Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/707

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COALE
COAN
665

the author of various addresses and essays, political, literary, and scientific. — His grandson, Meredith, physician, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., in June, 1817, studied at the University of Pennsylvania, and was graduated at the mediical department of that institution in 1837. Early in 1839 he went to Europe, and studied in Paris, London, and Dublin until 1841, under the most eminent physicians. He began practice in Philadelphia, but removed to New York, where he has made a specialty of diseases of the nervous system and the mind. He was attending physician to the Philadelphia institution for the blind in 1842, to the Philadelphia hospital from 1843 till 1847, and consulting physician until 1853. He lectured on the institutes of medicine in 1843, on the practice of medicine in 1849 in the Medical institute of Phila- delphia, on the practice of medicine in the Frank- lin medical college, of which he was one of the founders in 1846, and professor of practice of medi- cine in the medical department of Hampden-Sid- ney college during 1848. In 1851, after settling in New York, he became professor of the institutes and practice of medicine in the University of New York, and in 1871 was professor of mental and nervous diseases in Albany medical college. Dur- ing the civil war he was surgeon of U. S. volun- teers, president of the examining board of the U. S. army in 1863-'3, also in charge of the sick and woimded officers in Washington, D. C, and medical director of the Department of the South in 1864-'5. Dr. Clymer has twice been president of the New York society of neurology, is a fellow of the College of physicians and surgeons in Philadelphia, and of other medical and scientific societies, and one of the five honorary members of the Association of American physicians. His literary work includes frequent articles to the medical journals, the edit- ing of the " Medical Examiner " from 1838 till 1844 ; and the " Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases " from 1878 till 1885. He has edited Carpenter's "Human Physiology " (3d ed., Philadelphia, 1843) ; Carpenter's " Elements of Physiology " (1844) ; Williams's " Principles of Medicine " (1844) ; Ait- ken's " Science and Practice of Medicine " (3 vols., 3d ed., 1866) ; and he is the author of " Williams and Clymer's ' Diseases of the Respiratory Organs ' " (1844) ; " The Pathology, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Fevers " (Philadelphia, 1846) ; " Notes on Physi- ology and Pathology of the Nervous System, with reference to Clinical Medicine " (New York, 1868) ; "Lectures on Palsies and Kindred Disorders " (1870) ; " Ecstasy and other Dramatic Disorders of the Nervous System " (1870) ; " Hereditary Genius " (1870) ; " Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis " (Philadelphia, 1873) ; and " The Legitimate Influence of Epilepsy on Criminal Responsibility" (New York, 1874).


COALE, Robert Dorsey, chemist, b. in Balti- more, Md., 13 Sept., 1857. He was graduated in 1875 at the Pennsylvania military academy with the degree of C. E., after which he became a stu- dent in Johns Hopkins university, where from 1880 till 1881 he was fellow in chemistry, and until 1883 assistant in that science. During 1883-'4 he was lecturer on chemistry, and in 1884 became profes- sor of chemistry and toxicology in the University of Maryland. His original scientific researches gained for him the degree of Ph. D., and were published in 1;he " American Chemical Journal."


COAN, Sherwood, singer, b. in New Haven, Conn., about 1830 ; d. in Chicago, 111., 35 Nov., 1874. He was apprenticed to a carriage-maker, but went upon the stage under the name of Camp- bell, and, after being for several years a member of various minstrel troupes, appeared in concerts, and then in English opera, where he was very success- ful. He sang with Clara Louise Kellogg, Parepa- Rosa. Zelda Harrison, William Castle, and other well-known singers, and went with the Rosas to England, where he attracted much attention. His voice was a low baritone, very sweet and powerful, and his style was simple and pleasing.


COAN, Titus, missionary, b. in Killingworth, Conn., 1 Feb., 1801 ; d. in Hilo, Hawaii, 1 Dec, 1882. He was descended from a family that had settled in Connecticut and at East Hampton, L. I., early in the history of the country. He studied under private teachers, and from 1819 till 1826 taught school in Saybrook, Killingworth, and Guilford. In 1836 he went to western New York, where four of his brothers were established, and taught for two years. He was a cousin of Asahel Nettleton, the evangelist, and had been influenced by the revivals that followed Nettleton's preaching ; he studied theology at Auburn, and was graduated there in 1833. Even before his graduation Mr. Coan was invited by the Boston board of missions to undertake the dangerous task of exploring southern Patagonia, with a view to the possible establishment of a mission there. He sailed from New York for the straits of Magellan, 16 Aug., 1833, with one companion, the Rev. Mr. Arms, on the schooner " Mary Jane," Capt. Clift. The perilous adventures of their trip are narrated in his " Patagonia." Escaping with their lives from the savages near Gregory's bay, the young explorers were taken off by a passing vessel and retui-ned to New London, where they arrived 7 May, 1834. On 3 Nov., 1834, Mr. Coan married Miss Fidelia Church, and on the 5th of the following month the young missionaries sailed, with six others, in the ship "Hellespont," from Boston, for the Hawaiian islands. They arrived at Honolulu, via Cape Horn, 6 June, and at Hilo, which was to be Mr. and Mrs. Coan's home for life, 31 July, 1835. For two years Mr. Coan devoted himself to the study of the language, in which he became a powerful speaker. His energetic and affectionate nature, and his charming personal presence, gave almost unexampled success to his labors. The number of conversions in the years 1838-'40 was more than 7,000, while he received in all, up to 1883, 13,000 persons into the Hilo and Puna church. Throughout this extensive district, 100 miles of coast-line, a region for many years only accessible on foot. Dr. Coan made regular and frequent tours and organized schools and churches ; and he acted as its only physician until 1849, when the mission board sent out a medical man to assist him. Mrs. Coan established and for some time conducted a seminary for young Hawaiian girls. Dr. Coan seized every opportunity to visit and to study the great volcanoes of Hawaii, of which no history can ever be written that will not depend, in large part, upon the data given in his published descriptions. The largest volcano in the world was in his parish, and for forty years he was the chief observer both of Kilauea and of Mokuaweoweo, the summit crater. In 1860, and again in 1867, he made a tour of the missions in the Marquesas islands. In 1870, after a continuous absence of thirty-six years, Dr. and Mrs. Coan revisited the United States. His abounding energy exercised itself in making 239 addresses in twenty different states and territories during the eleven months of his stay. Mrs. Coan died, after their return to Hilo, exhausted by care and labor, 29 Sept., 1872. She was a woman of flne mind and great charm of character, and to her wise aid and counsel much of Dr. Coan's success was due. Dr. Coan's published writings are " Adventures in