Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/388

 EARLE

EARLE

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Earle, Pliny (1809-1892).

An alienist, born in Leicester, Mass- achusetts, December 31, 1809, he was a descendant of Ralph Earle, one of the petitioners to Charles II of England to form Rhode Island into a corporate colony, whose name appears among the signers of a political compact made at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, April 30, 1639. He was educated at Leicester Academy and the Friends' School, Providence, Rhode Island, and graduated in medicine at the University of Penn- sylvania in 1837, afterwards travelling extensively and studying in Europe. For two years he was resident physician to the Friends' Asylum, Frankfort, Pennsylvania, and became superintend- ent of the Bloomingdale Hospital, New York, in 1844, resigning after five years' service and going a second time to Europe for special study. In 1853 he was appointed visiting physician to the New York Asylum and lecturer on mental diseases at the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons. At a later period he delivered a course of lectures at the Berkshire Medical Institute at Pitts- field, Massachusetts, as professor of materia medica and psychology. In 1864 he became superintendent of the Northampton Lunatic Hospital and held that position till his retirement after twenty-two years of distinguished service. He was one of the original members of the American Medical Association, also of the American Medico-Psychological As- sociation, the New York Academy of Medicine and president of the Amer- ican Medico-Psychological Association in 1884.

Leaving out of view the young scholar and poet's contributions to the "Worcester Talisman," "Spy," and other local periodicals, some of which he gathered into his Philadelphia volume

of 1841, "Marathon, and Other Poems," he also wrote the following:

(1841) "A Visit to Thirteen Asylums for the Insane in Europe." (Philadel- phia. J. Dobson, pp. 144.) This had be- fore appeared in the "American Journal of the Medical Sciences" for October, 1839 (vol. xxv, pp. 99-134). It was re- printed later with many changes and additions. However, many of the orig- inal errors, arising from imperfect observation or dependence on untrust- worthy authority, remained in the re- print. For example, the account of the traditional origin of the " Community Asylum at Gheel," as he called the famous colony at that Belgian town, is wholly incorrect, and the statistics much in arrears, coming down no later than 1821. Dr. Earle placed in the hands of his biographer a corrected copy of this reprint.

(184S) "History, Description, and Statistics of the Bloomingdale Asylum for the Insane."

(1853) "Institutions for the Insane in Prussia, Austria, and Germany." Utica, New York. These visits were all made in the year 1849, with many others upon which Dr. Earle did not report, but which served to correct former impressions and to make his comments on the annual reports of European asylums of great value. To his volume Dr. Earle added a supplement of sixteen pages, containing information furnished by Laehr in 1852, and a list of German asylums at that date, tabulated by Dr. Earle, which, as containing information curious in itself, and nowhere else ac- cessible in English, is reprinted in this appendix. The mere political changes made in the past half century, largely by the genius and energy of Bismarck, give these minute divisions of German- speaking Europe curious interest. The