DICK 313 DICKSON ciety of the District of Columbia he became a member, but having reached an advanced age, declined all positions of honor. He was elec- ted Mayor of Alexandria in 1804, and filled the office for several terms ; was colonel of a cavalry regiment, and commanded in what is known as the WTiiskey insurrection in Penn- sylvania. His eminence as a physician is attested by the fact that his services were constantly sought by his brother physicians, and that he was called in consultation with Dr. Craik in the last illness of the illustrious Washington. With Drs. Craik and Brown, the other con- sultant, he stood at the bedside of the "Father of his Country^' when he breathed his last. He had the faculty of winning the confidence of his patients, being a man of polished man- ners, of musical and sympathetic voice, and quick in diagnosis and treatment. He rather avoided surgical cases. A great reader, he was familiar with obscure and rare cases, and the latest and best remedies. Dr. Dick married October, 1783, Hannah Harman, daughter of Jacob Harman of Darby, Pennsylvania. Of the three children born to them, two lived to maturity, Archibald and Julia. Archibald graduated in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania in 1808. In his later years the doctor purchased a farm near Alexandria, and lived there until his death in 1825. He was buried in the Friend's burying-ground in Alexandria, the grave being unmarked, as he had a great ab- horrence of ostentation and wordly pride. Only two articles on professional subjects are known to have been published by Dr. Dick. The first of these, "Yellow Fever at Alex- andria," appeared in the New York Medical Repository, vol. i, 1803, and is an account of the epidemic of yellow fever which occurred in Alexandria in 1803. The second, "Facts and Observations Relative to the Disease Cyn- anche Trachealis, or Croup," was written in 1808, and was published in the Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, vol. iii, p. 242. There is in the library of the surgeon-gen- eral an autograph letter "On Treatment of a Case of Enterocolitis, called Cholera of In- fants," by Dr. Dick, which is dated July 27, 1815, and is addressed to James H. Hooe, of Prince William County, Virginia. A profile portrait likness of the doctor, taken by St. Menin, is preserved in the gallery of the Alexandria- Washington Lodge, and another is in the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington. The original copper-plate, engraved by St. Menin, was in the possession of Mrs. Arthur Crisfield, of Washington, great-granddaughter of Dr. Dick. There is still another portrait in the library of the surgeon-general of the army in Washington. Robert M. Slaughter. Sketch of the Life of Elisha Cullen Dick, M. D., by J. M. Toner, M. D. Trans. Med. Soc. of V'a., 1885, vol. xvi. Reminiscences. S. C. Busey, 1902, vol. ii. Dickson, John Robinson (1819-1882). John Robinson Dickson, surgeon, pioneer and man of affairs, was born in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Ireland, November IS, 1819, son of David Dickson and Isabella Robinson. He studied medicine under W. McLean and at Belfast and Glasgow, and received a license to practise midwifery. In 1838 he moved to Canada and was a partner of John Hutchin- son for two years ; he then went to New York where he studied especially the treat- ment of club-foot and other deformities, and attended lectures at the New York University, receiving his M. D. (the first granted by the University) in 1842, when he returned to Can- ada to settle in Kingston. He was visiting physician to Kingston General Hospital ( 1846- 1854); visiting surgeon (1854-1856); clinical lecturer (18S6-1860) ; and in 1861 was made clinical lecturer on surgery. Dickson was chiefly responsible for found- ing the Medical Department of Queen's College (1854), and was professor of surgery; his associates were, Horatio Yates, professor of medicine ; John Stewart, professor of anat- omy; John Meagher, professor of midwifery; Alexander Harvey, professor of materia med- ica. In 1860 he went to England and obtained from the London colleges recognition of medi- cal degrees conferred by Queen's University. When the medical Department of Queen's Uni- versity became the Royal College of Physi- cians and Surgeons (1866), he secured the charter and was made president and professor of surgery, holding these positions until his death. He was made a fellow of the College at is first convocation. From 1854 to 1856 he was city alderman and during this time assisted in building a branch line of the Grand Trunk Railway from Kings- ton Junction to Kingston. In 1862 he became surgeon to the Provincial Penitentiary at Kingston, and during the eight years of ser- vice prepared careful and able "Prison Re- ports." In 1869 Dickson was appointed superinten- dent of Rockwood Lunatic Asylum at Kings- ton (later "The Hospital for Insane, King- ton"), and he devoted himself to the study
