68 BOWDITCH. BOWDITCH. 1863 he published a treatise on the inter- nal revenue and excise system of the United States, which is still an authority in the department. In 1S69 a volume of his speeches was published. He is also the author of a volume, " Why I am a Republican," published in 18S4, and re- printed in 18S8. In 1887 he published a small volume entitled " The Lawyer, States- man and Soldier." He was married to Sarah Adelia, daugh- ter of Nathan Thayer, of Hollis, N. H., July 8,1841. His children are : Georgianna A., born May 18, 1S43, and Francis M. Boutwell, born February 26, 1847. Few citizens of Massachusetts have been called upon to occupy more responsible and influential positions in public life than Gov. Boutwell, and certainly there are none now living of her honored sons who have brought to the fulfillment of their official duties greater energy of spirit, purity of character, or loyalty to imposed trust, than has this widely-known and universally- respected representative of the old Bay State. His record is his own best eulogium. BOWDITCH, Henry Ingersoll, son of Nathaniel and Mary (Ingersoll) Bow- ditch, was born in Salem, Essex county, August 9, 1808. His father was the trans- lator and commentator of the " Mccanique Celeste" and his mother was the only daughter of Captain Jonathan Ingersoll, both parents being natives of Massachu- setts. His early educational training was re- ceived in a Salem private school, and later in the Boston Latin school. He was graduated from Harvard College, in the class of 1828, and from the medical de- partment of Harvard University in 1832. Desirous of familiarizing himself with the most advanced medical science of the old world, he repaired to Europe after his graduation, and spent over two years in Paris, under the tuition of Professor Louis particularly, and of other adepts in physic and surgery. Returning to his native land, Dr. Bow- ditch began practice in Boston. For sev- eral years he was Jackson professor of clinical medicine in the Harvard medical school ; has also been physician to the Massachusetts General Hospital and to the City Hospital, and consulting physician in the Carney Hospital, Boston. During the civil war he held the office of surgeon of the board of enrollment in the fourth dis- trict of Massachusetts. In 1876 he was elected to the presidency of the American Medical Association, and presided at its meeting held at Chicago, in June, 1877, on which occasion he delivered the open- ing address. He was for many years chair- man of the Massachusetts state board of health after its organization in 1870. Sub- sequently he was a member of the national board of health. To the literature of his profession Dr. Bowditch has been a frequent contributor. " Thoracentesis," a paper read before the New York Academy of Medicine, April, 1870, received high commendation from the most eminent practitioners. More than a quarter of a century ago Dr. Bowditch began to devote himself to the study of diseases of the chest, and was impressed with the conviction that it would be possible to relieve cases of effu- sion into the pleural cavity by drawing off the fluid. He adopted Dr. Morrill Wyman's method of so doing — by a very small tube with a suction pump fastened to it. The success of this line of treatment was immediate and permanent. Immediate relief usually followed the operation, and never any disastrous results. Thoracen- tesis is now regarded in Europe and America as a legitimate, safe and neces- sary procedure. That such is the case is largely due to the success of Dr. Bow- ditch's operations, and the earnestness with which he has pressed the importance of it upon the medical fraternity. Dr. Bowditch has devoted much time to the study of consumption, its natural history and pathology, and the best means of checking its ravages. In 1S62, in an address before the Massachusetts Medical Society he announced his discovery that a residence on or very near damp soil in New England is apt to cause consumption. Three years afterward I )r. Buchanan, of the local government board of England, found that a large district which had been sub- drained had less consumption than previ- ously. In another very important department of medical literature, Dr. Bowditch is among the pioneers of America — that of preventive medicine and hygiene. His "Public Hygiene in America" has been published at Boston and London, in book form. Having accidentally seen from the head of State Street the "Garrison mob (1835), led by gentlemen of respectability and standing," for the purpose of putting down free speech in behalf of liberty, he immediately joined the ranks of the Aboli- tionists, and continued with them until slavery was crushed by the civil war.
