Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Stillé, Alfred

Stillé, Alfred, physician, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 30 Oct., 1813. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1832 and at the medical department of that university in 1836, after which he was elected resident physician of the Philadelphia hospital. Dr. Stillé then spent two years in higher medical studies in Paris and elsewhere in Europe, and in 1851 resumed them in Vienna. During 1839–'41 he was resident physician to the Pennsylvania hospital. In 1844 he began to lecture on pathology and the practice of medicine before the Pennsylvania association for medical instruction, and continued do so until 1850, also becoming physician to St. Joseph's hospital in 1849. He was elected professor of the theory and practice of medicine in Pennsylvania medical college in 1854, and filled that chair until 1859. In 1864 he was chosen to a similar place in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, which he held until 1884, when he was made professor emeritus. During 1865–'71 he was physician and lecturer on clinical medicine in the Philadelphia hospital. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him in 1876 by Pennsylvania college. He is a member of various medical societies, and was president of the Philadelphia county medical society in 1862, and of the American medical association in 1871, and of the College of physicians of Philadelphia in 1885. Dr. Stillé has contributed to medical journals, and was associated with Dr. J. Forsyth Meigs in the translation of Andral's "Pathological Hæmatology" (Philadelphia, 1844). Among his works are "Medical Instruction in the United States" (1845); "Elements of General Pathology" (1848); "Report on Medical Literature" (1850); "The Unity of Medicine" (1856): "Humboldt's Life and Characters" (1859); "Therapeutics and Materia Medica: a Systematic Treatise on the Actions and Uses of Medicinal Agents" (2 vols., 1860); "War as an Instrument of Civilization" (1862); and "Epidemic Meningitis, or Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis" (1867). He was associated with John M. Maisch in the preparation of the "National Dispensatory" (1879), and he edited the second edition of the "Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence," originally written by his brother, Moreton Stillé, with Francis Wharton.— His brother, Charles Janeway, historian, b. in Philadelphia, 23 Sept., 1819; d. there, 11 Aug., 1899, was graduated at Yale, and, after studying law, devoted his attention to literature. During the civil war he was an active member of the executive committee of the U. S. sanitary commission, of which he afterward became the historian. In 1866 he was appointed professor of history in the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1868 became provost, which place he filled until 1880. While holding this office he convinced the trustees and faculty of the necessity of considering the demands of advanced education, especially in the scientific branches, and largely through his influence the new buildings in West Philadelphia were erected and the scientific department was founded. The edifice shown in the illustration represents the library building erected in 1888–'9 on the university grounds. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Yale in 1868. In addition addition numerous addresses and pamphlets, he has published "How a Free People conduct a Long War" (Philadelphia, 1862), "Northern Interest and Southern Independence: a Plea for United Action" (1863); "Memorial of the Great Central Fair for the United States Sanitary Commission" (1864); "History of the United States Sanitary Commission" (1866); and Studies in Mediæval History" (1881).—Another brother, Moreton, physician, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 27 Oct., 1822; d. in Saratoga Springs, N. Y., 20 Aug., 1855, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1841, and after studying medicine with his brother, Alfred Stillé, was graduated at the medical department of the university in 1844. Subsequently he spent three years in the medical schools of Dublin, London, Paris, and Vienna, and on his return in 1847 settled in Philadelphia, where he began practice. In 1848 he was elected one of the resident physicians of the Pennsylvania hospital, which post he held for nine months, and in June. 1849, during the cholera epidemic of that year, he was appointed to serve in the Philadelphia almshouse, where he was stricken with the disease and narrowly escaped with his life. In 1855 he was appointed lecturer on the theory and practice of medicine in the Philadelphia association for medical instruction, and completed his first course of lectures there. Dr. Stillé contributed various articles to the medical journals of Philadelphia, and was associated with Francis Wharton in the preparation of a "Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence" (Philadelphia, 1855).