Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/589

NAME HOWARD 567 HOWARD On the death of his colleague, Dr. John Butterlield (q. v.), in 1849, Dr. Howard suc- ceeded to the editorship of the Ohio Medical and Surgical Journal, which he continued to conduct with eminent success until 18S3, when signs of failing health compelled him to re- sign his editorial duties. He died of double pneumonia in Columbus, January 16, 1854. He was president of the Ohio State Med- ical Society in the year 1850, and was always interested in the progress of the medical pro- fession. He is said to have been the first physician in Columbus to devote his entire time to surgery, and the first in Central Ohio to employ chloroform for purposes of anesthesia. An introductory lecture before the medical class of the Starling Medical College in 1849 is the only product of Dr. Howard's pen which his biographer has been able to discover. Henry E. Handerson. Ohio Med. and Surg. Jour., 1853-4, vol. vi, Columbus Med. Jour., 1905, vol. xxbc. Howard, Robert Palmer (1823-1889). Robert Palmer Howard was dean of the medical faculty of McGill University from 1882 until his death in 1889, and began his studies in the faculty with which his name was so intimately associated in the year 1844, graduating four years later. In 1856 he was made professor of clinical medicine, and on the death of Dr. A. F. Holmes (q. v.) in 1860, became professor of the theory and prac- tice of medicine, a chair which he continued to occupy until his death. In 1856 he was elected physician to the Montreal General Hos- pital and was twice president of the Canadian Medical Association, president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Quebec, and vice-president of the Association of American Physicians. Thus all the honors in the gift of the pro- fession came to him ; but they indicate only slightly the place which he held in the hearts of his students during the thirty-year period of his teaching. His great merit is that from the beginning of his influence over McGill Medical Faculty, he was, and continued to be, an ardent believer in experimental meth- ods in medicine, and lost no opportunity of encouraging research in pathology and physi- ology. It was under his fostering care that McGill Medical School attained to its greatness. Dr. Howard had an aptitude for the prac- tice and teaching of medicine. His lectures and clinics are yet remembered. He was of a grave demeanor, but won from his students affection and admiration. Their in- terests were near his heart and he strove for their welfare in personal matters as well as in the wider field of education. In all legislation touching medical training, he was forward and labored earnestly to obtain a General Medical Council for Canada. How- ard was one of the first among the older physicians to make a systematic record of his cases and of the conditions observed in them. He was the first to lecture on appendicitis. His store of knowledge was made public freely. His contribution upon "Rheumatism" in Pepper's "System of Medicine" is a good indication of his range of knowledge and stj'le. In William Osier's "Practice of Med- icine" frequent mention is made of his cases, and the book is dedicated to him. Andrew M.cphail. Howard, William Lee (1860-1918). William Lee Howard was an eccentric, ir- responsible character whose native ability was wasted in a desultory, rambling life, and in neglect of those codes which society has erected as safeguards to the perpetuity of the race. A writer of books on sex subjects, and a pamphleteer, he was held in more esteem by the laity than by the profession. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, No- vember 1, 1860, son of Mark Howard and Angeline Lee. His early education was had under tutors in England and France, then he went to Williston Seminary, to Columbia University and to Oxford L'niversity (Eng- land). He studied medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, and later graduated M. D. at the University of Vermont, in 1890. In the lust of adventure he left college to go on a whaling voyage, occupying two years, and returned to study, only to leave again as second mate on a ship bound for Africa. In 1880-1881 he was in Iceland; from 1863 to 1889 he studied at Bonn and Gottingen, at the ficole de Medecine, Paris, and at the University of Edinburgh. Howard was sent by the New York Herald with the rescue party to look for the Jeait- nette which sailed from San Francisco Bay in 1879 in search of the North Pole. He was wrecked and the party exposed to great hard- ships. Again he went to Siberia for the Herald in 1883, and later he was its cor- respondent in the Soudan Campaign. He visited Albert Moll and Charcot, and in 1891 settled to practise in Baltimore, professing to