PUTNAM
reason led; all these were qualities of
!\Iary Putnam-Jacobi's mind, and above
and imbuing all was what Dr. Osier called
her heliotropic potency, the truly solar
gift of calling out the best that was in
those about her.
She %vas always interested in the polit- ical conditions of -women, and in 1S94 took up the gage in behalf of the ballot for women. She was also an early and ardent advocate of the necessity of hav- ing a woman physician in ever}'^ insane asylum.
Dr. Putnam-Jacobi had a dread of becoming a literary physician, feeling that h man who distinguishes himself most highly outside of his profession is rarely a distinguished member of his craft. As a medical writer she made for herself a high and permanent place. She was an active and industrious contributor to medical journals and to the archives of societies; her papers, numbering nearly a hundred, possessing, in addition to orig- inal scientific importance, a literary style rare in medical articles. From among her papers may be cited:
"Antagonism of Medicines." ("Ar- chives of Medicine," 1881.)
"Infantile Paralysis," ("Pepper's Ar- chives of Medicine," 1885.)
"Primary Education." ("Popular Sci- ence Monthly," 1886.)
"Some Considerations on Hysteria," 1888.
" Acute Mania after Operations," 1889.
"Spinal Myelitis, Meningitis in Chil- dren." ("Keating's Cyclopedia," 1890.)
"Brain Tumors." ("Wood's Reference Hand-book of the Medical Sciences.")
Dr. Jacobi died in 1906 of a meningeal tumor pressing on the cerebellum. In the seventh year of her ten years' illness she sent her friend. Dr. Charles L. Dana, a story of her symptoms which he pro- nounced "so lucid, so objective and yet so human that it would be a classic in medical writing." In January, 1907, the Woman's Medical Association of New York City held a memorial meeting to Mary Putnam-Jacobi at the Academy of Medicine. In all the addresses from men
298 PUTNAM
and w'omen eminent in medicine, reform and literature there was one dominant note, "her dedication to the work of helping her fellow mortals." A me- morial tablet to her memory has been placed in the main hall of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. A movement by the Woman's Medical Association of New York City is on foot to establish a fellowship in her honor to be known as "The Mary Putnam Jacobi Fellowship."
A. B. W.
Addresses by Drs. Blackwell, Cushier, Osier, Dana, by Mrs. Florence Kelley and by Richard Watson Gilder, In Memory Mary Putman Jacobi, N. Y. Academy of Medicine, Jan. 4, 1907.
Addresses by Drs. Welch, Galbraith and Mills, in Trans. Alumnse Assoc, Woman's Med. Col. of Penn., 1907. N. Y. Medical Journal, June 16, 1906. Personal knowledge and informations, H. B. B., The Woman's Journal, Boston, Jime 16, 1906.
Putnam, Sumner (1818-1887).
Sumner Putnam was born February 21, 1818, in East Montpelier, Vermont, the son of Sylvanus and Lucinda (Bancroft) Putnam, a descendant in the sixth gener- ation of John Putnam, who came from England in 1634 and settled in Dan vers, Massachusetts.
As a boy he went to the common schools and Montpelier Academy, after- wards studying medicine with Dr. Jared Bassett, of Plainfield, Vermont, and taking his medical degree from the Vermont Medical College at Woodstock in 1842.
Soon after graduation he located at Greensboro, Vermont, and in 1865 removed to Montpelier and practised there until his last sickness.
He was an active member of the Vermont State Medical Society, and its president in 1871. Dr. Putnam was a man of high professional ideals. He was wTapped up in his profession, and to the last kept in touch with the latest happen- ings in the medical world. He contri- buted many papers to the Vermont State
