HOWARD
17
HOWE
he held in the hearts of his students
during the thirty-year period of his
teaching. His great merit is that
from the beginning of his influence over
McGill Medical Faculty, he was, and
continued to be, an ardent believer
in experimental methods in medicine,
and lost no opportunity of encourag-
ing research in pathology and physiology.
It was under his fostering care that
McGill Medical Scliool attained to its
greatness.
Dr. Howard had an aptitude for the practice and teaching of medicine. His lectures and clinics are yet remem- bered. He was of a grave tlemeanor but won from his students affection and admiration. Their interests were near his heart and he strove for their welfare in personal matters as well as in the wider field of education. In all legislation touching medical train- ing, he was forward and labored earnestly to obtain a General Medical Council for Canada. Howard was one of the first among the older physicians to make a systematic recortl of his cases and of the conditions observed in them. He was the first to lecture on appendicitis. His store of knowledge was made public freely. His contribu- tion upon "Rheumatism" in Pepper's "System of Medicine" is a good indi- cation of his range of knowledge and style. In William Osier's "Practice of Medicine" frequent mention is made of his cases, and the book is dedicated to him. A. M.
Howard, William Travis (1821 1007).
William Travis Howard, gynecologist, was the son of William A. Howard, an architect, and born in Cumberland County, Virginia, on January 12, 1821. As a lad he went to Hampden Sidney and Randolph Macon Colleges then studied medicine under the eccentric genius John Peter Mettauer, the doctor who is reputed never to have left off a tall stovepipe hat on any occasion. Howard graduated from Jefferson Med- ical College in 1842 and settling first Vol. II-2
in >,'orth Carolina moved in 1866 to
Baltimore to become professor of phy-
siology in the University of Maryland,
taking in 1867 the chair of diseases
of women and children and becoming
emeritus professor in 1897. He was
also for many years visiting surgeon
to the Hospital for the Women of Mary-
land, consulting surgeon to the Johns
Hopkins Hospital and the Hebrew
Hospital.
Although best known as a gynecolo- gist, he never lost his interest in general medicine, in which field his attainments were of a very high order. For the younger men, he was a most valuable consultant, aiding them with his acute diagnostic powers and broad knowledge of therapeutics. He was a diligent and thoughtful student, all his life keep- ing ahead of the times. He invented a modification of Tarnier's forceps and also the Howard speculum.
The University of Maryland gave him her LL. D. in 1907. He was also a founder of the American Gynecological Society and its president in 1884, oc- cupying the same positions with re- gard to the Baltimore Gynecological and Obstetrical Society and being president of the Medical and Chirur- gical Faculty of Maryland in 1902. He was not a great writer; his chief papers were:
"Rupture of the Uterus with Lapa- rotomy," 1880.
"Encysted Tul)ercular Peritonitis which Presented the Characteristic Phenomena of a Unilateral Ovarian or Parovarian Cyst," 1885.
"Two Rare Cases of Abdominal Sur- gery," 1885.
He died after a few days" illness
from the effects of ptomain poisoning,
at Narragansett Pier, on July 31, 1907.
Tr. Am. Gyn. Soc, 1S08, vol. xxxiii (W. E.
Moseley).
The Med. AnnaU of Marj'land, E. F. Cordell,
1903.
Howe, Appleton (1792-1870).
Appleton Howe, a founder of the Norfolk District Medical vSocietv and
