Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/422

 FINLEY

FIRESTONE

from Europe, well drilled in medical and chiefly in obstetrical science, he settled in Bangor in 1S50, gained an excellent practice, and married Sally Russ McRuer, a daughter of his medical preceptor, and had two daughters.

He became extremely popular as an accoucheur, and during many years is said to have attended twice as many cases of this nature as any other two physicians around. His success in this branch was largely due to his gratifying results in difficult deliveries.

With fine literary taste, he enjoyed classical authors, and possessed poetical ability of high order, so that he often wrote "occasional" poems highly ad- mired by those who heard them. He received the honorary A. M. from Bow- doin in 1S52. His last illness, during weary months of which he was devotedly attended by his wife, was tedious and dis- tressing. It was due to chronic enlarge- ment of the heart, which at one time measured five and one-half inches. He suffered at times from asthma and pul- monary edema. He was early convinced of the hopelessness of his disease, and in his lucid intervals asked to be allowed to die, but to the end he endured his sufferings heroically, dying ultimately July 29, 1SS7, at Bangor, much lamented and leaving the record of a very successful obstet- rician and physician, and a beloved per- sonality. J. A. S.

Trans. Maine Med. Assoc., 1S8S, ix.

Finley, Clement A. (1797-1879).

Clement A. Finley, surgeon-general of the United States Army, was educated at Washington College, Pennsylvania, and began the study of medicine under a phy- sician at Chillicothe, Ohio, taking his M. D. from the University of Pennsyl- vania in 1818. He at once entered the United States Army as assistant surgeon and served at various posts in the East and West. During the Mexican War he was medical director of Taylor's Army. In May, 1861, Finley, was appointed surgeon- general and served as such until April,

1S62, when he retired at his own request, having served in the United States Army more than forty years. A. A.

Tr. Am. M. Ass., Phila., 1S80, xxxi.

Firestone, Leander (1819-1888).

Leander Firestone, surgeon and gyne- cologist, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, April 11, 1819. Cradled in poverty and brought up as an ordinary farmer's boy, the lad fought his way steadily forward, studying at night by the light of a burn- ing brush pile until he was able to attend a few sessions of the district school, then securing the direction of such a school for himself, and finally saving sufficient money from his scanty earnings to at- tend medical lectures, first at the Jeffer- son Medical College, Philadelphia, and then in that of Cleveland. From the latter institution he graduated in 1841 and settled immediately in Congress, Wayne County, near his place of birth. In 1847 he was called to the position of demonstrator of anatomy in the Cleve- land Medical College and occupied this position for six years. In those early days the duties of the modern demon- strator were largely combined with the more exciting adventures of the not en- tirely historical "resurrectionist," and Dr. Firestone is reported to have been a model demonstrator. In Wooster he en- joyed a large practice and almost mon- opolized surgery in the counties of Wayne, Stark, Summit, Holmes and Ashland, acquiring rapidly an extensive reputa- tion. In 1864 Dr. Firestone was called to the chair of obstetrics and the diseases of women and children in the newly organized Charity Hospital Medical Col- lege in Cleveland, a chair which he ex- changed in 1S66 for that of the principles of surgery in the same college. In 1S79 he was once more transferred to the chair of gynecology, in which he continued active until a short time before his death. In 1878 he was appointed superintendent of the Central Ohio Insane Asylum at Columbus, and managed to combine the duties of this position with those of a