REPORT ON AMERICAN MEDICAL NECROLOGY. WM. B. ATKINSON, M.D., BALTIMORE, April 29, 1875. Permanent Secretary of the American Medical Association. DEAR SIR: As Chairman of the Committee on Necrology, I beg leave respectfully to submit the accompanying Report to the Association through you, regretting my inability to present it in person. It comprises memoirs received from the District of Columbia and from the States of Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, and Virginia; for which I have to thank my associates on the Committee, Dr. W. W. Johnston, Dr. D. V. Dean, Dr. John Blane, and Dr. L. S. Joynes, and also Dr. Judson Gilman of Baltimore, who is not a member of the Committee. That the Report is not more extensive is due to the fact that no contributions have been received from other States than those above mentioned. Respectfully yours, S. C. CHEW, M.D., Chairman. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. JOSHUA RILEY was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on January 19, 1800. He came to Georgetown, D. C., at the age of 18, and was employed for some time as a clerk in a drug store. Acquiring a fondness for medicine, he decided to devote himself to its study, and after a term of pupilage under Dr. Clark, and attendance upon two courses of lectures at the University of Maryland, he graduated from this institution in 1824. He began the practice of medicine in Georgetown immediately after, and it was not long before his career became a successful one. His private practice soon became large and remunerative, and until the day of his death he continued to engage in the laborious duties of his profession. During the fifty-one years thus spent, he necessarily came in contact with a large number of persons both in his own city and in Washington, and it is safe to say that probably no man in the District of Columbia had so large a number of acquaintances and friends as Dr. Riley. In the intimate relations of physician and patient he proved himself in every way worthy of the high confidence reposed in him and won the esteem of the entire community. Dr. Riley's life, however, was not solely devoted to medical practice. From 1844 to 1849 he was engaged in lecturing as Professor of Materia Medica (a position now held by his son, Dr. John C. Riley) in the National Medical College, and was also active in the founding of the Washington Infirmary, the first clinical school in the District of Columbia. Several offices in the medical societies were at various times held by him. He was President of the Medical Association of the District of Columbia for several years. The discretion and judgment which distinguished his character gave to him, through the choice of his fellow-citizens, several positions of trust. He was a member of the Board of Aldermen of Georgetown, of the Council of the Territorial Government, and, at the time of his death, was President of the Potomac Insurance Company. In the numerous tributes paid to his memory by his brothers in medicine there was but one feeling, that of profound respect for his virtues, his high professional ability, and strict adherence to duty. JOHN G. F. HOLSTON was born in the city of Hamburg, Germany, in the year 1809, and died in Washington, May 1, 1874, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. His father was a physician, and the son early acquired a taste for the profession. When quite young he came to this country, landed at New Orleans, and remained among the planters for about a year. At the end of this time he went to sea and visited the East Indies, China, and other Asiatic countries. On his return to the United States he landed at Philadelphia, where the cholera was then raging. Inspired with the desire to do good, he volunteered as a nurse in the cholera hospital, and here became first acquainted with the practical care of the sick. At the conclusion of this honorable service to humanity, he started on foot for the West, and while on the way was robbed and deserted by a companion. Thus bereft of money, he engaged as a laborer in a brickyard, but his superiority to the humble but cheerfully performed task was discovered accidentally through his offer to translate a puzzling passage for some students of Washington College. On the receipt of funds from home, he subsequently entered this College and graduated with high honors. |