Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1247

NAME WHITE 1225 WHITE calculi led to a thesis which received the Boyl- ston Prize. An intimate diary of events and people writ- ten throughout these six years of Harvard experiences has kept intact the life of those days, and its publication in an abridged edition within the past few years has given much pleasure to a wide circle of present-day readers. A year as "house pupil" in the Massachusetts General Hospital followed graduation from the medical school, and again association with the prominent men of the day added to a rapidly accumulating store of knowledge. It was during this year that the one illness of a long life was experienced, but typhoid fever left no serious harm in its wake and was soon a thing of the past. In 1856 Dr. White, now a full-fledged physi- cian, sailed for Europe on the steamer Wash- ington, a most toy-like craft as depicted in a colored lithograph of the period. Paris as a medical Mecca had just passed the heyday of its triumphs, and, on the advice of Calvin Ellis (q.v.), Vienna was chosen as the field for fu- ture endeavors. Oppolzer, Skoda, Roitansky, Hyrtl, Bruecke, Hebra, and Sigmund, all in their prime, were the lode-stars and the choice was never regretted. It is perhaps not an exaggeration to state that the year spent in the then brilliant capital was the great joy of a lifetime. Association with such masters of medicine, intimacy with the American minister and all it meant to a young American of those days, and first contact with the beautiful and the gay music of the epoch, produced an effect which time never effaced and which the "Vienna Club"* in its long career fostered to its uttermost. In November, 1857, Dr. White began the practice of medicine in Boston and then fol- lowed the long series of medical and scientific activities, the numerous hospital and teaching positions, the membership in many societies, engrossing activities which continued un- interruptedly until 1902, when he was made professor emeritus by Harvard University and appointed consultant by the Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1856 Dr. White joined the Boston Society of Natural History and acted as curator of comparative anatomy from 1858 to 1868. In 1856 he became a member of the Massachu- six Bostonians who spent this happy year together and kept alive its memories for many years. The members were Dr. Francis P. Sprague, Dr. Henry K. Oliver, Dr. Hasket Derby, Dr. B. Joy Jeffries, Dr. Gustavus Hay and Dr. Tames C. White. setts Medical Society, was chosen anniversary chairman in 1881, was appointed orator in 1889 and served as president in 1892-93. In 1857 came membership in the Observation So- ciety and two years later in the Society for Medical Improvement, and its permanent chairmanship in 1879. In 1866 the much covet- ed honor of election to the American Acad- emy of Arts and Sciences was conferred. In 1876 the American Dermatological Association was founded and Dr. White was chosen its first president and acted again in the same capacity in 1897. In 1907 he enjoyed the great privilege of serving as president of the Sixth International Dermatological Congress. Dur- ing the course of these many years Dr. White was elected corresponding member of the French and the Argentine Dermatological So- cieties and honorary member of the Dermato- logical Societies of Italy, London, Vienna, Berlin, and New York and enjoyed also the distinction of having named for him a ward in the hospital of the University of Cagliari in Sicily. Dr. White's first hospital position came in 1858 when he joined the staff of St. Vincent's Orphan Asylum. In 1860, in conjunction with B. J. Jeffries (q.v.), he opened a dispensary for skin patients. In 1863 he was appointed physi- cian to out-patients at the Boston Dispensary. In 1865 he was given the same position at the Massachusetts General Hospital and consti- tuted the whole department. Think of the change which a generation has witnessed ! In 1870 came the final change when Dr. White assumed control of the skin department — a post which he held for thirty-three years. And finally, with the foundation of the House Pupil Alumni Association in 1905 he became its first president. In 1863 a course of University lectures was established in the Harvard Medical School and Oliver Wendell Holmes (q.v.) and Dr. White were appointed its first lecturers. Sub- sequently Dr. White, with the title of lecturer, gave courses in dermatology in the department of clinical medicine. In 1866 he was made ad- junct professor of chemistry; and in 1871 pro- fessor of dermatology, a new chair in the Harvard Medical School and the first to be established in the United States. Despite all these arduous quasi-public duties, time was found to mount many skeletons of animals, to act as state expert in chemistry, to prepare an almost complete herbarium of the wild flora of New England, to serve as medi- cal examiner of a large life insurance com- pany, to edit the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal and to serve as chairman of the stand-
 * The Vienna Club was a dining club of the