Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/305

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DARBY 283 DARLINGTON of Dr. Bruno." The sting of the mud-wasp producing a state of suspended animation in its prey, serves as the basis around which is woven a story that rivals the productions of Edgar Allan Poe or Sir Conan Doyle. As an orator and after-dinner speaker, Dr. Daniel had few equals, leading his audiences from laughter to tears by a series of vivid word pictures. A man of strong convictions and the power to express them, he early gained the reputa- tion of being a fighter, warring always for high ideals in the practice of medicine and un- compromising with those who would offend in the matter of medical ethics. He was the champion of the public health from the day of his first public utterances to the day of his death. He was a gentleman of the old school and his courtliness of manner and genial kind- liness permitted antagonism, but never hatred. Dr. Daniel died, at Austin, Texas, on May 14, 1914, and his wife then assumed the editor- ship of the Red-Back Medical Journal, in order to continue the ideals and policies which had so interested her husband during his life. Obituary, Texas State Jour, of Med., June, 1914, vol. X, 92-93. Jour, of the Atner. Med. Assoc., 1914, vol. Ixii, 1824. Red Back, Texas, Med. Jour., June, 1914, vol. xix, 529-539. Darby, John Thom.on (1836-1879). John Thomson Darby, surgeon, was born at Pond Bluff Plantation, Orangeburg County, South Carolina, December 16, 1836. His father was Artemus Thomson Darby, a physi- cian of some repute, his mother, Margaret Cautey Thomson. He was educated first at Mount Zion In- stitute, Winnsboro, South Carolina, and thence in the year 1856 went to the South Carolina College in Columbia, then to the Medical Col- lege of Charleston, and completed his medical course at the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated with honor in 1858. Returning to the south at the beginning of the Civil Wlar he was immediately appointed surgeon to the Hampton legion. Upon Hampton's promotion to a cavalry brigade Dr. Darby was assigned to the staff of Gen. I. B. Hood, serving through every grade until he finally became medical director of the Army of the West. In 1863 he was sent by the government of the Confederate States on a secret mission to Europe, from which he re- turned successful. At the close of the war he went to Ger- many where he received an appointment on the medical staff of the Prussian Army, thus utilizing the experience acquired on southern battlefields. In the campaign against Austria in 1866 Dr. Darby assisted materially in the organization of the hospital and ambulance corps, for which he was highly commended and received well- merited praise. Upon his return from abroad he was im- mediately elected professor of anatomy and surgery at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, where his reputation as a surgeon increased, and in 1874 he held the chair of surgery in the University of the City of New York. He contributed to medical literature, "A Thesis on the Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology of the Supra-Renal Capsules" ; "Campaign Notes on the German War of 1866"; "Horse-hair as a Ligature and Suture"; "Liquid Glass as a Surgical Dressing," and "The Trephine in Traumatic Epilepsy." He married Mary Cautey, daughter of Gen. John G. and Caroline Hampton Preston. He died in New York City of pyemia, June 29, 1879, leaving one son and two daughters. The epitaph in Trinity Churchyard, Colum- bia, bears the true record of his life: "Renowned in his profession Honored as a patriot Beloved in all relations of life." Robert Wilson, Jr. Darlington, William (1782-1863). Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, doc- tor, botanist and author, Darlington was one of a famous group of scientists exploring, writ- ing and keeping up a keen scientific corre- spondence with each other from Europe to America, from America to Europe; news of fresh plants, packets of seeds, graceful con- gratulations were sent, Linnaeus being the brightest star and one whose opinion was first sought. The seeming hardship of having to work on a farm, the out-door life, may have indirectly helped William Darlington's botanical inter- ests. His great-grandfather, Abraham Darling- ton, had come over from England when a young man to Pennsylvania, and settled near Chester. William was the eldest child of Ed- ward and Hannah Townsend Darlington and one of five sons. He had simply a common school education, and, hungry for more, per- suaded his father to let him study medicine with Dr. John Vaughan of Wilmington, Del- aware. He took also private French lessons, studied hard at Latin, Spanish and German and received his M. D. from the Universit> of Pennsylvania in 1804. He had the good fortune of being able to