Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/592

NAME HOWE 570 HOWE the island, seeking health and forwarding a commercial enterprise. This expedition was a double failure, and our philosopher re- turned to Boston a broken man. His end was near. Much buffeting and novel strivings do not conduce to a peaceful old age. He died in his seventy-fifth year, on the ninth of January, 1876. He married Julia Ward, author of the fam- ous "Battle Hymn of the Republic," written in camp in 1861, and sharer in all his phil- anthropy. When travelling with her as a bride in England, they spent some time at a house where a young daughter, Florence, asked Dr. Howe's opinion as to whether it "would be a dreadful thing" to devote her life to nursing? The Crimean War and Florence Nightingale's work, showed his wisdom in encouraging her. In May, 1910, the two women who met as girls, celebrated respectively their ninetieth and ninety-first birthday. James Gregory Mumford. From Boston Med. One Hundred Years Ago. and Notable Phys. of the Last Century, by J. G. Mumford, M. D., Johns Hopkins Hosp. Bull., May, 1907. Howe, Zadok (1777-1851). The Hebrew name for the high priest Zadok meant "just," and Zadok Howe of Billerica, MassBiChusetts, was well named. As a matter of fact, he was both just and eccentric. For many years his neighbors and associates were unable to learn from him anything of his birth or relatives, and only by chance, in later life, a brother furnished the meagre informa- tion as to his bringing up. He was born at Bolton, Connecticut, February 15, 1777; his scanty education was obtained at Foxboro, Massachusetts, where his father, who had been a soldier of the Revolution, died, November 17, 1809. At the age of sixteen, Zadok went to Hartford, Connecticut, where he learned the trade of watch-making; this he followed for several years, and was said to have had a considerable skill at painting. When he be- gan the study of medicine with Dr. Miller of Franklin, Massachusetts, he was relatively old; he completed his medical training at the Dartmouth Medical School in 1809, taking his M. D. at the age of thirty-two. Settling in Concord, New Hampshire, the same year, he practised until 1814, when he entered into partnership with his former pre- ceptor. Dr. Miller, in carrying on an infirmary for the cure of cancer. This not proving lu- crative, Howe moved to Boston in 1817, leav- ing after a few weeks' stay to go to Billerica, Massachusetts, where the rest of his life was passed. He joined the Massachusetts Medical Society when he settled in Bellerica, becoming orator in 1834, with an address on "Quackery," and president of the Society in 1847-48, re- fusing re-election and receiving from the soci- lety an address of thanks, at the expiration of his year of service. It is likely that having reached his seventieth year, and perhaps being conscious of a heart affection, he considered it time to lay down the cares of office, for he died within three years, of angina pectoris, March 8, 1851. During Dr. Howe's presidency an attempt was made to have the county so- cieties the basis of organization of the state society, with the result that the present system of a representative governing body, the coun- cil, the members being chosen by the county or district societies, was inaugurated. Dr. Howe was an accomplished surgeon and prided himself "that he never performed an operation when he thought he could do no good." That he was resourceful in expedients, is to be gathered from his treatment of a boy, who, sliding down a hay-mow, had been im- paled on a two-inch iron hay-hook. The hook had passed through the abdomen and projected ' just below the umbilicus. Two hours after the accident, when Dr. Howe first saw him, the boy was in a state of shock and intense pain. It was plain that the hook could not be extracted through the path by which it had entered. Dr. Howe procured a large blacksmith's vise and secured it to the floor and bedstead; the patient was raised and his body supported so that the wooden handle of the hook could be grasped firmly in the vise. Then with a cabinet-maker's fine saw, running in oil, the now immovable handle was cut off next to the vise and the hook removed through the wound of e.xit. The patient re- covered. The doctor at one time investigated the effect of tobacco on longevity, a problem that had been creating much discussion in medical cir- cles. He got the names of the oldest men, living or dead, within a circle of his practice, going back twenty years. Ascertaining how many of these were or were not in the habit of using tobacco, getting his information large- ly from the storekeepers who sold that com- modity, he presented a list of 67 men, from 73 to 93 years of age. Of these 54 were smokers or chewers, 9 were non-consumers of tobacco, and 4 were doubtful or not ascer- tained. Dr. Howe's comment was, "How much longer these 54 men might have lived without tobacco, it is impossible to determine." Dr. Howe was one of the trustees of the Berkshire Medical Institution in Pittsfield, as