Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/325

NAME DELAFIELD 303 DELAMATER the pursuit of his end were among his strong- est peculiar powers. In 1877 a fund was raised among the alumni of the College of Physicians and Surgeons for the purpose of "advancing the standard of medicine" there, and through his influence it was devoted to the establishment and main- tenance of a pathological laboratory in con- nection with the college, he being appointed the director. In 1872 he published a "Handbook of Post- Mortem Examinations and Morbid Anatomy," and in 1878, together with Dr. Charles F. Still- man, a manual of physical diagnosis. In 1882 he retired from the directorship of the labora- tory, resigning it to Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden, who was associated with him in the revision and enlargement of the handbook, which went through a great many editions and was for many years the standard textbook on this subject in America, and is still widely used. In 1882 he undertook the study and classifi- cation of pneumonia from the point of view of pathological anatomy, and was among the first to insist upon the essential difference between acute lobar pneumonia and broncho- pneumonia. He then turned his attention to the kidneys and developed a classification of the diseases and lesions of these organs. He next took up the diseases of the colon. In all of these fields he used the same painstaking methods; careful abstracting of clinical his- tories and equally careful study of the corre- sponding organs in the deadhouse and labora- tory. In 1890 Yale University conferred the degree of LL. D. upon him. Unfortunately his work was done just as the new sciences of bacteriology and biochem- istry were being born, and the remarkable changes in medical science that took place in consequence of this, impaired the permanence of his results. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that the clinical and pathological labors of Delafield constitute one of the impor- tant foundation stones upon which modern medical science rests, and though they may in the future be lost to sight, and even though his name may be neglected, yet they will none the less always be an essential and necessary part of the complex structure which we call medical science. Moreover, in their day they were of inesti- mable immediate service to the profession, steadying medical thought and giving physi- cians something concrete to lean upon. For all knew that Delafield's conclusions were honest — ^unwavering intellectual honesty was the keynote of his character. This same honesty helped to make him the remarkably effective teacher he was. He taught his own conclusions, and his own classi- fications, to a degree that probably has been rarely equalled, and to this perhaps he owed much of his impressiveness as a lecturer. He always taught the medicine of Delafield and not the medicine of the library, and no student ever doubted him or questioned him. He had a wonderful way of putting things so that one remembered them, and yet there was no ora- tory, and never levity. Early in his academic life he decided it was best to retire from his professional and hos- pital duties at the age of sixty, and it was char- acteristic of him that, unlike most men, when this time came, he carried out the program he had planned in spite of being in perfect physical and mental vigor, and against the wishes of all his fellow teachers. He continued to practice as a consultant with marked success until fail- ing health compelled him reluctantly to become less active in the profession, which had been almost his sole interest, but he never retired. He died July 17, 1915, at the age of 73. He wrote much, and all that he wrote was helpful to his fellows. Some of it was of last- ing service to medical science. Perhaps his greatest achievement, however, was the influ- ence his life, his view of the practice of his art and his teaching of it, had upon medicine and upon physicians, an influence which will exist for all time, even though his name may be forgotten. Walter B. James. Delamater, John (1787-1867). His family, of Huguenot descent, had settled in Holland as refugees at an early date. His father was a farmer, and John, born in Chat- ham, New York, April 18, 1787, was expected to follow the same vocation, but a slight, though permanent injury received in early life incapacitated him for the severe labor of the farm, and it was decided to educate him for a profession. His father preferred the ministry ; he himself inclined to law, and perhaps as a compromise between two opinions, the boy finally decided to study medicine. Of the de- tails of his medical education we have, however, no information. On December 1, 1806, John Delamater was licensed to practise medicine by the Medical Society of Oswego County, New York, and returned immediately to Chatham, his birthplace, entering into a partnership with Dr. Dorr, his uncle. After a sojourn in Chat-