BUXTON 182 BYFORD The son attended lectures at the Medical School of Maine where he was graduated in 1830. He then took up the loosened threads of his father's practice and soon had all that he could attend to properly. A physician who will travel ten miles on snowshoes, as Dr. Buxton did in the winter of 1837, is bound to succeed. Soon after the celebrated case of Dr. V. P. Coolidge in 1849, who was convicted of murder and supposed to have escaped from prison. Dr. Buxton became restless with the gold fever and made his way to California. The physical la- bor of digging for gold not agreeing with him, he bought and sold supplies, and chartered a vessel for the Gulf of California, but was shipwrecked off Cape St. Lucas. Arriving after many hardships at Acapulco, Dr. Bux- ton built there a wooden hospital for the benefit of the floating population of sick or dis- abled sailors, but after a while fell ill with Chagres fever and nearly died. After con- valescence he made his way to New Orleans, practised there a while, served as ship's sur- geon on a steamer between that port and New York, and after two or three years of wanderings came back to his native town to stay. He served with distinction as surgeon of the Fifth Maine Regiment in the Civil War, but was captured and carried within the ene- my's lines. Gen. Beauregard, who had known Buxton in New Orleans, treated him with great distinction, gave him every opportunity to care for the wounded soldiers of his own and other northern regiments, and did what he could to obtain a release from prison which was secured after a few months delay. Arriving in Maine once more, he took charge of the hospital for the wounded and convalescent at Augusta, for a few months, and regaining health returned again to his regiment as surgeon. He finally resigned in 1864, worn out by overwork. From that time onward to the end of his life he was a physician of the highest stand- ing in Maine, president of the Maine Medical Association (1870-71), writer of papers, amongst others on "Medical Education" and "On Hypodermatic Medication," a political leader in the State Senate, a man of eloquent oratory, an ardent friend and upbuilder of the Maine General Hospital at Portland, and a practitioner and consultant most highly es- teemed throughout Knox and Lincoln Coun- ties. He also wrote medical papers of value to the profession, which were published in journals outside the State. Dr. Buxton married June 3, 1833, Miss Julia Seavey of Wiscasset by whom he had three children. The one great characteristic of Dr. Buxton was his downright assertiveness. He never indulged in half-way talk. When a young physician would say to him, this patient "has a kind of a fever," or "is sort of feverish," he would burst out with some remark like this, "Confound it, there is no kind of a fever or sort of a fever, the patient either has a fever or has none at all." Dr. Buxton was so highly esteemed in med- ical circles that when at a meeting of the Maine Medical Association in 1876, his ab- sence was noted, a resolution of regret at his absence and hopes for his recovery was unani- mously voted. This is the only instance on record of a resolution of this sort passed by the Maine Medical Association. After a long and painful illness. Dr. Buxton died October 8, 1876, worn out by his uncon- trollable energetic temperament. James A. Spalding. Trans. Maine Med. Asso. Hist, of Warren, Me. By ford, William Heath (1817-1890) W. H. Byford, gynecologist, was born in the village of Eaton, Ohio, March 20, 1817, the eldest of three children. His parents were Henry T. and Hannah Byford ; the former, a mechanic in straitened circumstances, died when WilUam was only nine. At this tender age he was obliged to seek such work as he could find. At fourteen he was apprenticed to a tailor, and spent the ensuing six years in mastering his trade and acquiring such knowl- edge of books as was possible. When eigh- teen he determined to become a physician and chose as his preceptor Dr. Joseph Maddox. Not long after the termination of his appren- ticeship, he was examined by a commission and granted license to practise medicine. His professional life began in the year 1838 in the town of Owensville, Indiana. Two years later he removed to Mt. Vernon, Indi- ana, where he married the daughter of Dr. Hezekiah Holland, and during his ten years in this town studied medicine in the Ohio Medical College of Cincinnati, and in 1845 was graduated from this institution. In 1850 he was called to the chair of anatomy in the Evansville Medical College, and in 1852 was elected to the chair of the theory and practice of medicine in the same college. In 1857 Dr. Byford received a call to the chair of obstetrics and the diseases of women in the Rush Medical College of Chicago, and after serving two years he associated himself
