Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/429

NAME FOWLER 407 FOWLER to 1901, being surgeon-in-chief to the depart- ment of fractures and dislocations, and later in charge of its entire surgical department ; he was also surgeon-in-chief of the Brooklyn Hospital, 1895-1906; senior surgeon of the German Hospital of Brooklyn, 1899-1906; con- sulting surgeon to the Relief Hospital of the East District, the Norwegian, St. John's, St. Mary the Immaculate (Jamaica) and the Bush- wick Hospitals. Dr. Fowler was one of the founders and secretary of the anatomical and surgical so- ciety in 1878. its president in 1880, and for several years associate editor of its publica- tion. Annals of the Anatomical and Surgical Society (afterwards Tlic Annals of Sur- gery) ; president of the Brooklyn Surgical Society, 1891 ; fellow, from 1891, and treasurer, 1898-1906, of the American Surgical Associa- tion ; fellow and vice-president of the New York Academy of Medicine; member of the Medical Society of the State of New York; a member of the New York Surgical Society, the Society 'of Medical Jurisprudence, the National Association of Railway Surgeons (honorary member), the Medical Association of the Greater City of New York, the Associated Physicians of Long Island, and the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States; and membre de la Societe Inter- nationale de Chirurgie. When, in 1890, a law was enacted separa- ting the educational and licensing powers in the State, the state medical society recom- mended Dr. Fowler as a member of the medical board, and he was accordingly ap- pointed by the board of regents of the Uni- versity of the State of New York, and at the first meeting of the board was made examiner in surgery, retaining this position to the time of his death. He was also chairman of the committee for the preparation of a syllabus for the use of the board. For five and a half years he held the chair of surgery in the New York Polyclinic Medical School, and upon his resignation was elected professor emeritus to that institution. For many years until his death Dr. Fow- ler was prominently associated with the Na- tionql Guard of the State of New York, first as captain and assistant surgeon of the Four- teenth Regiment on the staff of Colonel (af- terwards General) James McLear, and finally surgejn-general of the State of New York on the itaff of General Roe, 1902. He served throughout the Spanish-American War, being commissioned by President McKinley, June 4, 1S98, chief surgeon of division U. S. Volun- teers, with the rank of major, and assigned to duty as medical inspector, consulting surgeon and chief of the operating staff of the Seventh Army Corps, General Fitzhugh Lee command- ing. On February 1, 1899, he received an hon- orable discharge, having won distinction not only as a surgeon, but also as executive offi- cer, for his able services in the organization of hospital and sanitary work accomplished under his direction. Dr. Fowler traveled extensively both at home and abroad, combining the pleasure of his travels with a constant search for valuable facts that might tend to perfect his knowledge of surgery and medicine. To his efforts is due the credit of organizing a system of hos- pitals for the use of disabled soldiers. While in Europe in 1884 he attended a meeting for the distribution of ambulance certificates, held at a watering-place on the Lancashire coast, and as a result decided to establish classes for instruction in first aid to the injured on his return to America. His connection with the National Guard enabled him to present the matter to the military authorities, and in 188S his first classes were established at the New York State Camp at Peekskill. Instruction was afterward given in the armories, and by military order imparted to all National Guard organizations, the possession of such knowledge being regarded as part of a soldier's qualifi- cation. This was followed by an order from the adjutant-general's office in Washington to the efTect that similar instruction be given at all military posts in the United States. He was one of the organizers and first presi- dent of the Red Cross Society in 1890, instruc- tion to members of the police force in cases of emergency being one of its objects. In 1897 he was elected a delegate to the Inter- national Medical Congress which convened at Moscow, and in 1900 to that which met in Paris. LIpon the former occasion he visited Athens, Greece, and while there, upon the recommendation of the adjutant-general of New York, inspected the medical departments of the Greek and Turkish armies, an account of his observations being published in the Medical News, August 21, 1897. Dr. Fowler was a voluminous writer on topics relating to surgery. He was the au- thor of the chapters on "Injuries and Diseases of the Patella" in "Wood's Reference Hand- Book of the Medical Sciences," and the sec- tion on "Injuries and Diseases of the Blad- der" in "Appleton's System of Genito-Urinary Surgery"; a "Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on First Aid to the Injured," for the use of