Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1208

NAME WALKER 1186 WALLACE cation throughout the country during the last twenty-five years. Dr. Walker was an active and earnest mem- ber of the local, state and national medical societies. He was a member of the American Medical Editors Association and the Missis- sippi Valley Medical Association. He served as president of the Detroit Academy of Medi- cine, the Detroit Medical and Library Associa- tion, and the Michigan State Medical Society. He was V.ice-President of the American Medi- cal Association, chairman of the section on surgery and was a member of the board of councillors for several years. He was presi- dent of Wayne County Medical Society at the time of his death. Dr. Walker was surgeon to the Michigan Central Railroad for two years and surgeon to the Wabash Railway for several years. He was surgeon to St. Luke's, St. Mary's and Harper Hospital. He was chief of stafif of Harper Hospital at the time of his death. He served one term as member of the Board of Health of Detroit. Ahhough not a prolific writer, Dr. Walker contributed many articles of sterling quaUty to the current surgical literature of the last twenty-five years, mainly on the topics of orthopedics and genito-urinary surgery. It may be said that he was the first of the sur- geons of prominence in Michigan thoroughly to grasp the spirit of antiseptic surgery. Under this stimulus and the advantage which it gave him he soon became one of the leading sur- geons of the state. In 1869 he was editor of the Detroit Rtvieiv of Medicine and in 1882 editor of the Detroit Clinic. Dr. Walker was a man of genial personality, a devoted friend and agreeable companion. He was an ardent sportsman and was a supporter and a member of a number of shooting clubs. He died of pneumonia, after a few days' ill- ness, at his home in Detroit, April 5, 1912. Dr. Walker had no middle name, having adopted the letter O to replace a name that was not agreeable to him. C. G. Jennings. Iiiforma. from Dr. F. B. Walker and Mrs. H. O. Walker. Detroit. Mich. Recs. of Detroit Coll. of Med. Personal information. Walker, Thoma. (1715-1794) Tliomas Walker was born in Gloucester County, Virginia, January 25, 1715, a grand- son of Maj. Thomas Walker, a burgess from Gloucester, Eng., and a member of the Pro- vincial Council in 1662. He was educated at William and Mary College and settled in Fred- ericksburg, Va. While it is not known whether or not he was a graduate in medicine, he was certainly a practitioner of note. He is, for instance, credited by Ashhurst ("Principles and Practice of Surgery") with having tre- phined bone lor suppurative osteomyelitis in 1757, making him one of the first known to have done that operation. He lived at Castle Hill in Albemarle County, which he acquired by his marriage with the widow of Nicholas Merriweather, and during his life filled many important positions of trust, and was the guardian of Thomas Jeffer- son, besides being the intimate friend of Gen- eral Washington to whom he was related by marriage. It is believed that he was the first to explore Kentucky, which he visited in 1745 and again in 1750. He was commissary general of the Virginia troops in the French and Indian War ; a mem- ber of the house of Burgesses, of the Virginia Convention of 1775; commissioner to treat with the Indians after their defeat by Andrew Lewis ; and also a Commissioner to run the boundary line between North Carolina and Virginia, which was known as Walker's line. Dr. Walker wrote: "Journal of an Explora- tion in the Spring of the Year 1750." with a preface by William Cabell Rives. Boston. He died at Castle Hill, Va., on the ninth of November, 1794, in the eightieth year of his age. His son John was an aide to General Washington and a United States Senator. Appleton's Cyclop. Araer. Biog., N. Y., 1889. Wallace, David Richard (1825-1911) David Richard Wallace, Texas alienist, was born in Pitt County, North Carolina, in 1825. He spent his early boyhood on his father's farm, and went to school when opportunity permitted. Later he entered Wake Forest College near Raleigh, North Carolina, and graduated with honor. In 1853 he began the study of medicine and graduated at the Uni- versity of the City of New York Medical Department, 1855, and afterwards served in a hospital in New York. His ability attracted tlie attention of Dr. John W. Draper (q.v.), who offered Dr. Wallace a teaching position, which he declined on account of his health, and he removed to Texas, where he resided until his death. His life of 56 years in Texas covers a long and eventful period in the affairs of his adopted state, during which he took a keen interest and an active part, not only in progressive medicine, but also in national and state politics. He was active in educational and literary fields, and was professor of Greek, Latin and French in Baylor LTniversity, and