Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/366

 Din (il.AS

DOUGLASS

field, a duty which under various titles he conducted during the next thirty- two years after Dr. Houghton's death. For several years he employed a private chemical laboratory for teaching, but in 1856 the Regents, at his solicitation, erected a chemical laboratory at a cost of six thousand dollars and made practi- cal chemistry a part of the curriculum. This was his great contribution to medical teaching — the initiation of lab- oratory training for the degree of M. D. He was largely interested in the founding of the medical department and remained with it until 1877, and had also charge of the erection of the observatory building at the university, the medical building, and other university works, doing good work as well in organizing the Ann Arbor water and gas works. While on his geological tours he collected a large cabinet of minerals which he gave to the university. The latter years of his life were embittered by a controversy over his accounts with the university, the matter finally reaching the Supreme Court and being decided in his favor. On May 1, 1S45, Dr. Douglas married Helen Wells, who with seven children survived him when he died in Ann Arbor, August 26, 1890, from paralysis.

His chief writings included:

"Common Sense in Ventilation." (Michigan University Medical Journal," vol. i.)

"Method of Conducting Post-mortem Examinations in Cases of Suspected Poisoning." ("Peninsular Medical Jour- nal," vol. i.)

"On the Analysis of Waters." (Penin- sular Medical Journal," vol. i.)

"Michigan Coal; Its Analysis and Value for Gas." ("Peninsular Medical Journal," vol. iv.)

He was the author of a system of chemical tables which passed through four editions and which, enlarged by the aid of Prof. A. B. Prescott, M. D., into a text-book on "Qualitative Chemical Analysis," met a wide acceptance (three editions). L. C.

Hist. Univ. Mich., Ann Arbor, Mich., 1906.

Life by Prescott, Michigan Alumnus, Oct.,

1902.

Portrait in Faculty Room, Medical Dept.,

Ann Arbor.

Douglass, William (1690-1752).

Dr. Douglass was born in Gifford, near Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1690. It is not known when he first came to America, but it is known that he studied in Paris, and was familiar with Latin, Greek, English, French and Dutch. He visited the French and English islands in the West Indies in 1717 and finally settled in Boston in 1718 and practised medicine.

Sometime previous to the outbreak of small-pox in Boston, in April or May, 1721, Dr. Douglass received from England the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society" containing an account of the observations of Timonius and Pylarinus on inoculation for small-pox. These he sent to Dr. Cotton Mather, who, after reading and digesting their contents, conceived an enthusiastic be- lief in the efficacy of the practice. Mather started at once on a vigorous campaign of education and tried to elicit the support and interest of the medical profession. Probably he treated Douglass with too little consideration. At all events Douglass put himself in opposi- tion and fought the new movement with all the resources at his command. He refused to loan again the only copy of the communications of Timonius and Pylarinus and attacked bitterly the work of Zabdiel Boylston, who had become the medical disciple of the learned minister, Mather. Douglass' opposi- tion to inoculation brought him into considerable prominence. By 1730, when the small-pox appeared again, he had embraced inoculation although with a bad grace. He must have been held in considerable repute for he was made vice-president of the Scotch Charitable Society in 1721, and president in 1728, an office he held until his death. He was a physician to many of his country- men in Boston. He was an ardent