DOUGLAS, George, Canadian clerofvman, b. in Ayliivirlc, Scotland, 8 Oct., 1825 ; d. in Montreal, 10 I' eb., 1895. In 1832 the family removed to Cana- da, and made their home in Montreal. After being apprenticed to a blacksmith, attending a private school, and serving in a book store, he entered into partnership with his brother, a carpenter and builder. He had become an insatiable reader, pos- sessing a natural gilt of eloquence and a polished diction unusual for his age, and enrolled himself as a student of medicine. Uniting with the Metho- dist church, he became a class-leader, a local preacher, and a probationer for the ministry, and in 1849 went to England to attend the Wesleyan theological college, but was at once sent as a mis- sionary to the Bahamas. After his ordination in 1850, he was ordered to the Bermuda Islands, re- siding there eighteen months, until feeble health compelled him to resign, after which he returned to Canada and was engaged eleven years in the pulpit, and seven as the president of the Wesleyan college in Montreal. As a minister he was sta- tioned three years in each of the cities, Kingston, Toronto, and Hamilton. The disadvantages of his youth made him a student through lite, and he gave special attention to literature, philosopliy, the natural sciences, and metaphysics. He was, one of the first orators of his church in Canada. In 1869 the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by McGill university.
DOUGLAS, James, Canadian physician, b. in
Brechin, Scotland, 20 ]May, 1800 ; d. in New York,
14 April, 1886. He received his early education
in Aberdeen and Dumfries, and after a period of
apprenticeship with a surgeon was appointed sur-
geon to a vessel bound for Greenland. Subse-
quently he passed two winters in study in Edin-
burgh, and in 1820 was admitted to the Royal col-
lege of surgeons of that city, and soon afterward
to the Royal college of surgeons, London. After
serving in India as assistant surgeon of the Indian
army, and in the fatal expedition to the Mosquito
territory, from the coast of which he was rescued
and taken to Havana, he came to New York in
1824, and after a short residence there and in Utica
was appointed lecturer on anatomy to the Auburn
medical institution. In 1826 he arrived in Quebec,
and durmg the succeeding twenty-five years prac-
tised there, attaining the highest rank as a surgeon
and physician. In 1845 he, together with Drs.
Marrin and Fremont, founded the lunatic asylum
at Beauport, near Quebec, the institution being
managed by Dr. Douglas. He was an entiiusiastic
traveller and antiquarian.
DOUGLAS, Sir James, colonial governor, b. in
Demerara, British Guiana, 14 Aug., 1803 ; d. in
Victoria, British Columbia, 2 Aug.," 1877. He was
the son of a poor Scotchman, who had emigrated
to the colony a short time previous to his birth,
and was early left an orphan. At the age of
twelve he set out with an elder brother to push
his fortunes in the British possessions of North
America. At that time the rivalry between the
Hudson Bay and North-west companies was very
keen. Young Douglas entered the service of the
latter, bringing to his duties remarkable powers of
endurance, an iron constitution, and a resolute
spirit. He soon displayed prudence, determination,
and executive capacity in the arduous service in
which he was engaged, and his business ability and
the tact that he exhibited in his intercourse with
the Indians secured him rapid advancement.
After the consolidation of the rival companies, he
was appointed chief factor, the duties of which
office compelled him to visit the remotest outposts
and undergo many hardships. He was once capt-
ured and held for weeks by a tribe of Indians.
Having at length succeeded in escaping, he made
his way back after much suffering to one of the
company's forts. He had for some time been given
up as dead. In 1833 he was appointed to the
chief agency for the region west of the Rocky
mountains. In 1843, his headquarters being af
Fort Vancouver, Oregon territory, a company of
forty men landed by his orders at what is now
Victoria (called Tsomus by the natives), and nego-
tiations were concluded for the erection of a fort.
In 1851 he became governor of the infant colony,
and in 1857 his commission was renewed for a
further period of six years. In 1859 Vancouver
Island was constituted a crown colony, with Vic-
toria as its capital, and Mr. Douglas was appointed
governor, and received the dignity of C. B. British
Columbia having been organized as a colony the
year previous, and the governorship also vested in
Mr. Douglas, he exercised the arditous and respon-
sible duties of his double otfice so well that in 1863
he was knighted. The following year he retired
from public life, on the expiration of his term of
office, and, after making the tour of Europe, re-
turned to end his days in the land for which he
had done so much. He married in 1827, and for
some years his eldest and only surviving son
represented Victoria in the provincial legislature.
DOUGLAS, John Hancock, physician, b. in
Waterford, Saratoga co.. N. Y., 5 J une, 1824 ; d. in
Washington, D. C, 2 Oct., 1892. He was gradu-
ated at Williams in 1843, and in the University of
Pennsylvania in 1847. He sailed for Europe in
1849, and, after spending the intervening period
in study and travel, returned in 1851, but again
visited Europe in 1854 and in 1868. He had in the
meantime begun to practise in New York city,
where from 1856 till 1862 he edited twelve volumes
of the "American Medical Monthly," and from
1865 till 1866 three volumes of the " New York Med-
ical Journal," then a monthly, but now a weekly
publication. He also contributed to the columns
of the " New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal,"
the " New Orleans Hospital Gazette," the " Boston
Medical and Surgical Journal," and other periodi-
cals. Dr. Douglas was the attending physician of
Gen. U. S. Grant from 22 Oct., 1884, till the death
of the latter, 23 July, 1885.
DOUGLAS, Silas Hamilton, chemist, b. in
Fredonia, N. Y., 16 Oct., 1816; d. in Ann Arbor,
26 Aug., 1890. He was educated in Fredonia, and
then entered the office of Dr. Zina Pitcher, for the
study of medicine, after which he was graduated
in Baltimore as a physician, and entered on the
practice of his profession in Dearborn, Mich. In
1844 he was appointed instructor in chemistry in
the University of ^Michigan, and at once was given
charge of that department. Dr. Douglas Hough-
ton, the professor of chemistry, being absent in
the prosecution of the geological survey of Michi-
gan. Two years later he was elected professor of
chemistry, and took part in the establishment of
the department of medicine, which was organized
in 1848. He secured at that time the promise of
a chemical laboratory in the medical department,
but its fulfilment was delayed until 1856, when he
was given a separate building, provided with tables
for twenty-six students, at a time when few of the
older colleges of this country, and not many uni-
A^ersities in Europe, were supplied with laboratories.
Dr. Douglas served in charge of the chemical de-
partment of the University of Michigan for thirty-
three years, during which time his labors were
directed to the establishment of a laboratory of
