Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/192

 MICHENER

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MILES

his wish, i)f bi)ards from thr trunk of a tree (.raulownia Iniperialis) which ho had planted.

He wrote " Conchologia Ccstrica " in col- laboration with Dr. William D. Hortnuui and the preface seems to indicate that it was prepared at the suggestion of the Cabinet of Natural Science of Chester County. He also collected an extensive herbarium of Hysterophyta (Fungi), and his collection of the mammalia, birds and reptiles of Chester County form a part of the collection at Swarthmore College.

Barton's "Flora Philadelphiae " was the first real botanical book Michener had for study, until Darlington published his "Florula Ccstrica" in 1826, in which work Michener assisted. Darlington ac- knowledged his indebtedness to Michener in the collection and preparation of the Shallophyta for his "Flora Cestrica," referring to him as a naturalist of acumen, dihgence and indomitable perseverance. He was greatly interested in cryptogams and did much good work in their collec- tion and study. Fifteen books and twenty-three medical reprints stand to his credit, besides numerous articles. One of his books was "A Retrospect of Quakerism." He was an ardent mem- ber of New Garden Meeting (Hicksite Friends), and sat at the head of the meeting for many years. On the title page of "Conchologia Cestrica" is the quotation (written) " An undevoutphilos- pher is mad," which was exactly Michener's idea. I knew him as a devout man, rich in knowledge and finding nothing trivial in nature but God in all.

His reputation as an accoucheur was great in his locality. He assisted at my birth and in some families had attended five generations. I called on him the day before his death, July 23, and found this old man of ninety-three ready to show- interest in my recent graduation in medicine and desired I should examine him to see how completely all cartilage had ossified, calling my attention par- ticularly to his floating ribs. He asked me to come again and then said, " No,

thee need not, for I shall not be here." He also spoke a httle about death and his wdsh to be through with Ufe.

In 1819 he married Sarah Spencer and had seven children. After her death, he married, in 1844, Mary S. Walton.

Among his correspondents were many of the most eminent scientists of his time, including Darlington, Rothrock, Curtis, Ijining, Ravenel and Tuckerman. Agassiz said of him "that he did not belong exclusively to Chester County, Penn.sylvania, or America, but to the whole scientific world."

B. M. H.

The Botanists of Pennsylvania, Harshberger. Personal Communications.

Middleton, Peter ( 1781).

Peter Middleton, born in Scotland, graduated at the University of Edin- burgh, and came to New York, where he was one of the most eminent medical men in the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1750, he assisted Dr. John Bard in making one of the first dissections for the purpose of an- atomical instruction recorded in this country. In 1767, he aided in estab- lishing the medical department of Kings College (Columbia University) in New York, in which he was the first professor of pathology and physiology, from 1767 to 1776, and of chemistry and materia medica from 1770 to 1776. He w'as a governor of Kings College from 1770 to 1780. He published a letter on "Croup" in the "Medical Repository" (vol. ix), and "Historical Inquiries into the Ancient and Present Systems of Medicine," (1769).

C. R. B.

Miles, Albert Baldwin (1852-1894).

A surgeon, he was born in Prattville, Alabama on May 18, 1852. His father, a farmer, removed to Arkansas in 1857 and an uncle living in El Dorado ed- ucated the boy and sent him to the University of Virginia.

In 1872 he entered the medical de- partment of the University of Louisiana,