Howard Atwood Kelly

“ Wood was a genius, but he had that which counts for more than genius in the long run, a tremendous capacity for work and an infinite power of application, an unremitting insistence on taking pains. He never attacked a subject which he did not master thoroughly. What he knew he knew. This same thing he endeavored to instill into the minds of his pupils, and there are many now who have achieved success in their profession because of having followed his example. ”

“ Hardly any other medical name in New Hampshire stands out brighter than that of Hall Jackson, for he was kind to the poor, charming in manners, genial in society, skilful in every branch of medicine which he practised, and above all an honest patriot. ”

“ With all his long and bitter struggle with poverty and for professional recognition, and in his early days for health and life itself, time had dealt gently with his form and face, whereon nature had set in unmistakable lines the stamp of greatness. ”

“ I never have spent one night out of camp since I came into it, and a bed and myself have been practically strangers these seven months. Yet I never have had one beginning of a regret at my decision to devote what may be left of life and ability to the great cause. I have, as you know, four young motherless children. Painful as it is to leave such a charge, even in the worthiest hands, I have forced myself into reconciliation by the reflection that the great issue under the stern arbitrament of arms is, whether or not our children are to have a country. ”

“ He was forever rushing hither and thither, to the United States, to France, to England, back to Mauritius, writing, lecturing, experimenting, making warm friends everywhere, notably Agassiz, Sumner, Longfellow in the United States, often fighting for his theories against unbelief and opposition, at other times lifted high on the tide of popularity, as when for instance he helped to stamp out an epidemic of cholera in Port Louis and his compatriots presented him with a gold medal in token of their gratitude. ”

“ Bowling, medical editor, was asked how old he was, he said, "When the Third Napoleon, Emperor of the French, Salmon P. Chase, Robert E. Lee, Andrew Johnson, and Jefferson Davis came into the world, and when the American slave trade terminated by a provision of the Constitution of the United States, I came—born when giant men came, and when a giant sin and outrage died." ”

“ During his arduous work in the Library at Washington Billings found time to write numerous articles and treatises, and whatever he wrote bears the marks of his originality and shows the brilliancy of his strong and versatile mind. With fondness he delved in the past of American medicine, and his writings on the history of medicine in the United States belong to the best that have appeared in this field. No man knew better than he the shortcomings of medical education in this country. ”

“ Our principle of selection has been to include every man who has in any way contributed to the advancement of medicine in the United States or in Canada, or who, being a physician, has become illustrious in some other field of general science or in literature. Ministering to suffering humanity through an extensive practice has seemed to us not to distinguish a physician from his fellows sufficiently for inclusion. ”

“ Sixty-five years ago, for a young medical practitioner in an obscure village, far from contact with centers of thought, removed from railroads, enjoying but modest postal facilities, with no great hospital organizations or medical associations to confirm his professional research, for a modest, diffident, young physician to claim so startling a discovery as anesthesia has proven to be without first securing most exhaustive proof of its worth, would have brought upon him the adverse criticism of his elders, and possibly the laughter of his colleagues. ”

“ Wormley's elder daughter, Mrs, John Marshall, of Philadelphia—with whom the mother resided after her husband's death.
Dr. Wormley was a man of medium height, always smooth-shaven, and had brown hair and blue eyes. He was a healthy, vigorous man, and delighted to go the winter through without an overcoat.
He was not merely a scientist of super-abounding energy, but also a man of strong and sincere affections and sentiments, a lover of nature, of music, and his home.
His love of nature is shown by his wide-ranging investigations in other fields than that of his own particular specialty. ”

“ Though an American citizen, he held the position of official muncipal surgeon in Santa Barbara, where he gained fame by his original, drastic and effective methods of stamping out an epidemic of malignant smallpox. In Mexico, smallpox, fully erupted, stalks the streets and jostles the crowds, thronging the open air markets in the Plaza; so hopeless is the situation that mothers carry their little children to the bedside of the affected patient to insure catching the disease, to have it over with, so as to avoid the trouble and expense of raising them to die of it later on. ”

“ His graceful delivery and modulated voice, the rounded sentences of pure English, and a wealth of illustration enabled him to breathe life and beauty into the driest of medical themes and to enthuse the dullest of students. ”

“ Three years after he entered upon his duties at the Jefferson he published his splendid "System of Surgery"—a work which, though in many respects now obsolete as to its pathology and its practice, is a mine of information, a monument of untiring labor, a textbook worthy of its author. It has been the companion and guide of many generations of students. ”

“ Extremely lucid in his ideas, with a remarkable capacity for seizing the general principle in a mass of facts, and with a terseness of speech that was his own, he never failed to win and keep the attention of students whether in the lecture room or at the bedside clinic. It was his great efficiency as a teacher, as well as his standing as a scientific surgeon, that led to his appointment as professor of surgery and clinical surgery when the amalgamation of the faculty of Trinity Medical College with that of the University of Toronto took place. ”

“ If this be true, and no intelligent man would deny it, how deeply interesting becomes the inquiry whether the citizens of this State are sufficiently enlightened to know and value their own rights, to discern and to provide against the invasions of them, to distinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of lawful authority, to discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness—to cherish the one and to avoid the other. ”

“ Edward Warren, made Bey by the Firman of the Khedive, Ismail Pasha, is one of the most bizarre and picturesque figures in the annals of American medicine, having passed through the successive transformations of country doctor, professor, surgeon-general and chevalier of the Legion of Honor, as he journeyed from the swamps of Carolina and the shores of the Chesapeake to the Nile and the Seine, practising on three continents and received everywhere with acclaim. ”

“ Whether he wrote history, essays upon geology, on medical themes, biography, the advancement of education, or the wisdom, the power and beneficence of the Creator in His works he seemed to make each theme his own, and he adorned it with life and beauty. ”

“ As a surgeon Gross was painstaking, thorough and careful in his investigation of a case, skilful as an operator, and, having so vast an experience and equally extensive acquaintance with the wide literature of his profession, he was scarcely ever perplexed by the most difficult case and rarely at a loss as to the proper course to pursue in the most unexpected emergencies. ”

“ Here he was always at home, and it was characteristic of the man that he was as equally at ease, equally happy, 'rubbing a salamander' at the Orpheus as at the council table of Harvard. With artist and artizan, mechanic or musician, professor or publicist, Dr. Wood was always on the same plane, equally happy, equally admired and admiring. It is to be doubted if he had an enemy in the world, and although such a condition generally predicates a nonentity it may be safely affirmed that if he had an enemy that man's enmity was a compliment. ”

“ His German birth and training predisposed him to the accurate and painstaking methods essential for scientific research and he had in addition an enormous capacity for work and a vitalizing enthusiasm for the subjects in which he was most interested—hygiene and sanitation. Beneath a naturally stiff formal manner, accentuated by military life, there was a heart of infinite kindness which responded to every appeal. ”

“ In November, 1904, he removed from Burlington to New York City. There he engaged in medico-legal practice until his death, and was remarkably successful.
He was of medium height, of rather heavy build, his hair red, his eyes large and deep blue. His face was always kindly, yet ever changing its expression. A quick and active man, full of nervous force and magnetism; a hard student and exceedingly fond of his profession. He loved all children and, though extremely busy, he somehow managed to spare the time in which to talk with and to play with them. ”

“ His books, all written in the midst of most fatiguing obstetrical and general medical practice and lecturing, were a remarkable example of what the human machine can accomplish. Consistent with his idea that men ought to retire before losing the power of judging their own fitness for duty, he sent in his resignation when he was sixty-seven, a resignation unwillingly accepted by the dean, faculty and students. He had a dramatic style of lecturing that held the attention of his hearers and he lectured on the Augustan age of Roman literature as well as on obstetrics. ”

“ Among all Virginia's writers few have had the love to feel, and the gift to portray, Virginia life as Bagby had. He was the first to picture Virginia as she was.... When the old life shall have completely passed away, as all life of a particular kind must pass, the curious reader may find in George W. Bagby's pages, pictured with a sympathy, a fidelity and an art, which may be found nowhere else, the old Virginia life precisely as it was lived before the War, in the tidewater and southside sections of Virginia.... ”

“ In the Woodlands Cemetery, Philadelphia, is an urn containing the ashes of Samuel D. Gross with this inscription in part: "A master in surgery. He filled chairs in four medical colleges, in as many states of the union, and added lustre to them all. He recast surgical science as taught in North America, formulated anew its principles, enlarged its domain, added to its art, and imparted fresh impetus to its study. He composed many books and among them "A System of Surgery," which is read in different tongues, wherever the healing art is practised." ”

“ A cyclopedia of this sort becomes a North American "Who's Who" of our medical predecessors, and serves at once to identify, and to give at least the outline facts in the life of, any eminent departed worthy. Even a cursory glance at this long list of the illustrious dead ought to inspire us who are left to pass along the torch, to greater zeal in our daily tasks. ”

“ Marion Sims was born in Lancaster District, South Carolina, January 25, 1813. He attended the common schools there, entered the Franklin Academy in 1825, and later was sent to the South Carolina College at Columbia, from which he graduated in December, 1832. Speaking of himself at this time he says:
"I never was remarkable for anything while I was in college except good behavior. Nobody ever expected anything of me, and I never expected anything of myself." What a mistake of the youth concerning the man who was to achieve the greatest reputation ever accorded to an American surgeon. ”