Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/587

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
NAME
565
NAME

HOUGHTON 565 HOWARD Schoolcraft's expedition to the headwaters of the Mississippi and the copper region of Lake Superior, Dr. Houghton gathered materials for two reports to the Secretary of War. One gave a list of species and localities of the plants collected ; the other discussed the existence of copper deposits in the geological basin of Lake Superior. These reports gave him a wide repu- tation as a scientist of unusual ability. In 1837 a small appropriation was made for a geological survey of Michigan and Dr. Hough- ton made state geologist, also in 1839, pro- fessor of chemistry, mineralogy and geology in the University of Michigan, being the second professor appointed. (He never taught regu- larly in this chair. Dr. S. H. Douglas doing the work.) In Michigan there have been named after him a city, a county, a lake, and in Detroit a public school. Dr. Houghton is described as five feet five inches tall ; feet and hands small and delicately formed ; a large, well-developed head; prominent nose; eyes blue, sheltered under light but massive eyebrows, bright and at times merry. He married on September 11, 1833, Harriet Stevens, of Fredonia, New York, who with two daughters survived him. On October 13, 1845, writes a friend named Peter McFarland, Dr. Douglas Houghton left Eagle Harbor, Lake Superior, in an open sail boat, for a camp about ten miles distant that contained a geological surveying party to which he desired to give instructions ere leaving for the winter. His work kept him in the camp till after dark when a storm threatened, proving to be snow accompanied by a very high wind. There were four rowers, the doc- tor holding the rudder, his faithful dog, Mee- niee, a black and white spaniel, being at his feet. The violence of the storm increased and the waves rolled higher and higher; on round- ing a point they could see the light at the harbor. "Pull away, my boys, we shall soon be there ; pull steady and hard." But an enormous wave capsized the boat and all went under. The doctor was raised from the water bj' his trusty friend Peter McFarland. "Cling to the keel, doctor," he cried. "Never mind me," said Houghton, "go ashore if you can ; be sure I'll get ashore all right without aid." Very soon the boat was righted and all clambered on board, but another large wave capsized it again. They were now but two hundred yards from shore, but all were about exhausted from cold and fatigue. Two of the five men managed to reach shore, but three, including Dr. Houghton, sank and did not rise. Leartus Connor. Hist. Univ. of Mich., Ann Arbor, Univ. Press, 1906. Appleton's Cyclop, of Amer. Biog., N. Y., 1887. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., vol. iii. Mich. Pioneers and Hist. Col., vol. xxii. Life by Alvah Bradish, Detroit, 1889. A portrait by Alvah Bradish is in the Univ. of Mich. Lib. Howard, Edward Uoyd (1837-1881). Edward Lloyd Howard, physiologist and medico-legal e.xpert, was born in Baltimore, January 14, 1837. His mother's father was Francis Scott Key, who wrote the "Star Spangled Banner," and his father's father was Col. John Eager Howard, who distinguished himself at the Battle of Cowpens during the Revolution. The boy received a liberal training at home by means of private tutors, in 1857 began to study medicine under Dr. Charles Frick (q. v.), later attending the University of Mary- land, where he took his medical degree in 1861. Excited by the great riot in the streets of Baltimore, which occurred on April 19, 1861, Dr. Howard at once, without one day of med- ical practice intervening, enrolled himself as a private in the Maryland Guard. All through the war he served on the Confederate side, first as a combatant, then as a surgeon. When Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Dr. Howard was paroled and returned to Baltimore. In 1868 he was appointed lecturer on anat- omy in the Baltimore College of Dental Sur- gery and in 1869 professor of the same sub- ject. A year later, in connection with Dr. Thomas Latimer, he founded the Baltimore Medical Journal. In 1872 he was appointed lecturer on physiology in the Baltimore Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons, and in 1873 professor of anatomy and clinical pro- fessor of nervous diseases in the same in- stitution. He relinquished these chairs in 1874 for the chair of physiology. Always a deep student of matters connected with legal medi- cine, he was, in 1872, appointed secretary of the section on "Psychology and Medical Jurispru- dence" of the .'American Medical Association. He wrote a few papers on medico-legal sub- jects, the tnost important of which is "The Legal Relations of Emotional Insanity" (1874). He was appointed, in 1874, a com- mittee of one to engineer the passage of a law establishing a state board of health in Maryland, a feat he did successfully in the same year.