Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/337

 DARBY

DARLINGTON

repute, his mother, Margaret Cautey Thomson.

He was educated first at Mount Zion Institute, Winnsboro, South Carolina, and thence in the year 1856 went to the South Carolina College in Columbia, then to the Medical College of Charleston, and completed his medical course at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia where he graduated with honor.

Returning to the south at the begin- ning of the Civil War he was immediately appointed surgeon to the Hampton legion.

Upon Hampton's promotion to a cav- alry brigade Dr. Darby was assigned to the staff of Gen. I. B. Hood, serving through every grade until he finally be- came medical director of the Army of the West. In 1863 he was sent by the gov- ernment of the confederate states on a secret mission to Europe, from this he returned successful.

At the close of the war he went to Ger- many where he received an appointment on the medical staff of the Prussian Army, thus utilizing the experience acquired on southern battlefields.

In the campaign against Austria in 1866 Dr. Darby assisted materially in the organization of the hospital and am- bulance corps for which he was highly commended and received well merited praise.

Upon his return from abroad he was immediately elected professor of anat- omy and surgery at the University of South Carolina, in Columbia, where his reputation as a surgeon increased and in 1874 he held the chair of surgery in the University of the City of New York. He married Mary Cautey, daughter of 1 John G. and Caroline Hampton Preston. He died in New York City of pyemia, leaving one son and two daughters.

The epitaph in Trinity Churchyard, Columbia, bears the true record of his life. "Renowned in his profession I [onored as a patriot Beloved in all relations of life."

R.W. Jr.

Darlington, William (1782-1863).

Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, doctor, botanist and author, Darling- ton was one of a famous group of scien- tists exploring, writing and keeping up a keen scientific correspondence with each other from Europe to America, from America to Europe; news of fresh plants, packets of seeds, graceful congratulations were sent, Linnaeus being the brightest star and one whose opinion was first sought.

The seeming hardship of having to work on a farm, the out-door life, may have indirectly helped William Darling- ton's botanical interests. His great- grandfather, Abraham Darlington, had come over from England when a young man to Pennsylvania, and settled near Chester. William was the eldest child of Edward and Hannah Townsend Darling- ton and one of five sons. He had simply a common school education and, hungry for more, persuaded his father to let him study medicine with Dr. John Vaughan of Wilmington, Delaware. He took also private French lessons, studied hard at Latin, Spanish and German and received his M. D. from the University of Penn- sylvania in 1804.

He had the good fortune of being able to attend the botanical lectures of Dr. Benjamin S. Barton, and it is easy to im- agine the shoots of his botanic ideas tak- ing root in the firm earth of accurate knowledge.

A voyage to India as ship's surgeon gave him leisure for study and refli but does not seem to have given him "travel fever" also, for the following year he settled down to practise in West Ches- ter after marrying Catherine, daughter of Gen. John Lacey of New Jersey.

In 1812 international science yielded tn international strife and Darlington became major of the "American Grays," organized to defend Philadelphia. Short- ly after he figures as a politician advo- cating the abolition of slavery, and, re- signing, receiving the thanks of the secretary of war and a nomination as visitor to West Point. He serves on the