Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/215

 B RIGGS H

of Medical Sciences;" clinical teacher of the diseases of females, and lec- turer on obstetrics in Bellevue. In 1862 he was a member of the committee of safety and did what he could for the defense of the city; on its surrender he entered the service of the confederacy and served in field and hospital until the close of the conflict. In 1873 Belle- vue tendered him the chair of obstetrics, which after a short while he resigned, returning to the home of his affection and there he remained until his death in December, 1S81.

A wise, cautious conservative physi- cian. A bold dextrous and self-reliant surgeon, as lecturer, clear, cogent and terse; a successful journalist. In every phase of his multiform character, a valuable member of society.

J. G. R.

N. 0. Med. and Surg. Jour., Feb., 1882. St. Louis Courier of Med., 18S2, vol. vii.

Briggs, William Thompson (1828-1894). W. T. Briggs, surgeon and obstetri- cian, was the son of Dr. John McPherson and Harriet Morehead Briggs and born at Bowling Green, Kentucky on De- cember 4, 1828. After studying with his father he graduated from the medical side of Transylvania University in 1850 and was made demonstrator of anatomy in the University of Nashville. He -.ft t If 1 1 down at Nashville in partnership with Dr. John M. Watson.

As a surgeon he did good work; li- gating the internal carotid artery for traumatic aneurysm, removing both upper jaws for gunshot injury; am- putating at tin- hip-joinl for elephantia- sis arabum (the leg weighed 80 pounds), and he removed over 300 ovarian tumors.

His most important publications were:

"History of Surgery in Middle Ten- H€ ee,"

" Enchondromatous Tumor- of the Head, Forearm and Hand," ls.71. [■replannig in Epilepsy," 1869.

"The Surgical Treatment ot Epi- lepsy," 1884.

BRIGHAM

He was one of the founders of the American Surgical Association and its president in 18S5; member of the South- ern Surgical and Gynecological Associa- tion; staff surgeon to the Nashville City Hospital; adjunct professor of anatomy in the University of Nashville, and there successively; professor of surgical anat- omy and professor of obstetrics and dis- eases of women and children, and pro- fessor of surgery.

He married in 1S51, Annie E., daughter of Samuel Stubbins, of Bowling Green, and had four children and the three sons became doctors. Charles S„ Waldo, and Samuel S. D. W.

Nashville J. M. and S., 1890, n. s., vol. xlvi, also vol. lxxvi, 1S94, also vol. lxvii, 1895 (J. H. Callender).

Brigham, Amariah (1798-1849).

Amariah Brigham, alienist, was born in New Marlborough, Berkshire County, Massachusetts December 26, 1798. His father, John Brigham, was a native of the place, a farmer by occupation and a descendant of Thomas Brigham, who came over from England and settled in Cambridge in 1640.

Amariah becoming fatherless when eleven years old he was adopted into the family of his uncle, Dr. Origin Brigham of Schoharie, New York, who meant to educate him for the medical profession. Within a short time, however, the boy was thrown upon his own resources by the death of this uncle, and at fourteen made his way to Albany and secured employment as clerk in a book tore, where he had access to books and leisure to read them. After three years'

ervice he returned to his mother's home in Xew Marlborough, where he spent a like period fitting himself for the

medical profe ion, and had, besides, a year iii New York in attendance at lectures. During this period lie taught school through the winter months, and

it is said of him in this connection that

Up to this time he had never studied I ii li h grammar but in order to qualify as teacher he ma tered the subject in a