PARSONS
256
PATTERSON
of "The Battle of Lake Erie," and an
essay on "Indian Names." He wrote
an excellent " Life of Sir William Pepper-
ell," for the completion of which he made
the long journey to Louisburg. penally
he delivered the oration at the unveiling
of the statue to Commodore Perry at
Cleveland, in 1S60. He was fond of
novels, and wrote one called "The
Avenger of Blood," based upon a story
which he heard while on board the
"Guerriere." He studied the Bible, at
times, and thought that the Old Testa-
ment was our noblest literature.
Dr. Parsons was prolific in medical writings, carrying off the Boylston prize four times and the Fiske prize once. His subjects were: "Periostitis;" "Cancer of the Breast;" "Cutaneous Diseases;" "Enuresis," and "Spinal Diseases." His excellent book "Physician for Ships" went through five editions of two thou- sand each. Others of his papers bear such titles as " Gunshot Wounds Through the Thorax;" "Introduction of Medicine into the Veins;" "Anatomical Pre- parations," and "Removal of the Uterus." His style was as clear and forcible in his writings as in his spoken discourses.
He was the founder of the Providence Medical Society, often its president, and in that position suggested the foundation of the Providence City Hospital. Taking him all in all it would be difficult to find a man of greater merit in American medi- cine, for he gave of his entire mind for over fifty years to the advance of medical science. October 18, 1868, he exhibited the first symptoms of his approaching end and died easily at the last, December 19, 1868. The postmortem revealed cere- bral degeneration and acute inflammation of the cerebellum. Portraits of Dr. Usher Parsons show a genial, handsome man with overhanging brows, deep set eyes, but a winning smile
J. A. S.
Memoirs of Usher Parsons by his son, Dr. Charles W. Parsons, Providence, Rhode Island, 1870. Spalding Family Letters.
Partridge, Oliver (1751-1848).
Oliver Partridge was born in Hatfield, Massachusetts, April 26, 1751, and died in Stockbridge, July 24, 1848, thus being over ninety-seven years old at the time of death. He practised medicine for seventy-four, approaching the lengthy record of Dr. Edward Augustus Holyoke, of Salem, Massachusetts, who was in I)ractice for eighty.
He was the son of Col. Oliver Partridge and of a daughter of the Rev. William Weston, and was educated in the schools and by private instruction. In 1771 he removed from Hatfield to Stockbridge and studied medicine under Dr. Erastus Sargeant, a physician of western Massa- chusetts.
Soon after entering upon his profession the Revolutionary War broke out. Part- ridge was at the Battle of Bennington and gave his professional services to those of the combatants who needed them. He enjoyed a very large practice and did much consulting work, and was a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society from 1785 to 1803, when he retired.
He was never married.
Dr. Partridge published several papers on botanical and on medical subjects in later life, in the " Boston Medical and Surgical Journal."
W. L. B.
S. W. Williams, in Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 1848, vol. xxxix.
Med. Communicat., Mass. Med. Soc, 1849-54, Boston, 1854, vol. viii.
Patterson, Richard John (1817-1893).
Richard John Patterson, alienist, was born at Mount Washington, Massachu- setts, September 14, 1817, and had his early education at the public schools. He received his M. D. from the Berkshire Medical College, at Pittsfield, Massachu- setts, in 1842, and that same year be- came a medical assistant to the Ohio State Insane Asylum at Columbus, until 1847; then became medical superin- tendent of the Indiana Hospital for the Insane at Indianapolis, which position he held for six years afterwards; from
