Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/472

 STILLE

41G

ST. JOHN

jurisprudence. His journal articles are to be found chiefly in "The American Journal of the Medical Sciences." To- getlier ift'ith the distinguished attorney, Francis Wharton, he composed "A Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence" — a masterpiece both of science and of liter- ary style. This work — the first, without doubt, on the subject, produced in America by a lawyer and a doctor work- ing conjointly — passed through several editions, and was highly esteemed by both the legal and the medical profes- sion. The parts of this work written by Dr. Stills were the second, third, fourth, and fifth books, those on the " Fetus and New-born Child," on "The Sexual Relations," on "Identity," and on the "Cause of Death."

Dr. StiU6 was a very ambitious, as well as an able, man. On going to Europe, he wrote to his brother : " Indifferent to the present, I live only for the future; upon it my most earnest gaze is fixed, and I strive to enter its ever receding portals, to grasp its cloudy phantoms, its beck- oning illusions. If I know myself, I shall not be content with a place in the crowded middle ranks of the profession." He was one of those who "toil terribly," and the result of this trait is plainly apparent in his remarkable book. He was a man of such distinguished and charming pres- ence that he became at once the recipient, while abroad, of marked attention from such men as Drs. Stokes, Graves, Church- ill, Hamilton, Law. and McDonnell. Dr. Stokes, in particular, was very fond of him, and the two were much together on the former's rounds and at his house. Of a generous and self-sacrificing nature, it is related that, during the epidemic of cholera in 1850, he offered his services to the Blockley Hospital free of charge, and remained personally in the building day and night, working both as a physician and as nurse till himself stricken down by the terrible disease. He was one of the few that recovered.

He married, in 1850, Heloise, daughter of S. Destouet, of Philadelphia, and had several children.

Early in July, 1855, he was attacked by the disease from which he was to die. For the sake of his health he went to Cape May, and was at first greatly benefited. One night, however, after bathing, he thoughtlessly slept in a draught, and this exposure produced an attack of pleurisy which, though slight, he was not quite able to recover from, oAving to his en- feebled condition. August 20, 1855 — the year in which Theodric Romeyn Beck died — he passed away, only thirty-three. He never even saw a copy of his remark- able volume — for the work was not in type till some months after his death — yet he left a name which will never be erased from the annals of medical jurisprudence in America. T. H. S.

"A Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence," by

Francis Wharton and Moreton Stillc, Phila.,

1855, (Francis Wharton).

Gross's "American Medical Biography,"

Phila., 1861.

Memoir of Moreton Stille, M. D.,by Samuel

L. Hollingsworth, M. D., Phila., 1856 (port.).

Stites, John, Jr. (1780-1807). The first physician who arrived in Cin- cinnati after the beginning of the nine- teenth century was John Stites, Junior, a native of New York. He studied medicine three years in Philadelphia under Dr. Caldwell. He reached Cin- cinnati in 1802, and brought with him the published works of his preceptor, as well as those of Dr. Rush. Before his arrival scarcely anything of the kind had reached the town; so he had the distinc- tion of introducing the young medical science of our country. Entering into partnership with Dr. Goforth, he became one of Dr. Daniel Drake's preceptors. In less than a year, however, he removed to Kentucky, where he died in 1807, aged twenty-seven. A. G. D.

St. John, Samuel (1813-1876).

Samuel St. John, an eminent chemist of New York City, was born in New Canaan, Connecticut. Of his early edu- cation there is no information; that it was thorough we know from the fact that he was the valedictorian of his class in