nine years. He came to Chicago, Ill., in 1875, and soon became an important figure in the medical life of the city. He was connected with Rush Medical College, first as professor of materia medica and therapeutics, and later as professor of nervous and mental diseases, and later held for many years the chair of diseases of the nervous system in the Woman's Medical School and the Post-Graduate Medical School.
He was a member of the American Medical Association, the American Neurological Association, the American Electro-Therapeutic Association, the National Association for the Study of Epilepsy, the Mississippi Valley Medical Association, the Chicago Physicians' Club, and the American Medico-Psychological Association, besides being an honorary member of the Moscow Society of Neurologists and Psychiatrists, and one of the founders of the Senn Club. He was a member of the attending staff of St. Joseph's, Cook County and Presbyterian hospitals, and consulting physician to the Women's and Children's Hospital and Oakwood Sanitarium, besides being president of the Chicago Medical Society in 1891 and of the State Medical Society in 1895.
He was the author of a text-book on insanity and of many monographs on nervous and mental diseases and received the honorary degrees of A. M. from Wabash College, and of LL.D. from Georgetown University, Kenyon College and St. Ignatius College.
He was married, May 15, 1868, to Eliza Ann Shearer, of Pennsylvania, and they had two children.
Dr. Brower was in apparent good health until a week before his death, when he was seized with cerebral apoplexy, causing paralysis of the left side, but apparently not affecting his mind. He gradually failed physically, but retained consciousness until a few hours before his death, which occurred at his home in Chicago, March 1, 1909, at the age of 69.
Brown, Bedford (1825–1897)
A physician and army surgeon, Bedford Brown was the son of the Hon. Bedford Brown, United States senator from North Carolina from 1828 to 1841, and was born in Caswell County, North Carolina, January 17, 1825. His mother's maiden name was Mary L. Glenn.
In 1845 he studied under Dr. Benjamin W. Dudley (q.v.), of Lexington, Kentucky; attended two courses of lectures in the medical department of the Transylvania University, and graduated in 1848. Two years later he took a course of lectures at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and graduated from that institution in 1855.
Dr. Brown was a member of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Association of which he was vice-president in 1893, and one of its judicial council from 1894; a member of the Board of Medical Examiners of Virginia from 1885 to 1894, and of the Medical Society of Virginia, of which he was president in 1886.
After graduation he practised three or foul years in Virginia, and about 1855 returned to North Carolina and practised at Yanceyville until the outbreak of the Civil War. At its close he settled in Alexandria, Virginia, where he practised until death.
In the spring of 1861 he was appointed chief surgeon in the camp of instruction at Weldon, North Carolina, then assigned to the troops sent from Richmond, Virginia, to northwestern Virginia and eventually served during the rest of the war as inspector of hospitals and camps.
He always took an active interest in professional affairs. He was also prominent in the Council of Confederate Veterans, and served as surgeon of the R. E. Lee Camp, of Alexandria, from its organization.
Dr. Brown performed many capital operations during his military service, and after the war had a large practice.
He married, in 1852, Mary E. Simpson of Washington, District of Columbia, and had three children, two sons and a daughter. William Bedford, who became a physician in New York City, was one of the sons.
During the last months of his life he was troubled with chronic cystitis, for the relief of which an operation was performed by the late Dr. Hunter McGuire, but failing to rally, he died at his home in Alexandria, September 13, 1897.
The "Transactions of the Medical Society of Virginia," from 1879 to the year of his death, contain many papers read before the society by Dr. Brown, too many indeed to enumerate. Several also are to be found in the "Transactions of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Association," many of these of great historical interest.
