Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/238

 MURRAY


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MURRAY

and in 1868 received his degree, and, after one course at the Jefferson Medical College, he graduated M. D. there. In 1871, having been resident physician to the Philadelphia Hospital for fifteen months, Dr. Murray was appointed assistant surgeon of the United States Navy, 1871-72, and did active work in the United States Marine Hospital Ser- vice, being senior surgeon of the service since 1896. He encountered yellow fever during twenty-five summers in over fifty towns and in eleven states, besides on board ship, serving in epidemics of that disease at Key West, Florida, in 1875; at Fernandina, 1877; and New Orleans, 1878; and was secretary of the Thompson Yellow Fever Commission of that year. He commanded the first armed cordon sanitaire in the United States, one hundred miles in length at Brownsville, Texas, 1872. He had com- mand of the district of South Mississippi during the epidemic of 1897, and served as an inspector to decide on the character of cases of fever during much of 1898 and 1899. Among the pubUc positions held by Dr. Murray were those of postmaster of Bluffton, Ohio; demonstrator of anatomy, Cleveland Medical College, 1868-70; and in the Philadelphia School of Anatomy, 1869-71; Florida Medical Association (of which he was president in 1873); Medical Society of the State of Tennessee; Medico- Legal Society of New York; Philadelphia Hospital Medical Society (of which he was president in 1870); and Association of Military Surgeons of the United States. He wrote a number of works of value, prin- cipally devoted to the specialty which constituted his life work. Among these are the " History of Yellow Fever in Key West in 1875," "Report on the Fernan- dina Epidemic of Yellow Fever," "Treat- ment of Yellow Fever," and numerous official reports and tracts. He deserves the credit of writing the first letter in 1873, which led to the organization of the Florida Medical Society in the following year. In 1875 he married Lillie, daugh- ter of the Rev. C. A. Fulwood, D. D., at

Key West, Florida. She died at Ship Island Quarantine, 1887, leaving five children. Gillie, Rebah, Karlie, Robert Fulwood and Joseph Arbour. Dr. Mur- ray died on the twenty-second of Novem- ber, 1903, at Laredo, Texas, from injuries received in a runaway accident, eight days previously. He had been ordered from Key West to Laredo, Texas, in the latter part of September to settle disputes of diagnosis arising over an out- break of "fever" along the Texan border of the Rio Grande River, and which was variously termed "dengue," "jaundice," and "malaria." His reputation as a diagnostician was worldwide, and because of this knowledge he was always chosen and ordered to points where such skill was demanded, especially was he an expert in his knowledge of tropical dis- eases, such as yellow fever and malaria. Yellow fever was on the wane, the disease had been conquered and he was at the zenith of fame at the close of a well directed and satisfactorily conducted campaign against a most insidious foe, when he received injuries from which he subsequently died. While his own life from the age of fifteen, when he was wounded in the war, to his death at fifty- eight, was one of constant pain and suffering, yet his own discomforts and troubles were never spoken of by him, for selfishness had no place in his nature. Thus was the man seen by others; to me he was all of that and a great deal more besides, but here more cannot be said without tearing aside a veil of hallowed memories from a friendship, which a close companionship of over thirty years formed; a friendship commencing at the feet of Esculapias. How many loving recollections does the mention of his name bring up? "For my boyhood friend hath fallen, the

pillar of my trust; " The true, the wise, the faithful, is sleep-

ing in the dust.

J. Y. P.

From the Report of the State Board of Health, Florida, 1904. Memoirs of Florida.