Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/151

BOWDITCH bacillus tuberculosis by Koch seems in no way to weaken the theory that high dry soil is less prone to the prevalence of tuberculosis than situations in low swampy lands. As orator at the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1862, he presented the paper entitled "Topographical Distribution and Local Origin of Consumption in Massachusetts." This address was received with acclamation by the society and was subsequently distributed in pamphlet form throughout the state.

At almost exactly the same time, Buchanan of London was making similar investigations with like results in England, neither being aware that the other was at work upon the subject.

Dr. Bowditch took the keenest interest in the Massachusetts Medical Society and held important positions; recording secretary 1849 to 1851, corresponding secretary from 1851 to 1854. He attended meetings with marked regularity from 1847 to 1887 when failing health compelled him to cease his attendance. From the time that the subject was first introduced in June, 1875, he advocated strongly the admission of women to the society and afterwards he was chairman of a committee on this subject. He was especially active in matters pertaining to public health projects and the bettering of vital statistics. From 1859 to 1867 he held the position of Jackson Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. During his professional career he was at first connected with the Massachusetts General Hospital and afterwards with the Boston City Hospital and the Carney Hospital in South Boston as attending physician.

During the Civil War, 1861–5, Dr. Bowditch gave his services freely to his country. For many months he made examinations at the EnrolmentEnrollment [sic] Offices, and after a visit to the battlefields of the South, where he was shocked and horrified at the shameful lack of an ambulance system, with the consequent fearful and unnecessary suffering of wounded soldiers, he addressed letters to Congress, and especially to Vice-President Johnson, and with characteristic ardor described his personal observations of the condition of our suffering soldiers. The singularly pathetic incident of the agonizing experience of his oldest son, left on the battlefield unaided for twenty-four hours, and his subsequent death following close upon the father's fervent appeal to the country to rectify these errors, was a potent factor in bringing about the desired change not long afterwards. In the midst of his crushing sorrow, Dr. Bowditch strove only more earnestly to rectify these wrongs. Within a comparatively short time afterwards, Congress passed a bill making adequate provision for the wounded and an ambulance system was established.

Deeply interested in all sanitary matters, Dr. Bowditch was appointed in 1869 by the Governor of Massachusetts, with six others, to form a State Board of Health, the first in the United States; and as chairman of the board he gave much time and thought to this work, without salary, for ten years, until the foolish tactics of General Benjamin Butler prevailed and with false notions of economy the Governor then in office combined the Boards of Health, Lunacy, and Charity. The result of this action was such as to destroy all efficiency of work. After a few months of ineffectual attempts to make the Governor change the policy, Dr. Bowditch with deepest regret resigned from the Board in 1879. What the United States owes to the work of Dr. Bowditch and his associates on the Massachusetts Board of Health,—the first to be established in America, and the first to point the way for subsequent similar associations now formed throughout the UnoinUnion [sic],—can never be estimated. Their names will stand pre-eminent in the history of preventive medicine in the United States.

The respect which was shown abroad for the establishment of the original board was well shown in a comment made upon Dr. Bow-ditch's first address to the Board in the "Gazette Médicale de Paris."

During his term of service, in 1871, he issued another work, entitled, "Intemperance in New England and How Shall We Prevent It?" This paper was again the result of several years' investigation of the customs in different countries of the world, as to the use of light wines, beer, and liquors. Basing his opinion upon the replies received from innumerable sources, he declared that the use of light wines and beer in moderation was not seriously detrimental, and that total prohibition was not advisable, even going so far as to say that it would be well to advocate the substitution of beer and light wines for liquors, inasmuch as a natural craving for stimulant among human beings would be thus met without serious detriment to health. Whether