Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1101

NAME SMITH 1079 SMITH preached there and at other frontier places, still pursuing the double occupation of farm- ing and the practice of medicine. In 1804 he again took to the wilderness with his entire family, then numbering twelve chil- dren, 'born in the "Jerseys and on the line of his march through the wilderness, the States and the Territories." He finally set- tled on a small, poor farm on Donnel's Creek, Ohio, in the midst of rich ones, where he died December 31, 1816. It seems from his book (p. 14), published while there, that he did not personally cease his wanderings and search for medical knowledge, as he states that he was in Philadelphia, July 4, 1811, where he made observations as to the effect of hot and of cold air upon the human sys- tem. In "The Dispensatory" it is to be regretted that Dr. Smith neglected the use of botanical names. His plants are all employed under common names, but he describes the appear- ance and habitat of each specimen, so care- fully as to enable the experienced reader to identify most of them. C. S. Rafinesque, who speaks of Dr. Smith's work, objects to his common names, which, however, are very in- teresting in connection with the text. The pains Smith takes to credit authorities from whom he obtained information is very re- freshing, the relationship of these names to the substances used being useful to us today in connection with many drugs. John Uri Lloyd. Smith, Samuel Mitchell (1816-1874) Samuel Mitchell Smith was born in Green- field, Highland County, Ohio, on the twenty- sixth of November, 1816. Definite informa- tion in regard to his parents is not obtain- able, but it appears that his father was a minister of the Presbyterian church. The boy's early education was obtained from his father and in private schools. Before his majority he obtained a position as teacher in the district schools of Green- field and vicinity, by economy accumulating sufficient funds to enter Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and after the usual course took his A. B. in 1836 and A. M. in 1843. He became a pupil of Dr. John Mor- rison and matriculated in the University of Pennsylvania, from which he received his M. D. in 1840 and soon was appointed assis- tant physician to the Central Ohio Hospital for the Insane in Columbus. On August 3, 1843, he married Susan Evans Anthony, daughter of Gen. Charles Anthony, of Springfield, Ohio, and very soon after- wards resigned his position in the State Hos- pital and began to practise on East Rich Street, near the corner of High, in the city of Columbus. In the autumn of 1846 he was appointed professor of materia medica and therapeu- tics in Willoughby Medical College, trans- ferred in that year from Willoughby, Lake County, Ohio, to Columbus. In 1847 Starling Medical College was founded and Willoughby merged into it, most of the teachers becom- ing members of the faculty of the new school. Dr. Smith retaining his chair with medical jurisprudence added. There was no change in his relations to the school until 1850, when he was transferred to the chair of practical medicine, and in 1851 elected dean of the faculty. In 1860 he declined re-election to the deanship, but retained the chair of prac- tice until 1874. In 1859 Gov. Salmon P. Chase appointed Dr. Smith surgeon-general of the state; he held this post also under Gov. Dennison and Gov. Tod. In 1872 he sustained a slight attack of cerebral hemorrhage, which caused incomplete hemiplegia from which, though not wholly disabled, he never recovered. In Janu- ary, 1874, he sustained a second attack, which completely disabled him and caused his death on November 30 of the same year. He was very familiar with the Bible, and was seldom at loss for a quotation therefrom. He knew Shakespeare equally well, and liked Scott and Longfellow and had great fondness for Isaak Walton. His lectures were concise and very clear. His clinical lectures were especially good, and no one was surprised at his popu- larity with students, who never "cut" his hour. While he allotted more time to general prac- tice, he was an enthusiastic and very suc- cessful obstetrician, and was the first in Columbus to administer choloroform in labor. He had four children, Elizabeth, Frances, Manette and Charles, all of whom survived their father. About ten years after his death his family had a bronze statue with a drinking fountain, designed by the artist, William Wal- cutt, placed at the southeast corner of High and Broad streets in the city of Columbus, where it still stands. c t Starling Loving. Trans. Ohio Med. Soc Cincin., 1876, vol. xx.xi, T. A. Reamy. Smith, Thomas Croggon (1842-1913) This secretary of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia for thirty-three years and contributor to the literature of obstetrics did much to elevate the standard of the pro-