A day or two later they all arrived safely at Thomaston, at the grand mansion in which the General was glad not only to see the former president and the famous sea captain, but most of all, perhaps, his own personal medical adviser, Dr. Benjamin Brown, "the only man living," said Mrs. Knox with pride, "whom I could ever endure to have around the house when the general is in the least bit ailing."
Brown, Buckminster (1819–1891)
Buckminster Brown, orthopedist, was the son of Dr. John Ball Brown (q.v.) and grandson of Dr. John Warren (q.v.). He was born in Boston, July 13, 1819. His father had introduced subcutaneous tenotomy in New England and managed a private orthopedic infirmary where patients came for treatment from all over the country. Buckminster was to follow in his father's footsteps, so when he had received his M. D. from the Harvard Medical School in 1844 he went abroad to study the new specialty of orthopedics in London under J. Little; in Paris under Guerin and Bouvier, and in Germany under Stromeyer. On his return to Boston in 1846 he established himself in general practice, in the course of a few years gravitating to the exclusive practice of orthopedics. He was associated with his father in the infirmary and was surgeon to the House of the Good Samaritan for nineteen years. Although handicapped by poor health, having had Pott's disease when a boy, and in consequence leading a shut-in life, he carried on, in spite of his deformity, an arduous and exacting practice for fifty years. Patience characterized his work, his favorite quotation being "Genius is the talent for taking pains." Of a refined and sensitive nature he shrank from publicity, devoting himself to his patients and his books. Dr. C. C. Foster, his assistant for ten years, said of him; "His mechanical ability was very great and his surgical dexterity equally remarkable. His operating and his whole handling of a case were characterized by a certain delicacy and finish that I have seen in no other man's work." Also, "His sense of touch was also very keen and he learned much through the ends of his fingers. To watch him as he manipulated a contracted tendon or a carious spine was an object lesson."
He published, with his father, in 1850, "Reports of Cases Treated at the Boston Orthopedic Institution." In 1853 appeared "A Case of Extensive Disease of the Cervical Vertebræ," and in 1859 he made an address, "Ectopia Cordis," before the Suffolk District Medical Society. In 1847 appeared "The Treatment and Cure of Cretins and Idiots" and an essay on the "Pathology and Physiological Effects of Ethereal Inhalation." His best work was in club-foot, where his persistency with the clumsy methods of the day enabled him to obtain success which less painstaking surgeons did not gain.
Dr. Brown married, in May, 1864, Sarah Alma Newcomb, daughter of Joseph Warren Newcomb, and great-granddaughter of Gen. Joseph Warren.
He died at Auburndale, Massachusetts, December 26, 1891, leaving in his will his collection of specimens to the Warren Museum at the Harvard Medical School, and a large sum of money to found the first professorship of orthopedic surgery in Harvard University. He was an active member of the American Orthopedic Association and the Boston Society for Medical Improvement.
Brown, David Tilden (1822–1889)
David Tilden Brown, alienist and explorer, was bom in Boston, Massachusetts, in August, 1822, and in 1828 moved with his parents to New York City. He went to school in Poughkeepsie and at the Washington Institute. He studied medicine under Willard Parker (q.v.) and received an M. D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1844. When twenty-two he was senior medical officer of the City Asylum on Blackwell's Island. For one year hr was medical assistant at the Vermont Asylum and one year was at the Utica State Asylum, resigning to practise with his former preceptor, Willard Parker. His health failing, he gave up practise and became interested in the enterprise of opening a route across Central America for emigrants to California in 1849, his knowledge of the Spanish language proving helpful. "He explored several routes which have since become well-known and ultimately negotiated the first treaty which secured the right of transit across the Isthmus of Nicaragua. His efforts brought fortunes to others but not himself." (Henry M. Hurd).
From 1852 to 1877 he was in charge of Bloomingdale Asylum, succeeding Charles Henry Nichols (q.v.), who had followed him
