IIOUC.HTOX
14
HOUGHTON
11, 1S32. His mother moved to
Walpole. New Hampshire, wlicn he
was a boy, ami there he gained his
preparation for Harvard College, grad-
uatinp with the class of 1S53. Enter-
ing the Harvard Medical School, he
gnuiuatod in 1S56. After serving as
house pvipil in the Massachusetts Gen-
enil Hospital he went abroad and
studied medicine in Paris for nearly
a year, returning to settle in Water-
town, Massachusetts, where he spent
his Hfe practising.
On June G, ISOO he married Helen Augusta Stickney, of Watertown.
He was a fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society from 1856 until his death from cerebral apoplexy, May 14, IS'.U, also president of the Society in 1SS2. Among other offices held he was president of the Obstetrical Society of Boston, of the Middlesex South Medical Society, first president of the Massachusetts Medico-Legal So- ciety, post surgeon at the United States Arsenal at Watertown, and fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He contributed several papers to the "Boston Medical and Surgical Journal," among them "A Peculiar Condition of the Cervix Uteri which is found in Certain Cases of Dystocia."
Outside his medical activities he was an ardent Christian.
W. L. B.
Bos. Med. and Surg. Jour., vol. cxxvi.
Houghton, Douglas (1809-1845).
Douglas Houghton, a scientific ex- plorer, was born in Troy, New York, September 21, 1809. His American progenitors migrated from Bolton, Lancashire, England, and settled in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was a lawyer in Troy, New York, but in 1812 he moved to Fredonia, Chatau- qua County, New York, where Doug- las's early education was obtained at home and in Fredonia Academy. In 1829 he graduated from Rensselaer Polji;echnic Institute, Troy, New York, and in 1829 assisted the professor of
chemistry and natural history in the
same school. Meantime he had been
studying medicine, and in 1830 was
licensed to practise by the Chautauqua
County (New York) Medical Society.
On the recommendation of Prof.
Eaton he gave a course of scientific
lectures in Detroit. This made him
hosts of admirers and friends, so that
he settled in Detroit and began med-
ical practice with unusual success.
He practised dentistry as well as med-
icine and surgery. The writer saw a
tooth filled more than fifty years be-
fore by Dr. Houghton, as good as when
introduced. In 1831-32, as physician
to II. R. Schoolcraft's expedition to
the headwaters of the Mississippi and
the copper region of Lake Superior,
Dr. Houghton gathered materials for
two reports to the Secretary of War.
One gave a list of species and localities
of plants collected; the other discussed
the existence of copper deposits in the
geological basin of Lake Superior.
These reports gave him a wide reputa-
tion as a scientist of unusual ability.
In 1837 a small appropriation was made
for a geological survey of Michigan
and Dr. Houghton made state geolo-
gist, also in 1839, professor of chemis-
try, mineralogy and geology in the
University of Michigan, being the sec-
ond professor appointed. (He never
taught regularly in this chair, Dr.
S. H. Douglas doing the work.) In
Michigan there have been named after
him a city, a county, a lake, and in
Detroit a public school. Dr. Hough-
ton is described as five feet five inches
tall; feet and hands small and delicate-
ly formed; a large well developed head;
prominent nose; eyes blue, sheltered
under light but massive eyebrows, bright
and at times merry.
He married on September 11, 1833, Harriet Stevens, of Fredonia, New York, who with two daughters sur- vived him.
On October 13, 1845, writes a friend named Peter McFarland, Dr. Douglas Houghton left Eagle Harbor, Lake
