USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > Centennial history of the city of Washington, D. C. With full outline of the natural advantages, accounts of the Indian tribes, selection of the site, founding of the city to the present time > Part 63
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Dr. Johnston was one of the originators of the Pathological Soci- ety in Washington in 1841, and he was an active member of the Clinical Society of the District of Columbia, being elected to all its
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offices. He was also a member of the Medical Association of the District of Columbia and of the American Medical Association, being vice-president of the latter in 1888. He conceived the idea of estab- lishing an association for the young and active members of the profession, in which they might acquire greater freedom of debate than in the older body, suggesting the founding of the "Clinico-Path- ological Society," which for some years was a successful working organization. It has recently been revived, and is now a thriving body.
For many years, Dr. Johnston was a member of the advisory and consulting board of Providence Hospital, and gave clinical lectures in its wards. He was an active participant in the founding of the Children's Hospital, and to the furthering of the prosperity of this charity devoted a great deal of time and energy. At the time of his death, he was president of the medical board. He was devoted to his profession and its interests, giving his entire time to the most laborious work, and rarely seeking rest and recreation. Ile was also actively interested in the development of the material prosperity of Wash- ington, and was one of the founders and original directors of the Arlington Fire Insurance Company.
Dr. Johnston's genial and courteous manners, together with the regard he always had for the feelings of others, gained for him the esteem of the profession and of the public; and his kindness of heart and sympathy for distress and affliction endeared him to all who ever solicited his advice. It was this feeling that prompted him to aid the imprisoned Confederates in the Old Capitol Prison, for which purpose he obtained the permission of Secretary Stanton for Dr. J. C. Hall, F. B. McGuire, and himself to visit the prisoners, and for a long time he ministered to their urgent material necessities. It was only when reports came of the maltreatment of the Union soldiers in Southern prisons that this permission was taken away.
During the thirty-five years of his professional career, Dr. John- ston enjoyed the most uninterrupted good health, being noted for his vigor and untiring energy. But in time, the organ that had borne the brunt of great physical exertion began to show signs of disturb- ance, and after a few months' illness, with marked symptoms of cardiac disease, he passed away.
Grafton Tyler, M. D., was descended from a family of Tylers that came from England and settled in Maryland in 1660. He was born November 21, 1811, and was the second son of Grafton and Ann II. ( Plummer) Tyler, and brother of Professor Samuel Tyler, of Columbia College, Washington. Dr. Tyler began the study of medi-
James & Morgan M &
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cine with Dr. Richard Hockett, and attended lectures at the University of Maryland, and was an office student of Samuel Baker, Sr., of Baltimore. He graduated from the University of Maryland in 1833. Although at first inclined to surgery, he gradually settled down to general family practice. In 1843 he removed to Georgetown, where he acquired a good business and was for many years physician to Georgetown College. In 1846 he was elected to the chair of pathol- ogy and practice of medicine in the Medical Department of the Columbian University, and a few years later to that of clinical medi- cine in the Washington Infirmary. In 1859 he resigned both positions, but was immediately elected emeritus professor. For six years he served as a member of the board of visitors to the Government hos- pital for the insane. He was a member of all the medical societies and associations of Washington, and was consulting physician to Providence Hospital and president of its medical board from its opening in 1863. He also contributed largely to the medical literature of his day. He died August 26, 1884, and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.
James Ethelbert Morgan, M. D., an eminently successful physician of Washington, was a descendant of the Morgans of Monmouthshire, in Wales, and of the Cecils of Kent, England. The Morgans, being Catholics and adherents of James I., were, upon a change of rulers, compelled to leave Great Britain and seek an asylum with Lord Baltimore in Maryland. James E. Morgan was the son of George and Maria (Cecil) Morgan, and was born in St. Mary's County, Mary- land, September 25, 1822, and received his education at St. John's College, at Frederick, Maryland. In 1845, he graduated in medicine from the Columbia Medical College, and settled in Washington as a practitioner, soon securing a large and lucrative practice in all branches of his profession. He also collected around him a considerable number of young students, to whom he gave clinical lectures in his office. In 1848 he was appointed demonstrator of anatomy in the National Med- ical College, and in 1852 he accepted the chair of physiology in the medical department of the University of Georgetown. In 1858, he was transferred to the chair of materia medica and therapeutics, which he continued to fill until 1876, when he retired from active duties, but continued as emeritus professor. He took charge of the Soldiers' Rest, an institution for the reception of sick and disabled soldiers on their `way from the Union armies in the South. He was appointed, in con- nection with Robert King Stone, to investigate the National Hotel disease, which, while it lasted, caused such an excitement throughout the United States. He was president of the Medical Society of the
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District of Columbia, and was one of the earlier members of the Amer- ican Medical Association. He filled numerous offices; civil and profes- sional, all of which serves to indicate the character of the man. He died June 2, 1889.
Robert King Stone, M. D., was a native of Washington, and one of its most distinguished physicians. He was born in 1822, and died from apoplexy April 23, 1872. At an early age he entered Princeton College, and ranked among its brightest students, graduating with the bachelor's degree in 1842. Returning to Washington, he entered the office of Dr. Thomas Miller, by whom he was selected as assistant in the dissecting room. After attending a course of lectures at the National Medical College, he entered the University of Pennsylvania, graduating therefrom in 1845. He then attended the hopitals of London, Edinburgh, Vienna, and Paris, making a special study of ophthalmic surgery and the diseases of the eye and ear. Ilis favorite studies, however, were comparative anatomy and operative surgery, in both of which he acquired more than ordinary distinction. Returning to Washington in 1847, he began a course of lectures on general practice, and became assistant to the chair of anatomy in the National Medical College, and in 1848 was appointed adjunct professor to the chair of anatomy and physiology. His brilliant career was suddenly cut short by a painful accident, being thrown from his carriage and having his thigh fractured in such a way that recovery was extremely slow, and he never again engaged in active practice. In 1849 Dr. Stone married a daughter of Thomas Ritchie, founder of the Richmond Enquirer, and in 1845 of the Washington Union.
Alexander Yelverton Peyton Garnett, M. D., was a son of Muscoe and Maria Willis ( Battaile ) Garnett, and was born in Essex County, Virginia, September 19, 1820. IIe graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in the spring of 1841, and entered the United States naval service as assistant and past assistant surgeon, serving until 1848, when he resigned and located in Washington, where he began the practice of medicine, and continued thus engaged here until the time of his death, with the exception of the period when he was in the service of the Confederate States. During this time he was in charge of the two hospitals at Richmond, and he was a member of the board of medical examiners for the Confederate Army. From 1858 to 1861, and again from 1867 to 1870, he was professor of clinical medicine in the National Medical College, and was afterward emeritus professor of the same institution. HIe married, June 13, 1848, Mary E. Wise, daughter of the Hon. Henry A. Wise, of Virginia.
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Louis Mackall, Jr., son of Louis Mackall preceding, by his first wife, was born in Prince George's County, Maryland, April 10, 1831. IIe was educated in Georgetown, District of Columbia, at W. R. Abbott's classical seminary, and at Georgetown College. Ile graduated in medi- cine from the University of Maryland in 1851, and began the practice of medicine in Georgetown. For some time he held the chair of clinical medicine in Georgetown College, and was subsequently profes- sor of physiology in the same institution. He was married in 1851 to Margaret W. MeVeam, of Georgetown.
Daniel Randall Hagner, M. D., is the son of Peter Hagner, who for nearly fifty years held the position of Third Auditor of the Treasury. He was born in Washington July 19, 1830; was educated at St. James College, in the medical department of Columbia College, and in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating from the latter institution in 1851. In the same year, he established himself in Washington, paying special attention to diseases of the chest. Ile was a member of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, and published an important work entitled "Vaccination and Revaccination," which was published by order of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia. For ten years he was attending physician at Providence Hospital, a member of the advisory and consulting board, and also attending physician to St. Anne's Infant Asylum, and also a member of the advisory and consulting board.
Jolm C. Riley, M. D., son of Joshua Riley, M. D., was born in Georgetown, District of Columbia, December 15, 1828, and died at his residence February 22, 1879. He studied and graduated at Georgetown College, and became a student in the National Medical College in Washington, graduating in 1851, and immediately entered upon the practice of medicine. In 1859, he succeeded his father in the chair of materia medica, pharmacy, and therapeutics in the medical department of the Columbian University, and occupied the chair until within a few years of his death. He was a member of the various medical associa- tions in Washington, and was consulting physician to Providence Hospital, to the Central Free Dispensary, and to the Washington Eye and Ear Infirmary, and it is believed that his assiduous devotion to his duties caused his early death.
William Gray Palmer, M. D., was the son of W. P. Palmer, of Montgomery County, Maryland, and was born in that county Feb- ruary 22, 1824. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1844, and removed to Washington in 1852. He was a member of the Medical Society and of the Medical Association of the District
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of Columbia, in 1863 being made secretary of the former, and in 1872 its president. He was also a member of the city Council. In 1847 he married Miss Jackson, of Washington, a member of the Lowndes family of Maryland.
Nathan Smith Lincoln, M. D., LL. D., was born at Gardner, Mas- sachusetts, and is the eldest son of Gracia Eliza Smith and the Rev. Increase Sumner Lincoln. His ancestors on both sides are English, his father being a descendant of the famous Lincolns of Hingham, Massachusetts, who emigrated to this country in 1635, to which family President Lincoln also belonged. On the maternal side, Dr. Lincoln is descended from the Rev. Peter Bulkley, of Bulkley Manor, England. His great-grandfather was General Jonathan Chase, of Revolutionary fame, and it is a curious coincidence that while, on the one side, General Chase drew up the articles of surrender for Burgoyne's army at Saratoga, General Benjamin Lincoln received the sword of Cornwallis, when he surrendered to Washington at Yorktown.
Dr. Lincoln belongs to a family distinguished not only in war, but in the ranks of science and learning. His grandfather, Dr. Nathan Smith, was the most celebrated surgeon of his day, having founded the medical schools of Yale and Dartmouth, occupying the surgical chair of Yale at the time of his death in 1829. IIe was also professor of surgery at Bowdoin College and the University of Vermont.
At the time of Dr. Lincoln's birth, and for many years after, his father, the Rev. Increase Sumner Lincoln, held the pastorate of the First Congregational Church of Gardner, Massachusetts, until he beeame a Unitarian. Ile was widely known as a scholar, and associ- ated himself with the Abolition Party at an early stage of its exist- ence, being a warm friend of Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison. He died in 1890, at the advanced age of ninety-one, at that time being the oldest Unitarian minister in the United States, and having been actively engaged in the ministry for sixty-five years.
Dr. Lincoln was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1850, re- ceiving at that time the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts, and since then that of Doctor of Laws from his alma mater. Hle studied medicine under his uncle, Dr. Nathan R. Smith, of Baltimore, at the same time attending medical lectures at the University of Mary- land, and received his degree of Doctor of Medicine from that institution in 1852. Until January, 1854, he practiced his profession in Baltimore, and since that date has been established in Washington, holding many offices of distinction. In 1857 he was elected professor of chemistry in Columbian University; in 1859, was made professor of theory and
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practice of medicine; in 1860, professor of anatomy and physiology, and in 1861, professor of surgery. The latter chair was retained until 1874, when he resigned it on account of the pressure of private prac- tice. After serving for several years as one of the surgeons to the Washington Infirmary, he was appointed by President Lincoln, in 1861, surgeon to the District of Columbia volunteers, and having served three months, was then made surgeon-in-chief of the hospitals established in Washington by the Quartermaster's Department of the army, a position which he held during the War of the Rebellion and for some months after its close. In 1866 he was elected one of the surgeons to the Providence Hospital, an appointment that he resigned in 1875. He was, for a number of years, physician to the Deaf-Mute College and to several other institutions. Having made a specialty of surgery, he has performed successfully a large number of important operations, including amputations at the hip joint, lithotomy, remov- ing tumors from the region of the head and neck, ligation of the large arteries, etc. He is a member of the District of Columbia Medieal Society, was its vice-president in 1872, and its president in 1875-76; a member of the American Medical Society, and of the Archeological Society of the United States; president of the Alumni Association of the University of Maryland, and a member of the Philosophical Society of Washington.
Joseph Meredith Toner, M. D., was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- vania, April 30, 1825. He received his classical education at Western Pennsylvania University and at Mount St. Mary's College, and grad- uated at Vermont Medical College in 1850, and at Jefferson Medical College in 1853. After a short residence at Summitville, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, he settled at Washington, District of Columbia, in 1855. He was one of the found- ers of Providence Hospital and of St. Anne's Infant Asylum, to both of which he was for some years visiting physician. Since 1856 he has been attending physician to St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum.
Being aware of the perishable nature of the early medical litera- ture of this country, he devised a plan for a repository of medical works by the American Medical Association, that should be nuder the control of the medical profession and located at Washington. This collection now contains six thousand volumes, and is deposited in the Smithsonian Institution. In 1871 he founded the Toner Lectures, plac- ing $3,000, which has now increased to $5,000, in the hands of trustees who are charged with the duties of procuring two lectures annually containing some new fact valuable to medical science. The interest of
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this fund, except ten per cent., which is annually added to the prin- cipal, is paid to the authors of the lectures, which are included in the regular Smithsonian publications. This was the first course of lectures endowed in this country on these conditions. In 1875, and for three subsequent years, he gave the Toner medal at Jefferson Medical Col- lege to the person presenting the best thesis embodying the results of original investigation, and for many years he has given a medal to the University of Georgetown to encourage original observations.
He was president of the American Medical Association in 1873, and of the American Health Association in 1874. IIe was a vice- president of the International Medical Congress in 1876, and a vice- president and registrar of the Ninth International Congress in 1887. He has devoted much time and research to early American medical literature, and has collected more than one thousand treatises published before 1800, and has in preparation a "Biographical Dictionary of Deceased American Physicians." In 1882, he gave his entire library, consisting of twenty - eight thousand books and eighteen thousand pamphlets, to the Government of the United States, to be known as "The Toner Collection," and this library is now a portion of the Congressional Library, though it is required by law to be kept sepa- rate, and treated as rare books. He has contributed largely to medical literature, a number of his works being named in another chapter in this volume.
Thomas Antisell, M. D., was the son of a lawyer, and his ancestry is traced back to the last English crusaders. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, January 16, 1817, and was educated at Trinity College, Dub- lin, at the Dublin School of Medicine, at the Irish Apothecaries' Hall School, and graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons, London, in November, 1839. He practiced in Dublin until 1848, in New York until 1854, and came to Washington in 1856. During most of his medical career, he was a teacher of medicine, his specialties being analytical and technical chemistry. He was a member of the various medical and seientific societies of the District of Columbia, and cou- tributed liberally to medical literature. During the War of the Rebellion, he had charge of the military hospital at Charlottesville, from July, 1861, to May, 1862, and from September, 1862, to the close of the War. In the interval, he had charge of the hospital in Danville, Virginia.
W. W. Johnston, M. D., son of Dr. William P. Johnston, was born in Washington December 28, 1843, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in March, 1865. He was one year resident
J.m. Toner M. 2.
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in Bellevue Hospital, New York, and for six months in Charity and other hospitals on Blackwell's Island. Going to Edinburgh, he became clinical assistant to Professor J. Hughes Bennett, and also assistant to Dr. T. Granger Stewart, pathologist to the Royal Infirmary. After- ward he pursued his studies in Paris. In 1858, he returned to Washington, and has since been engaged in general medical practice. Since 1871, he has been professor of the theory and practice of medi- cine in the medical department of Columbian University; is consulting physician to the Children's Hospital, and has served as president of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, of the Medical Asso- ciation, and of the Washington Obstetrical and Gynecological Society.
Armistead Peter, M. D., was a son of Major George Peter, who entered the army of the United States in 1799, and who was a member of Congress from Maryland. He was born in Montgomery County, Maryland, February 23, 1840. He studied medicine at the National Medical College of the District of Columbia, and in the medical depart- ment of the Columbian University, graduating in 1861. Immediately afterward, he settled in Georgetown in the practice of medicine. He was a member of the medical societies of the District of Columbia, was a member of the Georgetown board of health, and during the War was acting assistant surgeon of the United States Army. He married in 1867 Martha C. Kennon, daughter of Commodore Beverly Kennou, of the United States Navy.
Charles Mason Ford, M. D., was the son of John N. Ford, of Troy, New York, and was born May 15, 1840. He died of rheumatic fever in Washington, February 15, 1884. He began the study of medicine with Dr. Alfred Watkins, of Troy, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1861. He was soon afterward appointed assistant surgeon of the navy, and assigned to duty with the Hunts- ville blockading squadron under Captain Cicero Price. Contracting rhenmatism, he resigned and came to Washington, where he was appointed assistant surgeon and assigned to duty at Clifton Hospital, and afterward to special duty at the Old Capitol Prison. As soon as he determined to settle permanently in Washington, he became con- neeted with Providence Hospital, and for more than fourteen years was on the medical staff of that institution. For some years he was physician at the Washington Almshouse, and at the time of his death, which occurred February 15, 1884, he was surgeon to the Bal- timore and Potomac Railroad Company. Dr. Ford stood high in his profession, as he did in Masonry, and was greatly beloved by both his professional and Masonic brethren.
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Gideon Stinson Palmer, M. D., was born in Gardiner, Maine, June 14, 1813. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1838, and afterward studied medicine and graduated at the Maine Medical School in 1841. At the beginning of the War, he enlisted as a volunteer surgeon, and served as brigade surgeon on General Howard's staff in the Army of the Potomac until the close of the War. He was in charge of Lincoln Hospital, and of the army hospital at Annapolis, retiring with rank of brevet lieutenant-colonel. In 1869, at the request of General Howard, he took the chair of physiology and hygiene in the medical department of Howard University, and was for many years dean of the university faculty, and surgeon in charge of the Freedmen's Hospital. He died December 8, 1891, in the seventy-ninth year of his age.
Daniel Webster Prentiss, M. D., was born in Washington, District of Columbia, May 21, 1843, as were his parents before him. His father, William Henry Prentiss, was born in 1796. The father of William Henry Prentis was William Prentiss, a son of Caleb Prentiss, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. William Prentiss was a merchant, and was associated with Joseph Greenleaf in building a row of brick houses on Greenleaf's Point about the year 1797, in one of which houses Wil- liam Henry Prentiss was born. William Henry Prentiss married Miss Sarah A. Cooper, daughter of Isaac Cooper, a merchant in Washing- ton. Dr. D. W. Prentiss's grandmother, on the father's side, was Eunice Payne (Greenleaf) Prentiss, a niece of Robert Treat Payne, and a cousin of John Howard Payne, author of "Home, Sweet Home"; so that William Henry Prentiss was grandnephew to Robert Treat Payne and second consin to John Howard Payne. The general education of Dr. Prentiss was obtained in the schools of Washington and at Colum- bian University, from which institution he received, in 1861, the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, and the degree of Master of Arts in 1864. Hle received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania in 1864. He was married to Emilie A. Schmidt, daughter of Frederick Schmidt, of Rhenish Bavaria, October 12, 1864. Their chil- dren are Louise, married to Frederick W. True, of the United States National Museum; Eunice, who died at the age of seventeen, and three sons-Spencer Baird, Daniel Webster, Jr., and Elliott. In 1864, he became engaged in the general practice of medicine in Washington, and has since then continuously held a prominent position in the profession. Since 1879, he has been professor of materia medica and therapeutics in the medical department of Columbian University. He was a member of the Board of Health in 1864; lecturer on dietetics and administra- tion of medicines in the Nurses' Training School, and dean of the
Sweater Prestito
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medical faculty of the Training School in 1878-83; a trustee in that school in 1880-84, and president of the board in 1884; physician in charge of the eye and ear service of Columbian Dispensary, 1874-78; visiting physician to Providence Hospital in 1882, and a commissioner of pharmacy of the District of Columbia since its organization, and president of the board since 1888. Dr. Prentiss is a member of the Medical Society, Medical Association, Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, Clinico-Pathological Society, the Philosophical, the Biological, Geographical, and Anthropological societies of the District of Colum- bia; is a member of the American Medical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association of Amer- ican Physicians, and was a delegate to the International Medical Con- gress at Copenhagen, in 1884, and to Berlin in 1890. He has delivered numerous lectures under various auspices in his native city. "Hypno- tism in Animals," given in a popular course at the National Museum, appeared in the American Naturalist, September, 1882. By invitation of Spencer F. Baird, he delivered a course of lectures on materia medica at the National Museum in 1883. Some of the leading papers which Dr. Prentiss has contributed to medical literature are the following:
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