Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/321

 CRAWFORD

CROSBY

buried in Westminster churchyard. He was survived by one daughter, who married Maximilian Godefrey, an emi- nent French architect of Baltimore with whom she returned to France. Dr. Crawford's library is preserved in the University of Maryland. His articles are to be found in the "American Medical Repository," the " Baltimore Observer, " and the " Medical and Physical Recorder," Baltimore; in Schultz's "History of Free- masonry in Maryland," vol. ii, 1885, and in CordelFs "Medical Annals of Mary- land." There is a crayon portrait and an MS. work on Tropical Diseases in the library of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty. E. F. C.

Crawford, John Barclay (1828-1894).

John Barclay, son of John B. and Elizabeth (Thompson) Crawford, was born at Crawford, Orange County, state of New York, January 2, 1828. His earliest American ancestor, James Craw- ford, was with Gen. Wolfe at the capture of Quebec by the British, and an officer in the Continental Army in the Franco- English War. At the beginning of the Civil War, Dr. Crawford entered the United States Army as assistant surgeon and was promoted to be surgeon of the Fifty-second Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserves. He began to study medicine in Elmira, New York, finishing at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, in 1850 and beginning to practise in 1851, at Hawley, Penn- sylvania, but in 1852 removed to Wyom- ing, Luzerne County, and practised there, with t he exception of the time spent in the army, until 1S70, when he went to Wilkes- Barre and stayed until his death, October 7, 1S94. In 1S52 he married Sarah Hammond, of Horseheads, New York, who died in 1878, leaving him a daughter.

Dr. Crawford was a member of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, also consulting surgeon and physician to the Wilkes- Barre City Hospital and president of the Luzerne County Medical Society. He was a profound thinker, a close

reasoner, a gifted and fluent speaker, and a writer of more than ordinary ability. Two good essays entitled "Gunshot Wounds during the War," and "Malaria in the Wyoming Valley," attracted atten- tion, and bore the marks of critical exam- ination and patient research. E. R.

Crosby, Dixi (1801-1873).

Born in Sandwich, New Hampshire, February 7, 1801, he was the son of Dr. Asa and Betsey (Hoit) Crosby.

He worked upon the farm and attend- ed the district school. In 1S18 his father removed to Gilmanton, New Hampshire, where young Dixi attended the local academy, afterwards being employed for a time as a clerk in a store and in teach- ing public and singing schools. In 1S19 he went to New York and was occupied with his brother Asa in mercantile pur- suits; an unsuccessful venture in New Orleans satisfied his taste in this direction and he returned home and began with zeal to study medicine with his father. Anatomy and surgery had for young Crosby special charms, and the ardor with which he threw himself into these branches of his studies showed early fruits. From the day he began anatomy, his prac- tice and study went hand in hand, fear- less and original, ready in expedients and ingenious in their use, he observed, he resolved, and he acted.

In the first year of his study he accompanied his father to a consultation in the case of a man whose leg had been frozen, and whose condition was ex- tremely critical. It was agreed by the older physicians present that if amputation had been done earlier it might have saved the patient's life, but that now it was too late to attempt it. Young Dixi urged that the operation be performed, but the elders shook their heads. He even proposed to perform it himself, but this was received with a storm of disapproval, in which his father joined and the thing was pro- nounced impossible. The doctors de- parted, leaving the young student to watch the patient during the few hours he had to live. During the night young