Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/130

 ARMSBY :

Armsby, James H. (1810-1875).

Armsby was an enthusiastic surgeon, determined that Albany's doctors and students should have everything nec- essary to advance their interests, and carrying out by hard work and persua- sion many of his pet schemes for this end.

He seems to have been born enthu- siastic, this boy who came into the world on December 31, 1810, in Sutton, Massachusetts, the son of an impecunious but long-headed farmer; for when twenty the farm had been left and he was studying medicine under Dr. Alden March in Vermont.

After graduating M. D. from the Med- ical Academy of Medicine there in 1833, he associated himself in Albany with Dr. March as teacher in a "School of Anatomy and Surgery," which school had been originated by Dr. March twelve years before in a garret.

Soon after his arrival in Albany he got up a petition to render dissections of the human body legal and for the establishment of a medical college and hospital. In 1S38 he delivered a course of popular lectures illustrated by dissec- tions of the human subject which were attended by some three hundred of Albany's citizens and brought in sub- scriptions for the projected college, erected in 1S39, with Dr. Armsby as professor of surgery and president.

This school founded, he made time from his deep anatomical studies to advance the founding of the Albany Hospital and, that accomplished, he lent his whole energies to those who were in- terested in obtaining a university, a de- sign which first met with little encour- agement but was finally realized in 1873.

Even when in Europe he remembered Albany and brought back a rich collec- tion of models for the college museum, and when United States Consul at Naples for awhile the Neapolitans had their first experience of a scientific lecturer. In Albany he was known as an operator and surgical lecturer without equal. His profound knowledge of anatomy,

! ASH

his mechanical dexterity, and his clear- ness in elucidating every point made his lectures eagerly sought by students.

He married in 1841, Anna L., daughter of the Hon. Gideon Hawley and had two children, the son, Gideon H., becoming a doctor. By his second wife, Sarah Winne, married in 1853, he had one daughter.

His death, which came very unexpect- edly on the night r'of December 2, 1875, from pulmonary congestion and heart disease, deprived Albany of a most de- voted citizen and clever surgeon.

He gave the surgical world an interest- ing illustrated work. "Photographs of Pathological Specimens from the United States Isa Harris General Hospital," two volumes, and a " History of the Albany City Hospital."

Trans. Med. Soc. N. York, Albany, 1876, W. S. Tucker.

Trans. Am. Med. Asso., Phila., 1S76, xxvii. There is a portrait in the Surg.-Gen. Collec- tion, Wash., D. C.

Ash, John (1823-1SS6).

John Ash was a native of Yorkshire, England and educated at Guy's Hospit- al, London, where he obtained his degree and held also the London M. R. C. S. Very little is known of his boyhood or of his ancestry. He married on the eleventh of December, 1S75, Adelaide Ann Amelia, daughter of Sir John de Veulle, Knight, High Bailiff of the Island of Jersey. He arrived in Victoria in 1862, during the days of the Cariboo gold excitement.

A man of great force of character, he soon achieved distinction not only in his chosen profession but also in politics. He was a member of the old Vancouver Island Assembly, and after British Columbia joined the Canadian Confed- erated Provinces, July, 1871, he repre- sented the district of Comox (Vancouver Island) in the Provincial Legislature for four terms, 1S71 to 1884.

After retiring from public life he visited England twice, and then quietly settled down in Victoria to renew practice in which as an oculist he specially en-