Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/219

 BROOKS

dent of the Massachusetts Medical Society, was born in Medford, Massachu- setts in May, 1752. The son of a farmer, he received his education at the town school and at the age of fourteen was apprenticed to Dr. Simon Tufts, Jr., of Medford, for seven years, according to the custom of the day. At school he was the companion and friend of Count Rumford. Dr. Brooks at the termina- tion of apprenticeship began to practice in the neighboring town of Reading.

He interested himself in raising a company of minute men in his town, and was chosen commander. On the news of the Battle of Lexington he march- ed to the front at once with his company and assisted in harrassing the British on their retreat. He was actively engaged in the military operations of the Revolu- tion, with the rank of colonel, and was designated by Gen. Washington for the command of a brigade at its close.

Settling in Medford after the war was over he engaged in active practice, and was one of the early members of the Massachusetts Medical Society and its president from 1823 to the time of his death in 1825, preceding James Jackson in this office.

In 1816 he was elected Governor of the Commonwealth and served seven years in that capacity. Harvard College con- ferred her honorary A. M. upon him in 1787, and Yale the same in 1781, and he received the A. M. from Harvard Col- lege in 1810, also LL. D. in 1817.

He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, the Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He died March 1, 1825, in his seventy- third year. His wife, Lucy Smith, of Hedford, died early in life leaving two

!i and a daughter. One son was a major of artillery in the United States Army and the other, a lieutenant in the navy, was killed in the battle of Lake Erie.

As a physician Dr. Brooks was a good diagnostician and conservative in treat- ment. His anniversary oration before the Massachusetts Medical Society in

.3 BROWN

1808 is preserved in its transactions, with the title, "Pneumonic Inflammation." W. L. B.

A Memoir by John Dixwell, M. D., Mass.

Med. Com., vol. iv, 1829.

History of Harvard Med. School. T. F.

Harrington.

A Military Jour, during the Rev. War, from

1775 to 1783. James Thaoher, M. D.,

Boston, 1823.

The Early Physicians of Medford. C. M.

Green, 1898.

Brown, Bedford (1S25-1897).

A physician and army surgeon, he was the son of the Hon. Bedford Brown, United States senator from North Carolina from 1S28 to 1841, and was born in Caswell County, North Carolina, January 17, 1825. His mother's maiden name was Mary L. Glenn.

In 1845 he studied under Dr. Benjamin W. Dudley, of Lexington, Kentucky; attended two courses of lectures in the medical department of the Transylvanian University, and graduated in 184S. Two years later he took a course of lectures at the Jefferson School in Phila- delphia, and graduated from that in- stitution.

Dr. Brown was a member of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological association of which he was vice-presi- dent in 1893, and one of its judicial council from 1894; a member of the Board of Medical Examiners of Virginia from 1885 to 1894, and of the Medical Society of Virginia, of which he was president in 1S86.

After graduation he practised three or four years in Virginia, and about 1855 returned to North Carolina and practised at Yanceyville until the out- break of the Civil War. At its close he settled in Alexandria, Virginia, where he practised until death.

In the spring of 1801 he was appointed chief surgeon in the camp of instruction at Weldon, North Carolina, then assigned to the troops sent from Richmond, Virginia, to northwestern Virginia and eventually served during the rest of the war as inspector of hospitals and camps.