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Gettysburg, Dr. Beech continued work in the express office building, while the tide of battle swept through the town, leaving him and his fellow surgeons prisoners. As the enemy did not molest them, they continued operating for three days, with an occasional meal. After this battle Surgeon Chamberlain, chief of the divi- sion, requested the operating surgeons to submit cases of injuries at or near the shoulder joint to Dr. Beech because of his skill and good judgment in their manage- ment. Dr. Beech was opposed to ampu- tating in such cases because of the excel- lent results following resection. In Feb- ruary, 1S65, the twenty-fourth Michigan Volunteers were sent to Camp Butler, near Springfield, Illinois. Surgeon Beech re- mained behind to transfer brigade supplies to his successor. On reaching Camp But- ler, he found his regiment quartered in filthy barracks with no hospital accom- modations, and the survivors of twenty battles rapidly sinking under the bad con- ditions of living. An hour later he had the ridge boards torn from the roofs and the banking boards removed from the foundations. In a few days the comman- dant directed Dr. Beech to inspect the entire camp and supervise making the needed improvements. This completed, Dr. Beech resumed private practice, though limiting it to consultations and surgery. Dr. Beech was below the av- erage size, never of robust health, so that his father did all he could to prevent his studying medicine, but such was his love for it that neither poor health, his father's financial reverses, the protestations of friends, availed to dissuade him. He led a most strenuous life, had refined and ele- vated tastes, never wavered in what he re- garded as duty, but was ever courteous and strong in attachment to his friends. Dr. Beech married three times but left no children, first, Eliza C. Crownse in Jan- uary, 1S42, who died in 1859; in January, 1861, Mary Jane Parry, who died June 24, 1872; and on August 26, 1875, Mrs. Sarah E. Skeels of Coldwater.
He died of acute pneumonia at his home in Coldwater, October 17, 1878.
BEECH
Among his writings were:
"Drainage." ("Transactions of the American Medical Association," vol. xxv.)
"Diseases of Branch County, Mich- igan." ("Transactions of the American Medical Association," vol. ii).
"Topography and Diseases of Mich- igan." ("Transactions of the American Medical Association, " vol. xii.)
"Removal of Abnormal Uterine Growths." ("The Physician and Surgeon, " Ann Abor, vol. i.)
"Puerperal Peritonitis Treated Hypo- dermically with Morphine." ("Detroit Review of Medicine and Pharmacy, " vol. ii.)
"Proper Method of Using a Barrel in Resuscitating Persons Asphyxiated by Drowning." ("Detroit Review of Medicine and Pharmacy, " vol. vii.)
"Reduction of Backward Dislocations of the Proximal End of the Ulna or Ulna and Radius." (" Detroit Review of Med- icine and Pharmacy," vol. vii.)
"Treatment of Dissecting Wounds." ("Detroit Review of Medicine and Phar- macy, " vol. vii.)
" Death From Calcareous Degeneration of Arterial Tunics." (" Detroit Lancet, " vol. i.)
"The Postpartum Binder." ("Detroit Review of Medicine and Pharmacy," vol. ix.)
"Scrofula and Struma." ("Detroit Review of Medicine and Pharmacy, " vol. ix.)
"Diseases of the Vesicular Seminales." ("Peninsular Medical Journal," vol. i.)
"Successful Use of Belladonna Exter- nally in Obstipation Caused Probably by Lead Poisoning." ("Peninsular Medical Journal," vol. iv, p. 113.)
"Report on Diseases Prevalent in Coldwater, Michigan, in 1857." ("Pen- insular and Independent Medical Jour- nal," vol. i.)
"Use of Antimon. et Potass. Tartrat. in Hyperemic Hysteria." ("Peninsular Medical Journal," vol. v.)
"New Apparatus for Dressing Frac- tured Clavicles." ("Medical Independ- ent," vol. iii.1
