church and civic leader and author in early twentieth-century Memphis, Tennessee. There is currently no Wikipedia page for Thomas Oscar Fuller. On Wikiquote : although Thomas Fuller (1654-1734), formerly Thomas_Fuller_(physician), has now been designated as Thomas_Fuller_(writer), and Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) is presently designated simply as Thomas_Fuller, Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) actually has a better claim to be regarded as Thomas Fuller (writer) than the physician and aphorist Thomas Fuller (1654-1734). Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) was the author of The History of the Worthies of England (1662), a three-volume historical work published after his death. Other works include The Historie of the Holy Warre (1639), The Holy State and the Prophane State (1642), A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine (1650), Church-History of Britian (1655), and numerous other works including poetry, collected sermons, other historical works, and political writings. As his Wikipedia article notes, Fuller was “one of the first English writers able to live by his pen.”

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734), while a prolific writer himself, left us a more limited set of published works. These consist of three sets of Pharmacopoeia (in numerous editions), three collections of ‘precepts’ including Gnomologia (1732), which is probably his best-known work, and Exanthematologia, his most important medical work. In addition to the preceding, it should be noted that Gnomologia, the best known of Fuller’s non-medical works, is basically a collection of unsourced material that was not original to Fuller. Fuller’s most “original” work was unquestionably Exanthematologia: Or, An Attempt to Give a Rational Account of Eruptive Fevers, Especially of the Measles and Small Pox (1730). This treatise is now regarded as a pioneering effort in the development of the theory of infectious diseases. To quote Ludvig Hektoen’s 1922 paper on Fuller, published in the Bulletin of the Society of Medical History of Chicago, March 1922, Vol. II, pp. 321-333 : “While Thomas Fuller does not speak of the causes of infectious diseases as living organisms, he does expound their specificness of action with surprising clearness and unfaltering consistency, expressing well what we believe now to be settled scientific facts. He is a pioneer exponent of the specific principles in infection and immunity.” In contrast, Fuller’s life-long fascination with Adages and Proverbs is more in the nature of a hobby; the chief reason that Gnomologia is as well-remembered today as it is, is the fact that Benjamin Franklin used it as the source of a number of the witty sayings he printed in various annual editions of Poor Richard’s Almanack. Thus, there is no doubt in my mind that we should remember this Thomas Fuller as Thomas Fuller, Physician.

With regard to the Lieut. Thomas Fuller of Lieut. Thomas Fuller House in Middletown, Massachusetts :

The first (Massachusetts) Thomas Fuller, who purchased 300 acres in this vicinity, had five sons; Thomas Fuller, Jr., John Fuller, Jacob Fuller, Joseph Fuller and Benjamin Fuller. The Thomas Fuller who built and occupied the historic House was the son of Thomas Fuller Jr., and is believed to have lived in this house ( on Old South Main Street, abutting the Fuller family burial ground ) by 1684. The website of The National Register of Historic Places is currently being worked on and cannot be used to obtain additional information.

Some thoughts on where all this should go from here :

I believe that Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) should be designated as Thomas_Fuller_(physician) on both Wikipedia & Wikiquote.

I believe that there should, at minimum, be a Thomas_Oscar_Fuller stub page on Wikipedia.

I believe that there should, at minimum, be a Thomas_G._Fuller stub page on Wikipedia.

I believe that there should (probably) be a Thomas_Fuller_(Lieut.) stub page on Wikipedia.

I have researched some information on Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) and hope to be able to expand his Wikipedia page in the not too distant future. I am also willing to work on the other objectives I have listed above.

CononOfSamos (talk) 08:02, 24 November 2009 (UTC)