Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/220

 BROWN 1

He always took an active interest in professional affairs. He was also promi- nent in the Council of Confederate Veterans, and served as surgeon of the R. E. Lee Camp, of Alexandria, from its organization.

Dr. Brown performed many capital operations during his military service, and after the war had a large practice.

He married, in 1S52, Mary E. Simpson of Washington, District of Columbia, and had three children, two sons and a daugh- ter. William Bedford who became a physician in New York City, was one of the sons.

During the last months of his life he was troubled with chronic cystitis, for the relief of which an operation was perform- ed by the late Dr. Hunter McGuire, but failing to rally, he died at his home in Alexandria, September 13, 1S97.

Among his contributions to medical lit- erature are found:

"Epidemic Typhoid Pneumonia." ("American Journal of Medical Sciences," 1858.)

"Adynamic Remittent Fever Treated with Nitric Acid." (Ibid., 1859.)

"Extensive Injury of the Frontal Bone, Etc., with Recovery " (Ibid., 1860.)

"Epidemic Cerebrospinal Meningitis." ("Richmond Medical Journal," 1866.)

"Reminiscences of Personal Experi- ence in the History of Diphtheria." ("Transactions of the Medical Society of Virginia," 18S3.)

The "Transactions of the Medical Society of Virginia," from 1S79 to the year of his death, contain many papers read before the society by Dr. Brown, too many indeed to enumerate. Several also are to be found in the "Transactions of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Association," many of these of great historical interest. R. M. S.

Photographs of the doctor are in the posses- sion of his family. Trans. Med. Soo. of Va., 1898.

Brown, Buckminster (1S19-1891).

Buckminster Brown, orthopedist, was the son of Dr. John Ball Brown and

4 BROWN

grandson of Dr. John Warren. He was born in Boston, July 13, 1819. His father had introduced subcutaneous ten- otomy in England and managed a pri- vate orthopedic infirmary wheie patients came for treatment from all over the country. Buckminster was to follow in his father's footsteps, so when he had re- ceived his M. D. from the Harvard Med- ical School in 1S44 he went abroad to study the new specialty of orthopedics in London under J. Little, in Paris under Guerin and Bouvier, and in Germany under Stromeyer. On his return to Bos- ton in 1846 he established himself in gen- eral practice, in the course of a few years gravitating to the exclusive practice of orthopedics. He was associated with his father in the infirmary and was surgeon to the House of the Good Samaritan for nineteen years. Although handicapped by poor health, having had Pott's disease when a boy, and in consequence leading a shut-in life, he carried on, in spite of his deformity, an arduous and exacting prac- tice for fifty years. Patience character- ized his work, his favorite quotation being " Genius is the talent for taking pains." Of a refined and sensitive nature he shrank from publicity devoting himself to his patients and his books. Dr. C. C. Foster, his assistant for ten years, said of him: "His mechanical ability was very great and his surgical dexterity equally remarkable." His operating and his whole handling of a case were character- ized by a certain delicacy and finish that I have seen in no other man's work." Also, "His sense of touch was also very keen and he learned much through the ends of his fingers. To watch him as he manipulated a contracted tendon or a carious spine was an object lesson."

He published, with his father, in 1850, " Reports of Cases Treated at the Boston Orthopedic Institution." In 1S53 ap- peared "A Case of Extensive Disease of the Cervical Vertebra, " and in 1S59 he made an address, "Ectopia Cordis," be- fore the Suffolk District Medical Society. In 1S47 appeared "The Treatment and Cure of Cretins and Idiots " and an essay