QUINAN 951 RAMSAY delphia, he afterwards graduated M. D. at the Jefferson Medical College in 1844. and began practice in Calvert County, Maryland. Here he labored assiduously, as the leading phy- sician of the county, for twenty-five years, achieving much honor, but little profit. He removed to Baltimore City in 1869. where he achieved distinction as the medical historian, par excellence, of Maryland. Dr. Quinan was president of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland in 1885-86. A list of his writings is given in the "Transactions of the Faculty," for 1891. The most important was a work of two hundred and seventy-four pages, issued by the Faculty in 1884 and entitled, "The Medical Annals of Baltimore from 1608 to 1880, Including Events, Men and Literature ; to which is Added a Subject Inde.x and Record of Public Services." This work originated in a celebration of the sesquicentennial anniversary of the foundirhg of the City of Baltimore by the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty in 1880. To Dr. Quina;i was assigned the part of writing the records of the "Physicians of the City," and, in doing this, he found it impossible to discharge the duty satisfactorily in the brief period assigned him and asked further time for its execu- tion. The work once undertaken grew under his hands and when it was published four years after its inception, it had grown into a volume. Dr. Quinan received no compensa- tion whatever for these great labors, but in his enthusiasm would have proceeded to issue a second and enlarged edition to constitute the "Medical Annals of Maryland," had not his mind been diverted into other channels by his appointment as one of the editors of Foster's "Medical Dictionary," on which he labored during the last year or two of his life, possessing peculiar qualifications for it in his knowledge of ancient and modern languages. Among other more interesting works of Dr. Quinan are his articles on "In- oculation and Vaccination in Maryland," and "A Key to Questions on Orthography," 1865. He died suddenly, November 11, 1890, after attending a case of infantile convulsions, death being probably due to disease of the heart or great arteries. Dr. Quinan married August 31, 1845, Eliza- beth Lydia Billingsley, of Calvert County, Maryland, who survived him with five children. His greatest pleasure seemed to be in making some historical research in the libraries sur- rounded by his loved books. In brief, he was a man of the most scholarly tastes, a model physician, a most Christian gentleman. The only teaching position he ever filled was that of lecturer on medical jurisprudence in the Woman's Medical College, 1883-85. Eugene F. Cordell. For portrait and biographical data see Quinan's Medical Annals of Baltimore, 1884, and Cordell's Medical Annals of Mar>land, 1903. Raffeneau-Delile, Alyre (1778-1850). Alyre Rafifeneau-Delile, a Frenchman iden- tified with American medicine through his sci- entific work and professional services in the United States, was born in Versailles, France, Januar}' 23, 1778. He studied plants under Jean Lemonnier, went on the scientific expedi- tion to Egypt (1798-1801) and became manager of the Agricultural Garden at Cairo. He was next appointed French vice-consul at Wilming- ton, North Carolina, and was asked also to form an herbarium of all American plants that could be naturalized in France. He explored neighboring states and sent seeds and grains to France ; he discovered some new graminea, which he gave to Palisot de Beauvois, the French naturalist, whose varied life in Amer- ica included a place in the orchestra of a circus in Philadelphia and a membersliip in the American Philosophical Society. He described Raffeneau-Delile's gift in his "Agros- tographie," or a disquisition on grasses. In 1805, Raffeneau-Delile went to New York to study medicine, and in 1807 received his M. D. from Columbia College. He did excel- lent work in New York in visiting the poor tenements, during an epidemic of scarlet fever. Returning to France, he also graduated in medicine at the University of Paris, in 1809. From 1819 until his death he was professor of botany in the University of Montpellier. He wrote "Centurie des Plantes de I'Amer- ique du Nord" (Montpellier, 1820) ; "Flore d' Egs'pte" (five volumes, Paris, 1824) ; "Cen- turie des Plantes d'Afrique" (Paris, 1827). He died at Montpellier in July, 1850. Information from Dr. Frederic S. Dennis. Appleton's Cyclop. Amer. Biog., 1887, vol. ii. Ramsay, Alexander (1754-1824). In glancing through the medical literature of the early years of the nineteenth century, no name perhaps is more often mentioned than that of Dr. Alexander Ramsay. Accord- ing to some, he was a compound of personal deformity, immense learning, uncontrollable temper, and inordinate vanity. According to others, he was a wonderful dissector, an un- approachable lecturer on anatomy, and a man who once known could never be recalled with- out unfailing reverence and deep affection. It is generally believed that Ramsay was born in London in 17,54, for on his death-bed
