Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/473

 ST. JOHN

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STOCKBRIDGE

Yale College, where he graduated in 1834. The two years succeeding were devoted to the study of law, and a third to the duties of a tutor in Latin, when a sudden attack of hemoptysis warned him of the necessity of rest and a change of chmate. Accordingly he traveled for a year in Europe, and immediately upon his return in 1S3S was elected to the pro- fessorship of cliemistry, geology, and mineralogy in the Western Reserve College, at Hudson, Ohio. In 1851 ho was called to the chair of chemistry and medical jurisprudence in the Cleveland Medical College, a position which he filled with eminent success until called in 1857 to the chair of chemistry in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City. This latter position he occu- pied continuously until his death at New Canaan, in the house in which he was born, September 6, 187G.

St. John received no special medical education, and was never a practising physician, but received the degree of M. D. from three distinct institutions, viz.: the Vermont Medical College, in 1839; the Cleveland Medical College, in 1851, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, in 1857. He was likewise honored with the degree of LL. D. by the Georgetown College of Kentucky.

While a man of thorough scientific education and attainments, Dr. St. John was extremely modest and reserved. Dr. John C. Dalton, his colleague and friend, has described him as "a man whom no breath of suspicion ever touched, and whose integrity was a natural and essential part of his organization. " His son, Dr. Samuel B. St. John, became an ophthalmologist in Hartford, Connec- ticut.

H. E. H.

An excellent portrait of Dr. St. John is pre- served in the faculty room of the Medical Department of the Western Reserve Uni- versity.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. A History, edited by John Shrady, A. M., M. D., 1903.

Vol. 11-27

Stockbridge, Tristrim Oilman (180&-1871).

Any life of this capable physician would be incomplete if we did not first say something about his father, John Stockbridge, of Bath and Topsham, Maine. Dr. John Stockbridge was born in Hanover, Massachusetts, April 16, 1780, and studied with Dr. Gad Hitch- cock, of Pembroke, Massachusetts. He practised in Topsham in 1804, and was very intimate with Dr. Isaac Lincoln, the well known physician of Brunswick. Dr. Stockbridge was so well thought of that Dartmouth College gave him an honorary M. D. in 1822. He moved to Bath, Maine, and practised there exten- sively, until his death May 3, 1849. During his lifetime he was an active member of the Massachu.setts Medical Society, as well as of the Maine Medical Society. He married Theodosia Gil- man, the daughter of the Rev. Tristrim Gilman, of North Yarmouth, Maine. The eldest son of this marriage, Tristrim Gilman, was born in Bath, Maine, and studied medicine with his father and also at the medical school of Maine where he graduated in 1827.

Instead of dividing practice with his father, he estabUshed himself in Winslow, Maine. His first year of experience was tremendous, but he proved his medical stamina by competing with several other physicians of that region in taking care of a widespread epidemic of small-pox which ravaged the population, and which was one of the causes leading to a large depopulation of the surrounding towns, the people going West. After a few vears of practice here, he decided to return to Bath and assist his father, who lived for some years later, but did not continue practice after the return of his capable son to the homestead.

The young Dr. Stockbridge of Bath soon gained as extensive a practice as he had previously had at Winslow, and was considered about the best man to be found thereabouts as physician and especially as surgeon. His personality won him many friends and clients. He was tall and commanding in person, very