South Branch of the Massachusetts
Medical Society, and was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, February 20, 1801.
He graduated from the Harvard Medical
School in 1826 and practised in Waltham until the time of his death, April 22,
1861. In 1858 he delivered the annual
discourse on "Investigations Upon the
Subject of Vaccination" before the Massachusetts Medical Society (Committee
Massachusetts Medical Society, vol. ix).
"The Boston Medical and Surgical
Journal" says of him: "It is believed
that he was the first in this country
who succeeded in proving the identity
of the variolous and vaccine diseases.
After reading an account of Mr. Ceeley's
experiment of inoculating the cow, he
was induced to repeat it and succeeded
in obtaining the same results. From a
crust obtained by inoculating a cow with
variolous matter, a child was vaccinated
and a vesicle appeared having all the
characteristic marks of the true cow pox."
In the year 1852 he published (Transactions American Medical Association, vol. v) a paper, "On the Action of Water on Lead Pipes, and the Diseases Proceeding From it." This was considered a valuable contribution to the subject.
W. L. B.
Obit, by J. J. (James Jackson) Com. Mass. Med. Soc. vol. x.
Boston Med. and Surg. Jour. vol. lxiv., May 2, 1861.
Adams, Zabdiel Boylston (1829 1002).
Dr. Adams was the son of Zabdiel Boylston (Harvard College, 1813) and Sarah May Holland Adams. He was born in Boston, October 25, 1829, and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1849 and from the Harvard Medical School in 1853. He practised in Roxbury, a partof Boston, until the Civil War, when he volunteered his services to Governor Andrew. In May, 1861, he was commissioned assistant surgeon in the Seventh Massachusetts Volunteers, his firs! service being at Washington, where he arrived the following July. He was at the siege of Yorktown with the Seventh Regiment in the spring of 1862, and was also at Williamsburg and Fair Oaks. On May 26, 1862, he was commissioned surgeon of the Thirty-second Massachusetts Volunteers, joining the Army of the Potomac. He was at Harrison's Landing for two months and subsequently on the Rappahannock. He was at Antietam, Fredericksburg and the second engagement at Bull Run, and served under General Burnside in his "mud march." He was with his regiment at Chancellorsville, Brandy Station, and Gettysburg. Because of an affection of the eyes he resigned his commission as surgeon of the Thirty-second Regiment, August 4, 1863. On January 12, 1864, he re-entered the service and was commissioned captain of Company F., Fifty-sixth Regiment, and with that command participated in the Wilderness engagements, where he was twice wounded, one shot breaking his leg. He was taken prisoner and confined at Lynchburg for three months, when he was transferred to Libby Prison, being released on parole a month later. While in confinement, he was commissioned major by Governor Andrew, and in December, 1864, he was discharged for disability contracted in the service. At his own request he rejoined his regiment in February, 1865, and took a prominent part in the assault on Petersburg in April, 1865. Then he returned to Boston and resumed practice, shortly after removing to Framingham.
He married Frances Kidder, of Boston. His widow, a daughter, Frances, and a son, Z. Boylston Adams, M. S., 1902, survived him.
Dr. Adams was a member and had held office in the Middlesex County and Framingham Medical Societies and other medical organizations. He was identified with the Framingham Hospital and numerous other institutions and had been for twelve years before his death medical examiner of the Eighth Middlesex
His death, on May 1, 1902, at the age of seventy-two was due to a fall over the
