GILMER 440 GILMOUR He was a venerable gentleman, and lived long enough to see the hospital a magnificent suc- cess to all classes of suffering people. A re- markable physician, it is difficult not to exaggerate his skill in diagnosis, or his accuracy in therapeutics. Sometimes finding a patient restless, he would walk slowly round the room, looking at the pictures with a critic's eye, setting them straight if mis- placed on the wall, and then gradually taking up the thread of conversation when the patient had grown quieter. He was not formal, but dignified. Although high strung and of a quick temper, he had great self-control. "You don't want a tonic, but a little self-reliance," were his words to a restless child. It pleased him, when walking in the streets, to have the workmen wave their hats to him. For fifty- two years he practised in Portland, during which time he was very forcible in his de- nunciations of the unsanitary conditions of the so-called "dump" and did all he could to get it abolished. He wrote an excellent paper on "Rupture of the Uterus, Twice in the Same Patient in Two Successive Deliveries, and Recovering after Gastrotomy," 1863. He is said to have done the first Cesarean section in Maine, sav- ing both mother and child. Doctor Gilman married Helen Williams of Augusta by whom he had a daughter. He died calmly January 16, 1884. James A. Sp.lmng. Trans. Maine Med. Assoc, Portland, 1884, vol. viii. Gilmer, George (1742 ) Born at Williamsburg, Virginia, on the tenth of January, 1742, he was the second of the four sons of Dr. George Gilmer, a native of Scotland and for fifty years a successful phy- sician, surgeon and druggist of that town, and Mary Peachy Walker, his second wife. He read medicine with his uncle. Dr. Walker, a physician and early explorer of Kentucky, and afterwards studied at Edin- burgh University, graduating therefrom. He first settled in Williamsburg, but after a time removed to Albemarle County, where he soon built up a practice. As early as 1774 he represented his county in the House of Burgesses, and was the mover of a resolution on the subject of the Crown Lands which was seconded by William Henry. Q'uite an orator, he harangued his country- men, when Dunmore seized the power of the colony, to such effect that a company was formed to march to Williamsburg and demand redress. He was chosen lieutenant of this company. In 177S he was sent by his county to the Convention of that year as the alter- nate of Thomas Jefferson. He married his cousin Lucy, the daughter of his preceptor, who was a patriot worthy of her patriotic husband. It is related that in the early days of the Revolution she handed Mr. Jefferson her jewels and begged him to use them in her country's cause. Robert M. Slaughter. Gilmour, John Taylor (18SS-1918) John Taylor Gilmour was born at New- castle, Ontario, in 18S5, and was educated at Port Hope high school, graduating in medicine from Trinity University as M. D. in 1878. For many years he was in general practice, during which time he took a keen interest in public affairs. He represented West York in the Ontario Legislature from 1886 to 1894. He was also a surgeon for the Canadian Pacific Railway for many years. He retired from the legislature in 1894, and two years later was appointed warden of the Toronto Central Prison, an office he held until 1913, at which time he took charge of the Prison Farm at Guelph. The reformatory was a new de- parture in prison life, and under Dr. Gilmour's regime many methods of reform were realized and splendid results obtained. He believed in the remedial effects of kindness, and held the prison should not be a place of punish- ment, but a means of bringing the offender back to decent citizenship. He was regarde>l as an authority on the question and advocated his views in many letters and writings. In 1904 he was elected president of the Warden's Association of the National Prison Congress, and in 1908 president of the American Prison Association, being the first Canadian to hold this position. The last twenty years of his life was given to the problem of handling prisoners, and prison reform owes much to his judgment, intelligence, and kindness of heart. Dr. Gilmour was twice married and was sur- vived by his second wife, a daughter, and a son, Dr. C. H. Gilmour. He had a most charming manner and was most loyal to his friends. His death occurred at Toronto, while stroll- ing in his garden on the morning of July 29, 1918, when he succumbed to an attack of heart failure. The Canadian Med. Assn. Jour., Oct., 1918, vol. viii. 937-8. The Canada Lancet, Sept., 1918, vol. lii, 34. Jour. Amer. Med. Asso., Oct.. 1918, vol. Ixxi, U34.
