Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/315

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DAVIS 293 PA VIS the Illinois Medical Society and the Chicago Medical Society. He was also one of the founders of Northwestern University, the Chi- cago Academy of Sciences, the Chicago His- torical Society, the Illinois State Miscroscopi- cal Society, the Union College of Law, and the Washingtonian Home. He was an honorary member of many medical and scientific so- cieties in this and foreign countries, and was honored by most of the societies to which he belonged by election to official positions. His ability shone brightest perhaps as a writer and orator. Besides having edited the Annalist at New York, he was editor of the Chicago Medical Jottrnal from 1855 to 1859. In 1860 he founded the Chicago Medical Ex- a>niner and edited it until it became merged with the Chicago Medical Journal in 1873. He was the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association from its establishment in 1883 until he resigned in 1889. At different times he was also editor of the Norlhweslern Medical and Surgical Journal, of the Eclectic Journal of Education and Literary Revieiv, of the American Medical Temperance Quarterly. He wrote a textbook entitled "Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Medicine," 1884, second edition 1887, Chicago ; a textbook on "Agricultural Chemistry," New York, 1848, for which he received a prize from the New York Slate Agricultural Society ; "A History of Medical Education," Chicago, 1855 ; "Clinical Lectures on Various Important Diseases" (two editions), edited by his son, Frank H. Davis, and many monographs upon medical subjects, of which those on alcohol, temperance and medical education attracted most attention. As an orator he excelled, and he made good use of his oratorical ability. Temperance was one of his favorite topics, and he lectured fre- quently on subjects connected with hygiene and popular science. As a medical lecturer he bad few equals in his day. His exposition of a subject in the classroom was clear and sys- tematic,' and but few of his students began practice without knowing how to use the Davis treatment in successful competition with their rivals. But it was when giving advice to his students and discoursing upon their duties and opportunities, and revealing to them the ideals of conduct and achievement which they saw carried out so faithfully in him that he became eloquent and inspiring. As his student, the writer does not remember so much what he said about achiecmcnt, as how he made him feel about it. The words are gone, but their influence remains. Our knowledge was ac- quired from all of our professors, but our inspiration came from him. Dr. Davis died June 16, 1904, at the ripe age of 87 years, and is remembered as one of the greatest and most influential Chicagoans of his time. He was ever active as a leader and promotor of reforms and improvements in public and private life. He was a family phys- ician in the old and best sense of the term. Although he had a large consultation practice, he never refused to visit the poor, and never made his charges out of proportion to their means. His capacity for work was extraor- dinary. His private practice and consultation work were enough to monopolize the energies of an ordinary man ; his college and hospital and medical organization work was enough for another; while his editorial duties, his medical writings and scattered work on temperance and other public reforms would be considered suf- ficient to take up the time of still another. Probably no man ever made better use of his evenings and nights than he. Every moment not utilized in sleep was utilized in work. Such was his devotion to his work and so ardent his desire to accomplish his ideals that he could not bear to think of amusements and vacations. Different kinds of work constituted all of the change he required. He was glad to get home at night from the cares of his practice to the peace of his editorial or other literary work, and in the morning he was glad to see his patients again. The world is changing. This type of man is becoming a rarity. What have we to make up for it? It is good for us to preserve the records of such lives that we may compare notes and have a standard for self criticism in these days that are so different. Henry T. Byford. Davis, Reese (1837-1895). Reese Davis was born July 5, 1837, of Welsh parentage, in Warren, Bradford County, Penn- sylvania, the ninth child in a family of eleven. His father being a farmer, young Reese had only such educational advantages as his winter attendance at the district school afforded. However, after a somewhat rudimentary edu- cation, at the age of twenty-one he entered the Susquehapna Collegiate Institute at Towanda to prepare for college. One year was spent at Marietta College in Ohio, and he graduated from Hamilton College at Clinton, New York, in 1863. Then followed one year in the Medi- cal School of Michigan Univer.sity. He entered the Bcllevue Hospital Medical College in New York in 1865 and graduated in 1867, his pro- fessional life beginning in LeRaysville, Pennsyl-