Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/590

NAME HOWARD 568 HOWE specialize in nervous diseases, laying stress on hypnotic suggestion. In 1906 he left Baltimore to spend his latter years at his home, "Mossfell," West- boro, Massachusetts, where he died March 11, 1918. His works include: "The Perverts" (1892) ; "Plain Facts on Sex Hygiene" (1910); "Sex Structure of Society" (1914); "How to Live Long" (1917). Howard A. Kexly. Baltimore Amer., March 12, 1918. Who's Who in America, vol. x. Howard, William Travis (1821-1907). William Travis Howard, gynecologist, was the son of William A. Howard, an architect, and was born in Cumberland County, Virginia, on January 12, 1821. As a lad he went to Hampden Sidney and Randolph Macon Col- lege, then studied medicine under the eccentric genius, John Peter Mettauer (q. v.), the doctor who is reputed never to have left off a tall stovepipe hat on any occasion. Howard gradu- ated from Jefferson Medical College in 1842, and settling first in North Carolina, moved in 1866 to Baltimore to become professor of physiology in the University of Maryland, tak- ing, in 1867, the chair of diseases of women and children, and becoming emeritus professor in 1897. He was also, for many years, visiting surgeon to the Hospital for the Women of Maryland, consulting surgeon to the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Hebrew Hospital. Although best known as a gynecologist, he never lost his interest in general medicine, in which field his attainments were of a very high order. For the younger men, he was a most valuable consultant, aiding them with his acute diagnostic powers and broad know- ledge of therapeutics. He was a diligent and thoughtful student, all his life keeping ahead of the times. He invented a modification of Tarnier's forceps and also the Howard specu- lum. The L^nivcrsity of Maryland gave him her LL. D. in 1907. He was also a founder of the American Gynecological Society and its president in 1884, occupying the same positions with regard to the Baltimore Gi'necological and Obstetrical Society, and being president of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland in 1902. He was not a great writer; his chief papers were : "Rupture of the Uterus with Laparotomy," 1880; "Encysted Tubercular Peritonitis which Presented the Characteristic Phenomena of a Unilateral Ovarian or Parovarian Cyst," 1885; "Two Rare Cases of Abdominal Sur- gery," 1885. He died after a few. days' illness from the effects of ptomaine poisoning, at Narragansett Pier, on July 31, 1907. Trans. Amer. Gyn. Soc, 1808, vol. xxxiii, W. E. Moseley. The Med. Annals of Maryland. E. F. Cordell, 1903. Howe, Elliot C. (1828-1899). Elliot C. Howe, physician, mycologist and musician, was born February 14, 1828, in Jamaica, Vermont. He was educated at Lan- singburg (N. Y.) Academy and was devoted, even as a schoolboy, to fossils, animals, plants, music and chemistry. These early inclinations became confirmed tastes and were the chief interests of his later life. He also studied physiology and medicine in New York City, eking out his income by writing articles and reporting for the New York Tribune. When he had his medical degree he went to Troy to practise, "giving such attention as he could to music, physiology and botany." The har- monies of nature apparently attracted him more than disease, for he became a teacher of these three sciences in Gharlotteville (N. Y.) Seminary. There was a large swamp near the school and in it Howe found the beautiful American "Jacob's Ladder." The Gharlotteville Seminary, being accident- ally destroyed by fire, Howe took the same professorships in Fort Edward Institute, where he vigorously studied mycology, and, incident- ally, the charms of a fellow teacher, Emily Z. Sloan, who became an "Howeana" and Jilossomed thenceforth beside him. After thirteen years of active medical work in Yonkers, New York, he went to Lansing- burg and found sufficient employment in bo- tanical excursions, and in studying local flora. He became a member of the Torrey Botani- cal Club, and got in touch with fellow workers by letter and exchange of specimens. In 1894 he published, with Dr. H. C. Gordinier, the Flora of Rensselaer County, a record of the Phaenogams and Vascular Cryptograms, re- cording 1,345 species and varieties. He also wrote the descriptive article on the New York species of Carcx (48th State Museum Report), describing a new species, Carex Seorsa, and two new varieties, C. lenticularis merens, Howe and C. Emmoiisii distiiicia, Howe. He claimed the hybrid character of Carex Sullivantii, Boott (Botan. Gaz., February, 1881), now gen- erally admitted. In 1892, seven years before his death, he lost the use of his limbs, and became a helpless, but cheery, invalid, his wife and sons and