"Certain Epidemics Which Have Prevailed in the County of Worcester," describing the smallpox of 1796 and "spotted fever" of 1810. In 1824 Harvard honored him with her M. D.
Popular, and a scientific physician, well acquainted with natural philosophy, chemistry and physiology, Dr. Fiske, had he devoted himself to his profession, would undoubtedly have made his mark both as practitioner and medical writer. But his profession soon became secondary to other objects. An ardent Federalist, he exerted no small influence in the party, and terse and epigrammatic articles from his pen on the questions of the day are scattered through the current literature of the time. An orator of no mean ability, he was often called on. Some of these orations and political articles have been printed; more remain in manuscript. In 1798 he was town treasurer, and in 1803 special justice of the Court of Common Pleas, also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and corresponding secretary of the Linnæan Society of New England. Increasing deafness caused him to retire from active life about 1822, and the next fifteen years were largely devoted to horticulture and agriculture.
He lived in the old Judge Jennison house on Court Hill, removed when State Street was opened, with an estate reaching from the Dr. Dix place to the Second Church, and extending up the hill as far as Harvard Street. He died in Boston, January 25, 1837, aged seventy-four. A son, R. Treat Paine Fiske, A. B. Harvard, 1818, and M. D. 1821, was a physician in Hingham, where he died in 1866.
Lemuel F. Woodward.
Fitch, Simon (1820-1905).
Simon Fitch came of a family named Ffytche of Widdington, Essex, England. He was born at Morton, Nova Scotia, January 2, 1820, and died at Halifax, Nova Scotia, September 13. 1905.
His general education was received at the academy of his native town; his professional one in London, Paris and at Edinburgh University, graduating M. D. from the last university, August 2, 1841.
Dr. Fitch was actively engaged in professional practice for upwards of sixty years at various places, including St. John, New Brunswick; Portland, Maine; New York City; and finally at Halifax for a period of twenty-eight years.
He was a fellow of the Royal Obstetrical Society, London; a member of the British Medical Association; the Parisian Medical Society; the American Medical Association; the New York Medico-Legal Society, and the Maine Medical Association.
For a time he was resident surgeon of the Edinburgh Maternity Hospital, surgeon to the St. John, New Brunswick, Hospital, consulting surgeon to the Victoria General Hospital, Halifax, and examiner in lunacy for the state of New York and holding for many years afterwards a surgeoncy in the United States War Department.
In 1871 Dr. Filch introduced an improvement in the double tubular trocar, by removing the protecting cannula from the outside to the inside of the puncturing tube. In 1875 he invented the "dome trocar," with application to ovariotomy, aspiration and transfusion; and the same year a coupling for instantaneous attachment and detachment of the aspirator needle. He also invented the clamp forceps in 1876, the handy aspirator in 1877, the trocar catheter in 1882, and several other valuable surgical instruments.
Although a general practitioner he gave special attention to gynecology, being a dextrous operator, and soon acquiring a large fortune. He was a tall, handsome man, dignified, punctilious, exacting, and not easy of approach. He took practically no interest in public affairs, his leisure being devoted to travel and the study of English literature, especially the Bible and Shakespeare.
Among Dr. Fitch's writings are: "Lithotomy" (Maine Medical and Surgical Reporter, August, 1858); "Excision of a Large Uterine Fibroid Tumor" (Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, November 20, 1862); "Peculiarities of the Operations of Three Great Ovariotomists—Wells, Atlee, Keith" (American Journal of Obstetrics, May, 1872); "Observations upon Medical and Surgical Practice in Great Britain" (Transactions of the Maine Medical Society, 1872); "Paracentesis, Aspiration and Transfusion" (Transactions of the International Medical Congress, Philadelphia, 1876); "The Dome Trocar and Associated Instruments (British Medical Journal, February 5, 1887); "Sanity, Insanity and Responsibility" (Medico-Legal Journal, June, 1898).
He was twice married; his first wife was Miss Paddock of St. John, New Brunswick; his second. Miss Ackerman of Portland, Maine. He had two sons and six daughters, his eldest son. Dr. T. S. P. Fitch, becoming a medical practitioner in Orange, New Jersey.
Donald A. Campbell.
