Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1178

NAME TOUATRE 11S6 TOWLES Touatre, Just Charles (1838-1901). Just Charles Touatre, born at Puycasquier, department of Gers, France, on September 2, 1838, received his early education and his de- grees of bachelier es lettres and bachelier es sciences, at the Lyceum of Auch, graduating in medicine from La faculte de Paris, March, 1868. Prior to receiving his diploma he served as auxiliary surgeon and later as surgeon- major on the frigate Admiral Belloc and the transport PoUkart. Soon after graduation, he decided to seek his fortunes in America, which he had visited while serving as marine surgeon. He was at- tracted naturally to Louisiana by the large element of French speaking people there, and though reaching New Orleans while that un- fortunate city was still in the throes of the Reconstruction Era, following the war of Se- cession, he built himself a most prosperous clientele among the Franco-Louisianan ele- ment. A thoroughly educated man, a physician of ability, he was also a splendid diagnostician. Besides being an excellent physician, he was a delightful raconteur and a most pleasant com- panion at table, or at a medical meeting. When he came to Louisiana, he brought the first clinical thermometer ever used in our state. This was a French naval centigrade thermo- meter, and it became of great use in 1869 when the next yellow fever epidemic appeared. It was by the use of this that his colleague and contemporary, Dr. Jean Charles Faget (q. v.), was able to establish as proven, an observa- tion which he had made some years previous on the loss of correlation of pulse with tem- perature in cases of yellow fever. Later in the severe epidemic of 1878 he ren- dered such signal services to his compatriots of French birth and origin, that the French Republic recognized these services, by decorat- ing him as an Officer de la Legion d'Honneur. He remained many years after this in Louisi- ana, and it was the pleasure and great advan- tage of the writer of these notes to consult with him in 1897, during a small epidemic of yellow fever, which broke out in New Orleans. His literary work, which is very extensive, was published for many years in different jour- nals. In 1898 Dr. Charles Chassaignac, the editor of the New Orleans Medical and Surgi- cal Journal, compiled and translated from his articles, a complete work or monograph on "Yellow Fever, which was published in book form, and has remained to this day, a most valuable clinical report. It is specially useful in diagnosis and in treatment, for it proves the theory of absolute rest and hori- zontal position with no food on the stomach, except flushing the kidneys with water, and that, principally by Vichy water. This book he dedicated to the profession in New Orleans, and was his last serious work. Feeling the fatigue of practice and having saved an ample competence, in 1898 he left the land of his adoption la seconde mere," as he loved to call Louisiana, to go and finish his days in la belle France. He retired from practice, bought a little farm in the country of his birth and became a gentleman farmer. There he died, Septem- ber 21, 1901, away from the friends and ad- mirers in the far-away land, who still remem- bered him and bitterly mourned his loss. Louis G. LeBoeuf. Towles, William B. (1847-1893). This anatomist was born in the County of Fluvanna, Virginia, March 2, 1847, the second son of Dr. W. B. and Harriet Johnson Towles. He was educated in the schools of Bucking- ham County, studying medicine at the Univer- sity of Virginia, graduating in 1867, within one year after matriculation, a feat admissible in that day, attempted by many but accomplished by very few, as it required great proficiency and stamina. When about seventeen he vol- unteered in the Confederate Army, and served in a Virginia regiment until the close of the war. He was a member of the Medical So- ciety of Virginia from 1872 until his death. After graduating he settled in Carroll Coun- ty, Missouri, and practised successfully for five years, when, at the urgent request of Dr. John S. Davis (q. v.), professor of anatomy and materia medica at the University of Vir- ginia, he accepted the position of demonstrator of anatomy in the university, and on the death of Dr. Davis in 1885, was elected to succeed him. During the later years of his life he also filled the chair of anatomy in the University of Vermont, his lectures there being given in the spring after the completion of the course at the University of Virginia. He was repeatedly invited to accept the chair of anatomy in other schools, but always declined. He was a profound anatomist, and as a dem- onstrator has never been surpassed in facility and ability to instruct. As a professor he was second only to that great teacher of anatomy, John S. Davis, whose most efficient style of teaching he acquired in a marked degree. His knowledge was not confined to anatomy, for he was well informed in all branches of medi- cine, and general subjects.