SOME R VAIL
300
SPALDING
Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1S9S, aftor
practising in Halifax most of his profes-
sional life.
His general education was obtained at St. Mary's College, Halifax, his profes- sional training at Bellevne Medical College, New York, from which he graduated M. 1). in 18GG.
Dr. Somers was a member of the Med- ical Society of Nova Scotia, of which he was president in 1SS3.
He was for a time assistant-surgeon in the United States Army, and, for years, a visiting physician of the Victoria General Hospital, Halifax, and professor of physiology in the Halifax Medical College. Dr. Somers led a life of great activity, was engaged in many matters of social and public interest, and was a warm supporter of the Halifax Medical College. He was an ardent student of botanical science, did much to extend the knowledge of the flora of Eastern North America, and presented a large number of papers on this subject to the Nova Scotia Institute of Natural Sci- ence, which may be found in that Society's printed Transactions.
Dr. Somers married a Miss Brown, of Halifax, and left several sons and daughters. D. A. C.
Somervail, Alexander.
Born in Scotland and probably edu- cated at the University of Edinbiu'gh. He emigrated to America in the early years of the nineteenth century and settled in Essex County, Virginia, and practised there until his death.
He was a very skillful and observant physician, and evidently a student of diseases and a contributor to medical literature. In a paper on "The Medical Topography and Diseases of a Section of Virginia" he shows that he recognized as a distinct variety of continued fever, the disease we now term Typhoid Fever, which in that day was confounded with continued Malarial Fever. He was one of the first to recognize Typhoid Fever as a distinct disease.
In his early life, though brought up in
the Scottish Kirk, he was an avowed
infidel, but later became an earnest
Christian and was noted for his high
moral character and charitable works,
being a physician of the poor as well as
the rich.
He married the daughter of the Rev. John Mathews, of St. Anne's Parish, Essex, and was the brother-in-law of John Baynham, the noted surgeon.
The following articles are known to have been published by him: "The Medical Topography and Diseases of a Section of Virginia," and "Cases Illustra- tive of the LTse of Muriate of Lime in Palsy from Diseased Vertebrjs" ("Phila- delphia Journal of Medical and Physical Sciences," vol. vi, 1823).
He died at his home in the seventy- sixth year of his age. R. M. S.
Spalding, Lyman (1775-1821).
The interesting career of this studious physician and anatomist has never been properly described owing to lack of material, to say nothing of the fact that at the time of death at the youthful age of forty-six, his children who might have written something to rescue his memory from oblivion, were too young to appre- ciate what he had done in so short a life.
Lyman Spalding was born in Cornish, New Hampshire, June 5, 1775. His father was Lieut. -Col. Dyer Spalding who had been in the Indian Wars and who, moving from Plainfield, Connecticut, settled in Cornish in 1763. His mother was Elizabeth Parkhurst from that same Connecticut town. When young Lyman had arrived at the age of eleven years, Nathan Smith, M. D., one of America's most celebrated medical men, settled in Cornish, and was early attracted by the studiousness of the boy. At Dr. Smith's suggestion he was sent to the Charleston Academy near by, and later on again at Smith's advice to the Harvard Medical School where he formed with the pro- fessors a personal intimacy which lasted for life.
Graduating in 1797, Dr. Spalding's help was at once enlisted by Dr. Smith in
