Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/490

GRIFFITH year and entered the Berkshire Medical Institution, where he graduated in 1849.

In the same year Dr. Griffin married Abby M., daughter of the Rev. Samuel Mason, of Newburyport, Massachusetts, and began professional life in Nashua, New Hampshire, and after moving to Derry, in the same state, removed, in the autumn of 1855, to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

Griffin was prominently identified with the medical history of Wisconsin for thirty years, being warmly interested in all that related to the practice of medicine, an active supporter of state and local medical societies, deeply interested in the subject of vaccination and was one of the first to establish in the northwest a depot for the propagation of animal vaccine.

He was a clear and forcible writer and a prime mover in the organization of the State Board of Health, of which he was for many years an honored president. He wrote memoirs of Dr. M. C. Darling, Dr. H. M. Lilly and Dr. Moses Barrett and was the author of a report on "Vaccination" and a paper on "Small-pox."

He died in January, 1892.



Griffith, Robert Eglesfeld (1798–1850)

Robert Eglesfeld Griffith, physician, botanist, educator, was born in Philadelphia, February 13, 1798. His father was Robert Eglesfeld Griffith, and his mother was Maria Thong, daughter of John Patterson and Catharine Livingston, his wife.

In 1820 he graduated M. D. from the University of Pennsylvania with a thesis on the "Stomach and Its Functions." He practised in Philadelphia and from 1833–1836 was physician to the Board of Health. In 1835 he was elected professor of materia medica in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy; he gave but one course, leaving the next year to become professor of materia medica, therapeutics, hygiene and medical jurisprudence in the University of Maryland, remaining there until 1838 when he was appointed professor of practice, obstetrics and medical jurisprudence at the University of Virginia. In 1839 he resigned because of ill-health and returned to Philadelphia.

He was a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, vice-president in 1849, succeeding (q. v.), who became president; of the Franklin Institute, and the American Philosophical Society. He won four prizes from the "United Bowmen," an old association of Philadelphia.

Griffith was the author of "Chemistry of the Four Seasons" (1846); "Medical Botany" (1847); "Universal Formulary" (1850), and editor of "Ballard and Gerrod's Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics" (1846); Christison's "Dispensatory or Commentary on the Pharmacopoeias of Great Britain" (1848); Taylor's "Medical Jurisprudence" (1845).

He was editor of the Journal of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy 1831–1835; American Journal of Pharmacy 1835–1836.

Dr. Griffith became noted as a botanist and conchologist and gave a large collection of shells to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, when he was vice-president in 1849– 50. At the time of his death he had begun an extensive work on conchology, and had planned one on "The Botany of the Bible," which he was urged to write by (q. v.) and other noted botanists.

In 1829 he married Mary, daughter of Manuel Eyre, of Philadelphia, and had three children; Robert Eglesfeld, Anne Louisa, and Manuel Eyre. A nephew, Robert Eglesfeld Griffith, graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1855.

Griffith died in Philadelphia, June 26, 1850.



Griffitts, Samuel Powel (1759–1826)

Samuel Powel Griffitts, founder of the Philadelphia Dispensary, was born in Philadelphia, July 21, 1759, the son of William and Abigail Powel Griffitts. His father died when he was an infant and he was brought up by his mother in an atmosphere of religion which made an indelible impression upon his youthful mind. Every morning he read from the New Testament in Greek or Latin and he later joined the Society of Friends, becoming one of their most valued and influential members. After graduating from his mother's tuition he went to the College of Philadelphia, where he became an excellent classical scholar, acquiring unusual facility in speaking Latin and a high degree of proficiency in French. After college he began the study of medicine, under (q. v.) (a well-known pupil of Linnaeus), then professor to a class of materia medica and botany in Philadelphia, and worked with him until 1781, when he received an M. D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Then he traveled abroad for three years, in order to complete his medical education. He took a course at Montpellier, made a tour of Southern France, studied for