Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/269

NAME CONNOR 247 COOKE secretary of the faculty of the Detroit Medical College; secretary of the Detroit Academy of Medicine and its president in 1877-8 and again in 1888-9; president of the American Academy of Medicine in 1888-9; president of the Amer- ican Medical Editors' Association in 1883-4; chairman of the section of ophthalmology of the American Medical Association in 1891 ; vice-president of the American Medical Asso- ciation in 1882-3; trustee of the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1883-89 and in 1892-4. He was president of the Mich- igan State Medical Society in 1902-3 and chair- man of its council in 1902-5. Dr. Connor was of medium height, full bodily habit and a ruddy complexion. He was fond of botanizing and collected flowers, shells, and minerals whenever opportunitj' oflFered. He was very fond of his home and delighted to beautify it with collections of etchings, oriental rugs, and old furniture of each of which he made a study as his interest became aroused. Dr. Connor was an elder in the Fort Street Presbyterian Church, a member of the Detroit Club, the Old Club, the Sons of the American Revolution, and the Detroit Bankers' Club. For many many years he served as a director of the Home Savings Bank of Detroit. During his early practice, he married Anna A. Dame, daughter of the Rev. Charles and Nancy Page Dame of Exeter, N. H. Two sons were born, both receiving degrees from Williams College and later graduating as Doctors of Me'dicine from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Connor's contributions to medical litera- ture were numerous and in varied fields. In addition to many papers on his special work in ophthalmology and otology, he wrote some- thing in the realm of general medicine, and public health. His interest in medical biogra- phy is attested by the many lives he contributed to the "Cyclopedia of American Medical Biog- raphy." The communal life of physicians be- came of growing interest to him in his closing years and he was the author of numerous presidential addresses. His pen was also busy for twenty-four years in editorial writing. His was a large share in the organization of the profession. The Michigan State Medical Association, the American Academy of Medi- cine, the section of ophthalmology as well as the American Medical Association owe much of their success to his persistent, unselfish and efficient labors. Dr. Connor passed away April 16, 1911, fol- lowing a cerebral hemorrhage. Ray Connor. Cooke, John Esten (1783-1853) John Esten Cooke was born March 2, 1783, while his parents were on a visit in Boston. His father, Stephen Cooke, was a physician of Virginia and a surgeon during the Revolu- tionary War. John began to study medicine under his father and graduated from the University of Penn- sylvania in 1805. After graduation he settled in Warrenton, Fauquier County, Virginia, but in 1821 moved to Winchester. Just before leaving here he was engaged with Dr. Hugh Holmes McGuire (q. v.) in organizing a medical school. In 1827 he was called to the chair of theory and practice of medicine in Transylvania as successor to Daniel Drake. Largely, if not entirely, in view of Dr. Cooke's ideas, which Drake strongly opposed, Cooke first attracted public notice through an article on autumnal fever published in the Medical Recorder, 1824. He was the first professor of the Transylvania University to prepare a sys- tematic work on any branch of medicine. His "Treatise on Pathology and Therapeutics" forms two octavo volumes of about 540 pages each, but the third volume of this work never appeared. His essays in the Transylvania Journal and the Medical Recorder would make another volume. In 1827 he became associated with Dr. Charles Wilkins Short (q. v.) as co-editor of Transylvania Journal of Medicine and the As- sociated Sciences, a journal issued by the med- ical faculty of Transylvania University. As Editor he with Charles Caldwell (q. v.) was the most potent factor in shaping medical thought in his time and throughout the south- west. In 1837 he was elected to the chair of theory and practical medicine in the Louis- ville Medical Institute, which became the Uni- versity of Louisville. The best description of him as a man is given by Lunsford P. Yandell. Stern and sometimes even harsh in his inter- course with the world, Dr. Cooke was gentle, tender, and child-like in his religious affec- tions, in the domestic circle, and in social intercourse with the friends he loved. Dr. Cooke's manner as a lecturer was not pleasing. His utterance, if not painful, was hesitating and difficult. But it was not many weeks before most of his pupils were so charmed with the simplicity and compendious- ness of his theories that homely elocution was forgotten. The theory which made him celebrated he elaborated during his long and solitary rides in Virginia. It consisted of a universal origin of disease, viz., from cold or malaria. These weak-