[2] He was of French Huguenot descent, and his father, John Mussey, was also a medical doctor.

Mussey studied at Dartmouth College and then learned medicine under Nathan Smith.

Mussey was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1811.

[11] He was a frequent contributor to William Alcott's vegetarian journal Library of Health.

[12] His 1862 book Health: Its Friends and Foes included chapters on vegetarianism and on the dangers of tobacco.

[13] It was positively reviewed in the Cincinnati Lancet and Observer and The New England Journal of Medicine.