Din (il.AS
DOUGLASS
field, a duty which under various titles
he conducted during the next thirty-
two years after Dr. Houghton's death.
For several years he employed a private
chemical laboratory for teaching, but
in 1856 the Regents, at his solicitation,
erected a chemical laboratory at a cost
of six thousand dollars and made practi-
cal chemistry a part of the curriculum.
This was his great contribution to
medical teaching — the initiation of lab-
oratory training for the degree of M. D.
He was largely interested in the founding
of the medical department and remained
with it until 1877, and had also charge
of the erection of the observatory
building at the university, the medical
building, and other university works,
doing good work as well in organizing
the Ann Arbor water and gas works.
While on his geological tours he collected
a large cabinet of minerals which he
gave to the university. The latter
years of his life were embittered by a
controversy over his accounts with the
university, the matter finally reaching
the Supreme Court and being decided in
his favor. On May 1, 1S45, Dr. Douglas
married Helen Wells, who with seven
children survived him when he died
in Ann Arbor, August 26, 1890, from
paralysis.
His chief writings included:
"Common Sense in Ventilation." (Michigan University Medical Journal," vol. i.)
"Method of Conducting Post-mortem Examinations in Cases of Suspected Poisoning." ("Peninsular Medical Jour- nal," vol. i.)
"On the Analysis of Waters." (Penin- sular Medical Journal," vol. i.)
"Michigan Coal; Its Analysis and Value for Gas." ("Peninsular Medical Journal," vol. iv.)
He was the author of a system of chemical tables which passed through four editions and which, enlarged by the aid of Prof. A. B. Prescott, M. D., into a text-book on "Qualitative Chemical Analysis," met a wide acceptance (three editions). L. C.
Hist. Univ. Mich., Ann Arbor, Mich., 1906.
Life by Prescott, Michigan Alumnus, Oct.,
1902.
Portrait in Faculty Room, Medical Dept.,
Ann Arbor.
Douglass, William (1690-1752).
Dr. Douglass was born in Gifford, near Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1690. It is not known when he first came to America, but it is known that he studied in Paris, and was familiar with Latin, Greek, English, French and Dutch. He visited the French and English islands in the West Indies in 1717 and finally settled in Boston in 1718 and practised medicine.
Sometime previous to the outbreak of small-pox in Boston, in April or May, 1721, Dr. Douglass received from England the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society" containing an account of the observations of Timonius and Pylarinus on inoculation for small-pox. These he sent to Dr. Cotton Mather, who, after reading and digesting their contents, conceived an enthusiastic be- lief in the efficacy of the practice. Mather started at once on a vigorous campaign of education and tried to elicit the support and interest of the medical profession. Probably he treated Douglass with too little consideration. At all events Douglass put himself in opposi- tion and fought the new movement with all the resources at his command. He refused to loan again the only copy of the communications of Timonius and Pylarinus and attacked bitterly the work of Zabdiel Boylston, who had become the medical disciple of the learned minister, Mather. Douglass' opposi- tion to inoculation brought him into considerable prominence. By 1730, when the small-pox appeared again, he had embraced inoculation although with a bad grace. He must have been held in considerable repute for he was made vice-president of the Scotch Charitable Society in 1721, and president in 1728, an office he held until his death. He was a physician to many of his country- men in Boston. He was an ardent
