American Medical Biographies

Front matter

American Medical Biographies

Copyright, 1920, by The Norman, Remington Company

Dedicated, in Love and Esteem to the Memory of Sir William Osler

Abbott, Samuel Warren

Abbott, Samuel Warren (1837–1904)

Samuel W. Abbott, who had the distinction of being the first secretary of Massachusetts' first state board of health, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, June 12, 1837. His father was a descendant of George Abbott, who emigrated from England about 1640, and his mother from Edward Winn, who came from North Wales about 1642. Samuel's great grandfather was Joseph Winn, who fought at Lexington and Bunker Hill. Samuel was educated at Phillips Andover Academy, Massachusetts, and graduated A. M. from Brown University (Rhode Island) in 1858.

He began to study medicine with Dr. Benjamin Cutter of Woburn, and afterwards at the Harvard Medical School, where he graduated in 1862. He was assistant surgeon in the United States Navy from 1861 to 1864, then surgeon to the First Massachusetts Cavalry from 1864 until it was mustered out at the close of the war.

Dr. Abbott's chief interest was in hygiene. He was coroner of Middlesex County from 1872 to 1877 and medical examiner of the same county, under the new law, from 1877 to 1884. After the war he practised medicine in Woburn for four years and in Wakefield for the rest of his life. He was health officer of Massachusetts from 1882 to 1886 and secretary of the State Board of Health from its organization in 1886 up to a short time before his death, which occurred in Newton, Massachusetts, October 22, 1904. Thus he took part in two important medical advances in his native state, the inauguration of a medical examiner system, replacing the antiquated coroners, and in the formation and perpetuation of a progressive state board of health, one that acquired an enviable reputation throughout the country.

Dr. Abbott married Martha W. Sullivan, of Woburn, in 1864.

He was a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, Massachusetts Medico-Legal Society, Société Française d'Hygiène and president of the Middlesex East District Medical Society in 1874–75.

His contributions to medical literature were many. Among them are: "Uses and Abuses of Animal Vaccination," American Public Health Transactions, 1882; "The Influenza Epidemic of 1889–1890;" State Board of Health Report, 1890; "The Distribution of Diphtheria in Massachusetts," International Congress of Hygiene, London, 1891.

Abrams, Edward Thomas

Abrams, Edward Thomas (1860–1918)

Dr. Edward T. Abrams' parents, Michael Abrams and Lydia Chegwyn Abrams, came from Cornwall, England. He was born in a miner's cabin in Eagle River, Michigan, November 20, 1860. His early life was a period of hard struggle to gain an education. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, he was apprenticed to a blacksmith; he then began to teach at a country school in order to earn the money which would enable him to go to college. After obtaining in 1883 a Bachelor of Science degree at Valparaiso, he attended Dartmouth Medical School, from which he was graduated in 1889. Later he did postgraduate work at Long Island College Hospital, and in 1902 Olivet conferred on him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. The doctor began his practice in Centennial, Michigan, and later removed to Dollar Bay, where he spent the remainder of his life.

In 1890 he was married to Ida L. Howe, of Howell, Mich. One child, a daughter, was born to them, but died in early infancy. He was survived by his wife, several sisters and two brothers, one of whom, James Abrams, was a physician at Calumet, Mich.

In 1907 he was elected to the State legislature. His legislative experience and knowledge of parliamentary procedure made him the backbone of all medical legislation in the state. Appreciation of the fairness of his nature was shown, when in 1913, during the copper miners' strike, the State appointed him as intermediary between agitators and employers. He was a politician of high type, straightforward and relentless in his pursuit of right. Nothing could stop him when on the trail of error, if he believed his action would be ben . It was said of him that he had stopped More detrimental and furthered more useful measures than any other medical man in Michigan. These same characteristics were not only evidenced in state affairs, but had an influence national in scope. In much demand as a public speaker, he rarely spoke at length, but always with a wonderfully earnest manner and a masterful delivery. His knowledge of history, combined with his enthusiasm, made him a most interesting speaker. Without doubt he was the best authority in the state on Cornish history, beliefs and customs. In short, he was ever loyal to the spirit of his ancestry. Dr. Abrams was the owner of a fine medical library with full files of about twenty periodicals.

He was intensely patriotic and at the time of his death was president of the local chapter of the Red Cross, member of the state committee, Council of National Defense, and, as acting president of the State Board of Health, was much interested in Camp Custer, and made frequent visits there.

Physically, Dr. Abrams was rather small, but wiry and active. At one time he was fond of wrestling, and very proficient in the art. His fingers were remarkably slender and quick in the most delicate operations.

Besides being a member of the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Dr. Abrams belonged to the American Medical Association, was a member of the state and local medical organizations, charter member of the A. K. K., one of the oldest medical fraternities; also member of the American Society of Social and Political Economics, and the American Geographical Society.

He was surgeon to various railroad and mining companies in the Upper Peninsula; consulting surgeon and lecturer on gynecology and obstetrics at the Lake Superior General Hospital, Lake Linden; surgeon-in-chief to St. Joseph's Hospital at Hancock.

His last appearance in public was in addressing a gathering for the Red Cross the evening before his death. His talk was masterly and full of feeling. It was remarked that he spoke from first to last as one inspired, as one apart and loooking on. His death occurred suddenly, shortly before midnight, May 20, 1918, after an evening spent in study in his library.

Ackley, Horace A.

Ackley, Horace A. (1813–1859)

Horace A. Ackley, surgeon of Cleveland, Ohio, was born in Genesee County, New York, in 1813, and received his early education in the district schools. At an early age he displayed a special bent towards medicine, acquiring some preliminary instruction in the towns of Elba and Batavia in his native county and subsequently attending medical lectures in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Western District of the State of New York, situated at Fairfield, Herkimer County, receiving there his M. D. in 1833, at the early age of eighteen. The following year he settled in Rochester, New York, and at the request of Dr. John Delamater, who had been one of his teachers in Fairfield, delivered at Palmyra a course of lectures on human anatomy. In 1835, Dr. Ackley removed to Akron, Ohio, and in the following year was appointed demonstrator of anatomy in the Willoughby Medical College, Ohio. Soon after he removed to Toledo, where he practised for several years and married in 1837 Miss Sophia S. Howell of Willoughby. On the organization of the Cleveland Medical College in 1843 he was called to its chair of surgery, and continued to occupy this position until his resignation in 1858. During the epidemic of cholera which decimated Sandusky in 1849, on the call for medical aid by the afflicted city, Dr. Ackley abandoned his practice, organized a relief corps of physicians and proceeded at once to the seat of the epidemic.

He was president of the Ohio State Medical Society in 1852.

Though for fifteen years the most active and eminent operative surgeon of Northern Ohio, no written records of his work have been preserved. But the almost unanimous testimony is conclusive in establishing the fact that Dr. Ackley was a bold and skilful operator, who divided with Dr. R. D. Mussey of Cincinnati the vast majority of the major surgical practice of his day in the region west of the Alleghanies and north of the Ohio River.

He was gifted with a most remarkable self-possession in the presence of danger, which stood him in good service, whether holding a mob at bay, in the performance of a dangerous surgical operation, or finding a mistake of diagnosis after the conclusion of the operation. He was considered a splendid medical witness, and his assistance was sought in all cases where medical testimony would affect the verdict. Particularly was this so in cases of malpractice and medical jurisprudence. It was of but little use for an attorney, no matter how astute, to cross-examine him in expectation of changing or controverting his proposition.

Dr. Ackley was neither an extensive reader nor a profound pathologist, and his lectures, while clear and accurate, lacked system and connection. As a clinical lecturer he was at his best. He was an enthusiastic sportsman, and whatever time he could snatch from the demands of an engrossing surgical practice was devoted to amusement with his rod and gun. It was upon his farm and largely at his expense that the first experiments in the artificial propagation of fish were made by his partner, Dr. Garlick, in 1853.

As an operator Ackley was bold, skilful and determined. Two ovariotomies performed by him in 1855 and 1857 are recorded by Dr. J. W. Hamilton of Columbus in the Transactions of the Ohio State Medical Society for 1859, where we find, also, two letters from the eminent physician and surgeon, Dr. John Delamater, of Cleveland, discussing the merits and demerits of the operation. In one of these letters he says: "Usually Professor Ackley was accustomed to dissuade patients from submitting to any operative procedures in these cases, beyond that of mere tapping as a palliative in the later stages of the affection." The position of both Delamater and Ackley on the question of ovariotomy seems to have been practically the same.

De mortuis nil nisi bonum—yet the truth of history demands further the brief and sad statement that Dr. Ackley in his later years fell into habits of intemperance, which not only obscured the honorable records of a strenuous life, but contributed in no slight degree to his premature death, April 24, 1859.

Adams, Frederick Whiting

Adams, Frederick Whiting (1786–1858)

Frederick W. Adams, physician, writer on theology and violin-maker, was born at Pawlet, Vermont, in 1786. His literary remains show him to have been well educated. He studied medicine with Dr. Oliver Harmon of Pawlet; attended medical lectures at Dartmouth Medical School and began practice in Fairfield, Vt., before graduation.

After some time he removed to Cambridge, Vt., and thence to Barton in the same state in 1814, and in 1822 returned to Dartmouth and received his medical diploma. He continued to practise in Barton and vicinity until 1836, acquiring a great reputation as a physician and surgeon and being called at times to a distance of fifty miles to perform capital operations. He was one of the first to call attention to the advantages of hellebore (veratrum viride) in practice. In the winter of 1835–36 he attended medical lectures in Philadelphia and in the latter year settled in Montpelier. Here at first he was shunned by many on account of his reputed skepticism but through his skill and kindly manners soon became a leading practitioner in the town and surrounding country.

Dr. Adams was a man of literary taste, and long having been assumed to be an infidel or atheist, at the request of friends, he published a book entitled "Theological Criticism or Hints of the Philosophy of Man and Nature" (1843), with an appendix on "Dogmas of Infidelity," a book which entitles him to rank with Paine in his estimate of the Bible, the church and the clergy. He was, however, noted for his practical philanthropy, frequently treating the poor free of charge and even adding gifts of money or clothing where need appeared. It was well said that he "lived more practical Christianity than any other man in town." He was also a poet of no mean ability and frequently wrote verses which revealed strong Christian sentiments. When asked on his deathbed if he would die as he had lived, he replied, "If there is a Christian's God, I am not afraid to trust myself in His hands."

As a boy he learned to play on the violin and other instruments. His love for music never forsook him and during a long period of time, partly to amuse himself and partly as an occupation, he experimented in making violins, violas and violoncellos. He carefully studied all models of old Italian and German makers and endeavored to rival their quality of tone by using well-seasoned woods taken from our native forests. He is said to have made one hundred and forty instruments, some of his making still being in use among the people of New England. His skill in this direction attracted the attention of Ole Bull, with whom he enjoyed a close friendship.

Dr. Adams was twice married and his family consisted of at least one daughter. He died in Montpelier, Vt., December 17, 1858.

Adams, Horatio

Adams, Horatio (1801–1861)

Horatio Adams, son of Rev. Solomon Adams, of Middleton, Mass., was a prominent member of the Middlesex South Branch of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, February 20, 1801. He graduated from the Harvard Medical School in 1826 and practised in Waltham until the time of his death, April 22, 1861. In 1858 he delivered the annual discourse on "Investigations Upon the Subject of Vaccination" before the Massachusetts Medical Society (Communications Massachusetts Medical Society, vol. ix). The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal says of him: "It is believed that he was the first in this country who succeeded in proving the identity of the variolous and vaccine diseases. After reading an account of Mr. Ceeley's experiment of inoculating the cow, he was induced to repeat it and succeeded in obtaining the same results. From a crust obtained by inoculating a cow with variolous matter, a child was vaccinated and a vesicle appeared having all the characteristic marks of the true cow pox."

In the year 1852 he published (Transactions American Medical Association, vol. v) a paper, "On the Action of Water on Lead Pipes, and the Diseases Proceeding From It." This was considered a valuable contribution to the subject.

Adams, Zabdiel Boylston

Adams, Zabdiel Boylston (1829–1902)

Dr. Adams was the son of Zabdiel Boylston (Harvard College, 1813) and Sarah May Holland Adams. He was born in Boston, October 25, 1829, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1849 and from the Harvard Medical School in 1853. He practised in Roxbury, a part of Boston, until the Civil War, when he volunteered his services to Governor Andrew. In May, 1861, he was commissioned assistant surgeon in the Seventh Massachusetts Volunteers, his first service being at Washington, where he arrived the following July. He was at the siege of Yorktown with the Seventh Regiment in the spring of 1862, and was also at Williamsburg and Fair Oaks. On May 26, 1862, he was commissioned surgeon of the Thirty-second Massachusetts Volunteers, joining the Army of the Potomac. He was at Harrison's Landing for two months and subsequently on the Rappahannock. He was at Antietam, Fredericksburg and the second engagement at Bull Run, and served under General Burnside in his "mud march." He was with his regiment at Chancellorsville, Brandy Station, and Gettysburg. Because of an affection of the eyes he resigned his commission as surgeon of the Thirty-second. Regiment, August 4, 1863. On January 12, 1864, he re-entered the service and was commissioned captain of Company F, Fifty-sixth Regiment, and with that command participated in the Wilderness engagements, where he was twice wounded, one shot breaking his leg. He was taken prisoner and confined at Lynchburg for three months, when he was transferred to Libby Prison, being released on parole a month later. While in confinement, he was commissioned major by Governor Andrew, and in December, 1864, he was discharged for disability contracted in the service. At his own request he rejoined his regiment in February, 1865, and took a prominent part in the assault on Petersburg in April, 1865. Then he returned to Boston and resumed practice, shortly after removing to Framingham.

He married Frances Kidder, of Boston. His widow, a daughter, Frances, and a son, Z. Boylston Adams, M. D. 1903, survived him.

Dr. Adams was a member and had held office in the Middlesex County and Framingham medical societies and other medical organizations. He was identified with the Framingham Hospital and numerous other institutions and had been for twelve years before his death medical examiner of the Eighth Middlesex District.

His death, on May 1, 1902, at the age of seventy-two, was due to a fall over the Metropolitan Water Works dam at Southboro, Mass.

Dr. Adams was an ardent advocate of vaccination and still believed in the use of the lancet in the treatment of some forms of sthenic pneumonia. He was an old-fashioned doctor and a characteristic representative of a passing generation.

Agassiz, Jean Louis Rudolph

Agassiz, Jean Louis Rudolph (1807–1873)

Born in Motier, Switzerland, May 28, 1807, Louis Agassiz, naturalist, was the son of a clergyman; his mother was Rose Mayer, a physician's daughter, and Louis was the fifth of eight children, the first four of whom died in infancy. Agassiz developed a love of natural history when still a small boy, and at an early age made a collection of fishes and all sorts of pets, birds, field mice, hares, guinea-pigs, etc., which he reared with great care. He also showed considerable skill with tools, and is said to have owed much of his dexterity in manipulation to the training of the eye and hand, gained in making shoes and toys for his sister's dolls. He was a bright, active child and a general favorite. The love of teaching he showed in later life may in part at least be traced back to his father from whom he had his earliest lessons.

At the age of ten he went to the College for Boys at Binne and later he spent two years at that of Lausanne. A brilliant student, he showed much greater capacity for languages and natural history than for mathematics, physics, and chemistry. He became proficient in Latin and Greek as well as in German and Italian. He was a splendid swimmer but did not care for riding horses. He took no interest in shooting. Later, during his university life, he was a proficient fencer.

While at Lausanne, Agassiz came much under the influence of Dr. Mathias Mayer, a physician with a large practice and under him studied anatomy. He likewise met several scientists, who aroused an ambition in him to become a naturalist. Accordingly he persuaded his parents to let him give up going into business after finishing school, as planned, and to send him to Zurich University to study medicine. To become a country doctor seemed Louis' desire in order that he might have opportunity to study natural history.

Two years followed at Zurich University, a year at Heidelberg, and finally three at Munich University. While at Zurich, Agassiz gave a good deal of attention to the study of natural history and his subsequent university career was guided a good deal more by his devotion to zoology than by his medical studies. He took the degree of doctor of philosophy when he was twenty-two, a year before he became a doctor of medicine. It was chiefly owing to the pleadings of his parents that he spent enough time on medical studies to take his degree. As a university student, he was a leader both in intellectual pursuits and in convivial recreation.

When twenty-two, he had already done important scientific work, and was mastered by an ambition to become a foremost student of natural science. During his student days, while engaged in scientific work, he kept one and sometimes two artists in his employ,—not easy, he says with an allowance of $250 per per year; but they were poorer than he, and so managed to get along together.

His first important work, undertaken at the request of Martius, was a description of Brazilian fishes collected by Spix, and a little later he began his great independent work on fossil fishes.

In 1832, when twenty-five, after a period of study under the influence of Cuvier in Paris, Agassiz entered upon a professorship of natural history at Neuchatel. He retained this professorship until his removal to America. While occupying this position, he extended his studies on fossil fishes, did valuable work on echinoderms, and made important contributions on the action of glaciers. To him is due primarily the knowledge of a general glacial epoch.

Agassiz had a wonderful power of attracting people and making them devoted to his interests. In his student days he not only got other students to join in with him in forming clubs for scientific study, but induced artists to work for him for almost nothing. He went about things as if he were very rich instead of poor and then managed to get relatives and friends to help him out of his financial troubles. At Neuchatel, where his salary at first was but $400, he had a large staff of scientific assistants and artists and got into very serious financial difficulties. His reckless daring in expenditures, however, enabled him to do a prodigious amount of scientific work, which otherwise would have been impossible. At the age of thirty he had achieved a worldwide reputation as a naturalist and had done the most important work on which his reputation as a scientist rests. After this period his scientific contributions, though considerable in amount and valuable, were hampered on the one hand by a too complex, unorganized, and not always harmonious staff of assistants, and on the other hand by the need to raise money to pay debts in which his undertakings involved him.

In 1846 his financial difficulties had reached such an acute stage that his home was broken up, while his wife, the sister of Alexander Braun, the botanist, a student and life-long friend of Agassiz, went with her three children to live with her brother. Agassiz departed for America on a grant obtained in his behalf from the King of Prussia by Alexander von Humboldt. On Agassiz's first visit to Paris in 1831–2 he had met and much attracted Von Humboldt, who was then at the zenith of his power. After this period, Von Humboldt showed his friendship for Agassiz in many ways, not the least of which was the obtaining of this grant.

Agassiz came to America at the age of thirty-nine. His primary object was to study the natural history of the country. He prepared himself, however, to make his visit as profitable as possible and diligently studied English on his long ocean trip. After arriving in America, he visited some of the chief cities of the country and met most of those who at that time were prominent students of natural history in America. He was especially attracted by the work of Dana of Yale and Samuel G. Morton of Philadelphia.

Before Agassiz came to America, his friend Charles Lyell had arranged that he might give a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute in Boston, thus giving him opportunity to supplement his income and at the same time to gain a public introduction. He was enthusiastically greeted.

Agassiz delivered courses of lectures similar to those given at the Lowell Institute in Boston, in Albany, New York, and in Charleston, South Carolina, and with similar success. At the request of the faculty of the College of Physicians in New York, Agassiz gave a series of twelve lectures during the fall of 1847, and from this time on he was constantly in demand by the lecture-loving American public.

In 1847 he was appointed to the chair of Zoology and Geology at the scientific school just established by Abbott Lawrence in connection with Harvard College. The salary attached to the chair, $1,500, was guaranteed by Mr. Lawrence "until such time as the fees of the students should be worth $3,000 to their professor," a time which never came. Agassiz's lectures, with the exception of the more technical lectures addressed to small classes, were always fully attended, but special students were naturally very few in a department of pure science. This was, however, counterbalanced in some degree by the clause in his contract which allowed him entire freedom for lectures elsewhere.

After his appointment, Agassiz removed to Cambridge, where he opened his first course in 1848.

Much of his time was devoted to obtaining funds for the Museum of Comparative Zoology and its organization. So great were his persuasive powers that he obtained generous grants from the state Legislature during war times. In all he raised by public and private subscription about $700,000 for the museum, an amount since greatly increased by gifts from his son, Alexander. Agassiz took part in several scientific expeditions, among them one to Florida, one to Brazil, and one by sea from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast, fully utilizing opportunities thus afforded for obtaining material for his pet museum.

Not long after Agassiz came to America his first wife died and in 1850 he married Elizabeth C. Cary, sister-in-law of President Felton of Harvard University. Mrs. E. C. Agassiz was of the greatest help to her husband. To increase his resources she established a private school for girls in which Agassiz himself was one of the teachers. This proved a success and Agassiz was a great favorite with the pupils.

Agassiz was great as an investigator, as a director of research, and as the founder of a magnificent museum. He was preeminent as a teacher.

Of Agassiz's scientific contributions while in this country, the most important are:

"Lake Superior; its Physical Character, Vegetation and Animals, compared with Those of Other and Similar Regions," March, 1850; "Contributions to the Natural History of the United States." First two volumes issued in 1857, the third in 1860 and the fourth in 1862. There were to be ten volumes, but only four were issued. Agassiz intended the work to be written in a non-technical style and yet to be a scientific contribution. With the exception of the introductory essay on Classification, the articles contained in the four volumes are, however, highly technical in nature. The essay on Classification is valuable in that the subject is taken up from a view opposed to that of Darwin and the evolutionists. The technical papers are on the North American Testudinata, the Embryology of the Turtle, the Acalephs in general, Ctenophoræ, the Discophoræ, and the Hydroidæ. The four volumes owe much to the drawing and engraving of Sonrel, who wore out his eyes in the work, and of Burkhardt and Clark.

In addition to these works, Agassiz published a large number of articles of greater length, a list of which may be found in his Life by Marcou. The topics treated are scattered broadly in the fields of zoology and geology. Some papers are mere sketchy reviews, others are of great importance to science. Among the latter may be mentioned papers on corals and coral reefs, on the embryology of some of the invertebrates, and on the homologies of the radiates.

In the summer of 1851 he became professor of anatomy at the Medical College at Charleston, South Carolina. He had been giving popular lectures on biology for the income which it brought him, and was glad to substitute for these popular lectures in various parts of the country a regular course of instructions for students. While lecturing at the Medical College he established a laboratory on Sullivan's Island and there devoted the greater part of his time to a study of the coast fauna. Three times a week he went to town to deliver lectures on human anatomy. In the following year his professorship at the college continued, but owing to illness he could give little attention to the work. He did not teach again in a medical college. His death took place at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on December 14, 1873.

While Agassiz's influence on natural history in this country was so powerful, he exerted little or no influence on the course of medical education, except in the indirect way of inspiring teachers who could train students in biology as a basis for technical medical study.

Agnew, Cornelius Rea

Agnew, Cornelius Rea (1830–1888)

Cornelius Rea Agnew, surgeon, ophthalmologist and oto-laryngologist, was born in New York City, August 8, 1830, and died there April 18, 1888. In that city, too, he performed the greater portion of his work. His ancestors, Huguenot, Irish and Scotch, came to America from time to time during the 18th century. His father was William, his mother, Elizabeth Thompson Agnew.

When fifteen years of age, he entered Columbia College—an institution which, in after years, was to owe much to his labors—and, at the age of nineteen, received therefrom the •degree of bachelor of arts. In the same year he began to study medicine—after the fashion of the time—with a preceptor, Dr. J. Kearney Rodgers, who for many years was surgeon to the New York Hospital and to the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, as well as professor of anatomy in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. In the last-named institution, the subject of this sketch attended the regular course, and, in 1852, received his professional degree. Serving for a year or more as house surgeon in the New York Hospital, he proceeded in 1854 to what were then the western wilds south of Lake Superior. There for about a year he practised in a village which is now Houghton, Michigan.

Receiving without solicitation the appointment of surgeon to the Eye and Ear Infirmary of New York City, he returned to his native town early in 1855. Soon, however, he sailed for Europe to prepare himself still further for the arduous duties of his new position.