HOLTEN 546 HOLTEN dents, and finally reached the ears of the pres- ident, who sent for the needy scholar, and eventually made it possible for him to enter the college, from which he was graduated with high honors, later receiving the degree of A. M. for his scientific achievements. He graduated in medicine from Cleveland College, Ohio, and practised for some years in that State, being called to the chair of surgery in the National Medical College at Washington. ■When the Civil War began. Dr. Holston entered the Federal Army as surgeon of volun- teers, and was soon promoted to the position of medical director on Grant's staff. » At the close of the war he resumed practice in Zanesville, Ohio, but on the election of General Grant to the presidency, was induced to return to Washington, where he was appointed professor of anatomy in Georgetown Medi- cal School, and acted as family physician to the president. Here he died May 1, 1874, after a long and painful illness following a stroke of paralysis, aged sixty-five. He married Mary Ann Campbell, by whom he had eight children, the eldest of whom John G. F. Holston H, and the latter's son, John G. F. Holston HI, became doctors also. Dr. Holston was a man of varied and pro- found learning, not only in his chosen pro- fession, but in languages, mathematics, astron- omy, and the physical sciences. He read and spoke fluently German, French, and Spanish, and had a scholarly acquaintance with Latin, Greek and Hebrew. One of his biographers has said: ". . . He labored for the good of others, to his personal disadvantage and to the prostration of his body. In the army he rode over the battlefield, in person, in search of missing men, who might have been overlooked by others. This he did at the midnight hour, after toiling to ex- haustion in relieving the suffering of men in the hospital. . . . His house was often a hospital for the poor, the homeless, the unfor- tunate. He fed them from his own table, clothed them at his own expense, he cured them, and sent them forth from his door with the money to start them homewards — if home they had. All this he did without hope of reward — with no other motive than his ever yearning wish to help the needy and dis- tressed." John G. F. Holston. Trans. Amer. Med. Assoc, Philadelphia, vol. xxvi, p. 454. 1875. Holten, Samuel (1734-1816). This Massachusetts physician and statesman was born in Danvers, Massachusetts, June 9, 1738. Illness in youth prevented a collegiate education, so young Holten was apprenticed to Dr. Jonathan Prince, of his town, and made such rapid progress that he began practice at the age of nineteen, in the town of Gloucester. There he stayed for two years, returning to Danvers to practise for the succeeding sixteen years, until he became so engrossed in his public duties, in 1775, that it was no longer possible to give sufficent time to medicine. The town of Danvers elected Dr. Holten a representative to the General Court, in 1768, and from this time he held public ofiice. In 1775 he was a member of the Provincial Con- gress at Watertown, and was one of the committee of safety, and a member of the examining board for the medical department of the Continental Army, then forming at Cam- bridge. The following year. Dr. Holten was appointed judge of the court of general ses- . sions of the peace, and also justice of the Quorum, an office he held for forty years. A delegate from Massachusetts to the fed- eral convention of the Llnited States in 1777, he became a member of the Congress, and affixed his ratifying signature to the consti- tution, and was elected president of the Con- gress, a high honor. For more than a year he was the only physician in that body. Dr. Holten's next public work was to assist in the organization of the Massachusetts Medical Society, in 1781. He was an incorporator, and the early records of that organization bear evidence that his parliamentary experience was of value in directing its affairs, both as vice- president and as councilor. He attended the early meetings of the society and of its council of a few members, and presided at the second meeting of the society, in 1782. James Thacher, who knew him personally, says of Dr. Holten: "His form was majestic, ■ his person graceful, his countenance pleasing, his manners easy and engaging, his address courtly, his talents popular, his disposition amiable and benevolent, and he possessed good intellectual powers." One can understand why he was elected eight years as a representative in the General Court, five in the Senate, twelve in the council, five in the Congress under the confederation, and two under the federal con- stitution. He died January 2, 1816, at the age of seven- ty-seven. Walter L. Burr.age. Amer. Med. Biog., James Thacher, Boston, 1828. Records of the Mass. Med. Soc.
