Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1074

NAME SHURTLEFF 10S2 SILLIMAN to be captured only after a pursuit extend- ing over forty-eight hours, throwing Detroit into an uproar of amusement and the doctor into throes of apprehension lest the results of precious experiments be lost. Dr. Shurly was president of the American Laryngological Association in 1884, chairman of the section in larj-ngology and otology of the American Medical Association, a member of the American Microscopical Association and the Michigan State Medical Society. He was untiring in his support of laws to advance sanitation and to prevent adulteration of food and drugs and at the same time an enemy of charlatanism and quackery. Although slight of stature he had great energy and strength, enabling him to be a tireless worker. He married Elizabeth Pulty in 1868, and she survived him. Trans. Amcr. Laryn. .^ESoc., 1914, 312-316. Shurtleff, Nathaniel Bradstreet (1810-1874) Dr. Shurtleff was a physician who took to antiquarian studies and to the public service, being an author noted for his accuracy, and also mayor of the City of Boston for three terms. The son of Benjamin Shurtleff, also a physician, and Sally Shaw Shurtleff, he was born in Boston, June 29, 1810, and died there, October 17, 1874. He graduated A. B. at Harvard College in 1831 in the class with Wendell Phillips and John Lothrop Motley and from Harvard Medical School in 1834, going into practice at once in his native city. He was said to have had a good practice, and to have taken a high standing, but his mind was attuned to delving in the history of the past of his city and state, and making exact accounts of what he found rather than devot- ing himself to the alleviation of the suffer- ings of the citizens of his day. Previous to 1853 his writings evinced a considerable talent for such research, so that he was employed in editing and supervising the publication of the records of the "Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England" under the authority of the legislature, finish- ing the undertaking in 1854, and issuing five large volumes covering the period from 1628 to 1686. With David Pulsifer he edited eight volumes of "The Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England," 1856-57, comparing every word of the original with the printed copy, thus securing accuracy of the transcript, and at the same time, by the publication of the books, giving a great impetus to the study of local histories and genealogies. Among his published works of about this time may be mentioned: "Brief Notice of William Shurtleff of Marshfield," 1850; "Thunder and Lightning; and Deaths at Marshfield in 1658 and 1666," 1850; "A Decimal System for the Arrangement and Administration of Libraries," 1856; and "A Literal Reprint of the Bay Psalm Book," 1862. In 1867-8-9 Dr. Shurtleff was elected mayor by increasing majorities, declining a re-elec- tion after his third term. His administration was not brilliant but he gave a conscientious attention to the business of his office and acquired such an interest in the affairs of the city that he wrote his chief work, "A Topographical and Historical Description of Boston," 1871, the third edition of which, published in 1891, is an octavo volume of 718 pages well illustrated with maps and engravings, among the latter being a frontis- piece depicting the author as a middle-aged New Englander of forceful personality. Dr. Shurtleff was a member of many or- ganizations, among them being the School Committees, 1854-1874 ; New England His- toric Genealogical Society; Massachusetts Historical Society; American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the Board of Overseers of Harvard College, and its secretarj-, and a trustee of the Boston Public Library. In 1836 he married Eliza, daughter of Hiram Smith of Boston, and they had one son and two daughters, the son being killed in the Civil War at the age of twenty-four. Dr. Shurtleff, as his biographers state, was a ceaseless worker, a man whose knowledge was minute, thorough and exact, and always at the service of his fellow man. It is pos- sible he would not have done as much for humanity had he practised medicine. Walter L. Burr.ge. Top. Descr. of Boston, N. B. Shurtleff, Boston. 1S91, pp. 55-56, Portrait. Dictny. of Amer. Biog., F. S. Drake, Boston, 1872. Silliman, Benjamin (1779-1864) Benjamin Silliman, the youngest child of General Gold Selleck Silliman and Mary Fish Noj'es Silliman, was born in North Stratford, now Trumbull, Connecticut, on the 8th of August, 1779. At his birth his father was a prisoner in the hands of the British and his mother had been obliged to leave her home and go seven miles inland. As his father died when he was eleven years old, he was given his preliminary training for college by his pastor, the Rev. Andrew Eliot, and en- tered Yale with his elder brother in 1792. For more than a year after his graduation, in 1796, he worked on the paternal farm and then taught a private grammar school in Wethersfield during most of the year 1798.