Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/346

NAME DOUGLAS 324 DOUGLAS Liston, and was one of the first to apply his teachings on this continent. After taking his degree in Edinburgh he proceeded to London for the purpose of graduating there also in surgery, and attached himself to Guy's and St. Bartholomew's hospitals to attend the lectures of Mr. Abernethy and Sir Astley Cooper. On receiving his degree as M. R. C. S., London, he entered the service of the East India Com- pany and proceeded to India. He returned to England in 1823, as surgeon of the East India- man Competitor. His intention, having se- cured a permanent appointment in the com- pany's service, was to return to it, but, tempted by salary and love of adventure, he joined in- stead, in 1824, as surgeon and physician, one of those ill-considered and ill-fated coloniza- tion expeditions to Central America made from Britain between the years 1820 and 1830. Here he was placed in charge of the short-lived col- ony known as Poyais Settlement, Honduras, but being severely attacked by fever sailed for the United States, landing in Boston. After a very narrow escape for life, owing to this illness, he made his way to Utica, N. Y., where he married, and settled down to practise, and in 1824 was invited to deliver a course of lec- tures on anatomy and surgery by the Medical College at Auburn. In 1826, the trustees of Williams College conferred upon him the hon- orary degree of M. D. An ardent student of anatomy, and aware of the indispensable necessity of material for dis- section. Dr. Douglas soon got into trouble in a matter of resurrection, and, being in danger of arrest, made a speedy flitting to Canada in view of the fact that body-snatching was a state's prison offence. After a short stay in Montreal he journeyed to Quebec, arriving there on March 13, 1826, and without delay began work at his profession. The cholera epidemics of 1832 and 1834 brought him into prominence, he having been the first to pro- claim the possibility, in fact the great proba- bility, of its crossing the Atlantic. He was thenceforth one of the best and most widely ■esteemed practitioners in the cit)'. Subsequent- ly, at the request of the commissioner for the Marine and Emigrant Hospital, he took medical charge of that institution, and there, in conjunction with Dr. Painchaud, delivered the first medical lectures ever given in Quebec. In 1845, the grand jurors having made a very strong presentment on the treatment of the insane by the religious communties, in whose care they were, he, at the solicitation of the government, agreed to take charge of them for a period of three years on the understanding that the government would then have a suit- able place provided for them. This agreement led to the creation of Beauport Asylum, of which Dr. Douglas remained the head up to the time of his withdrawal in 1866, a period of 20 years. During the horrors of 1847, caused by the failure of the potato crop, the frightful famine and the ensuing typhus (ship fever), which made Ireland well nigh desolate. Dr. Douglas took a prominent part in combating the scourge. Hundreds of thousands fled for ref- uge to America ; many died on shipboard, while others landed on the shores of Canada only to succumb to the pestilence. Thousands died at Grosse Isle, at Quebec, and at every port along the waterways. In Quebec a private hospital was opened by Drs. Douglas and Racey, who anticipated the outbreak. It was situated on the Beauport beach and accommodated masters of vessels and cabin passengers who objected to going into overcrowded public hospitals. Dr. Douglas decided to give up practice, though still retaining his connection with the asylum he had founded, and from 1851 to 1866 spent nine winters abroad, chiefly in Italy, Egypt and Palestine. In his later years he unfortunately embarked in gold and copper mining opera- tions in the eastern countries, which were with- out exception disastrous, and engulfed his whole estate, and left him without pnperty o." resource at an age when he could not possibly retrieve his fortunes. He bore his reverses, however, without a groan, and, what still more bespoke his manliness, without reflection on others. He gave up his property, and, what was harder still, his reputation for shrewdness, without a murmur. This done, he accom- panied his son to the United States, living with him for a time at Phoenixville, Pa., and later at New York, where he terminated a long and useful, though varied and eventful life, on .A.pril 14, 1886, in his 86th year. Institutional Care of the Insane in the U. S. and Canada, Henry M. Hurd. 1917. Douglas, Richard (1860-1908). Born on December 20, 1860, the son of Byrd and Sarah Cragwall Douglas, he was common- ly known as "Dixie," because he arrived in this world the year South Carolina seceded. Douglas belonged to the group of young sur- geons who derived their inspiration from Law- son Tait and his contemporaries, they who began their work in the abdomen in the early nineties. He was a student under Granville Bantock in London and graduated from the medical side of the University of Nashville in 1881, completing his course in the Jefferson