CHOVET 220 CHRISTOPHER Chovet was not without reputation. Norris describes him as being "a very popular physi- cian, who came here from the West Indies." In another place he says, "Dr. Coste, the chief medical officer of Rochambeau's army, in a tract which he published at Leyden in 1784, speaks of Chovet as a man skilled in all things pertaining to medicine, and especially in an- atomy and surgery." Morton, in his sketch of Chovet, says, "His character and the high quality of his professional acquirements en- titled him to high rank among the medical profession, and with them to respectful re- membrance." Chovet was one of the twelve senior found- ers of the College of Physicians of Phila- delphia and the only one of foreign birth. At this time he was over eighty years old and the honor was all the more marked, for men of such advanced age are not asked to take part in a new enterprise unless their reputation will lend prestige. Chovet was married previous to his leaving England. Chovet said "that physician is an impostor who did not live till he was eighty." He died March 24, 1790, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. In the obituary notice which was published in the Universal Asylum and Colum- bian Magazine for March, 1790, he is referred to as "an eminent anatomist and extraordi- nary man," who "for about half a century attracted the attention of persons of all ranks and classes, in different parts of the world." Dr. Chovet appears as one of the characters in S. Weir Mitchell's "Red City." The story opens May 23, 1792, and closes in September, 1795, covering about three years and four months. The last time Chovet appears in the story is some time in August, 1795, at which time he is represented as fleeing from Phila- delphia. As Dr. Chovet died March 24, 1790, it is difficult to understand how he could be a living character in 1792, and so active in 1795, that he could "flee the city." While Chovet was eccentric, he did not deserve the ridicule to which S. Weir Mitchell held him up throughout his "historical" novel. All my investigations into the life and character of Dr. Abraham Chovet confirm the statement made by Morton in his History of the Penn- sylvania Hospital, which I again repeat: "His character and the high quality of his profes- sional acquirements entitled him to high rank among the medical profession, and with them to respectful remembrance." William Snow Miller. Abraham Chovet: An early teacher of anatomy in Philadelphia, W. S. Miller, Anatom. Record, vol. V. Christian, Edmund Potts (1827-1896). Edmund Potts Christian, who practised chiefly as an obstetrician, came of old Phila- delphian Quaker ancestry and was born at Friendsville, Susquehanna County, Pennsyl- vania, on April 2i, 1827. Educated at a De- troit academy, he graduated A. B. from Michi- gan University in 1847 and A. M. in 1850. To get his money for his medical course he served as clerk on various steamers during the summer and spent the winter studying, tak- ing his M. D. at Buffalo Medical College, New York, in 1852. Five years of private practice in Detroit followed, then he went to Wyandotte, Michigan, and stayed until he died. From 1855-58 he was assistant editor of the Peninsular Journal of Medicine of Detroit, and a founder of the second epoch of the Michigan State Medical Society, and presi- dent of the third; also a member of Detroit Medical Society; the Wayne Medical Society, and the Detroit Gynecological Society. Unlike most physicians, he kept, in a scholarly man- ner, careful clinical records of cases and from time to time laid these studies before his fel- low doctors. He was one of the first to rec- ognize milk as a potent factor in transmitting typhoid; while his fellow practitioners were tardy in accepting the correctness of these ob- servations, he continued their teaching and practice till accepted. Dr. Christian was about five feet seven inches tall, slenderly build, with short beard, keen blue eyes, alert, kindly ex- pression. He was nervous in movement, an indefatigable worker, absolutely honest and without guile in all his relations. • In 1854 he married Mary H. Foster, who with two sons survived him ; one, E. A. Chris- tian, becoming a physician. The father himself died in Wyandotte November 17, 1896, of ar- teriosclerosis with special involvement of the cerebro-spinal vessels. His writings numbered about twenty titles and are to be found in the Surgeon General's Catalogue at Washington, D. C. Leartus Connor. Phys. and Surg, of the U. S. W. B. Atkinson, 1878. Trans. Mich. State Med. Soc, 1879. Christopher, Walter Shield (1859-1905). Walter S. Christopher, pediatrician and educator of Chicago, was born at Newport, Kentucky, March 14, 1859, and died of heart disease at Chicago, March 2, 1905, thus not having quite completed forty-six years of life. His father was Charles H. Christopher, a me- chanical engineer, native of Cincinnati, of Scotch descent, and his mother was Mary A.
