Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/638

NAME JARVIS 616 JARVIS Jarvis, Edward (1803-1884) Edward Jarvis, alienist and statistician, was born in Concord, Massachusetts, January 9, 1803. He graduated at Harvard College in 1826 and took his degree in medicine at Har- vard Medical School in 1830. He practised medicine two years in Northfield, five years in Concord, Massachusetts, and five years in Louisville, Kentucky, with poor success. His tastes incUned to the study of mental science and anthropology. He was early interested in the cause of education and started public li- braries in Concord and Louisville. In 1836, while at Concord, he received an insane young man from Cambridge into his house for treat- ment. Several other patients were afterwards received for the same purpose, and he became interested in the treatment of insanity, a specialty he resumed when he established a permanent home in Dorchester, Mass., and continued it for many years successfully. Dr. Tarvis was disappointed several times in his candidacy for the superintendency of public hospitals for the insane in Massachusetts, a position for whicH he brought the highest re- commendations and towards which his tastes were strongly inclined. Although he felt these disappointments keenly, he was not deterred from pursuing his favorite studies. In 1840 his attention had been directed to the apparently excessive amount of msanily among the free colored population of the north. This excess, which had been used by speakers in Congress to show the probable ef- fect of emancipation upon the negro, he point- ed out to be due to gross errors in the census of 1840. His aid was accordingly solicited in the preparation of the census of 1850, and al- though without official authority and pecuniary return, he gave one-third of his time for three years to perfecting the returns. In 1874 the government, however, acknowledged his mer- its by paying him for this service. He was also employed on the census of 1860, and be- came the leading authority on vital statistics, being recognized as such at home and abroad. In 1854 the Legislature of Massachusetts ap- pointed a commission, consisting of Levi Lin- coln, Increase Sumner and Edward Jarvis, to inquire into the number and condition of the insane and idiots in Masaschusetts, and the report of that committee, prepared by Dr. Jar- vis, is a monument of his patient, painstaking investigation into the number of the insane and idiots in the state. The hospital at North- ampton was erected in consequence of the rec- ommendations of this commission. In 1843 he became a member of the corpor- ation of the School for Idiots in Boston, and in 1849 was appointed physician to the Insti- tution for the Blind, in that year delivering the annual discourse before the Massachusetts Medical Society. He continued to be asso- ciated with Dr. S. G. Howe (q. v.) in the su- pervision and care of these two institutions for many years, his service being largely gratui- tous. In 1860 Dr. Jarvis visited Europe, where he traveled extensively in charge of a wealthy in- sane patient, who was accompanied by his family. He was commissioned a delegate to the International Statistical Congress in Lon- don, where he made the acquaintance of many distinguished foreign physicians and alienists. He was chosen one of the two vice-presidents of this congress. In 1874 his labors were suddenly arrested by a stroke of paralysis. He remained in comfortable health, however, until October 20, 1884, when a second attack occurred, which terminated fatally on October 31, 1884. His wife died the second day afterwards, and they were both buried on the same day in their native town of Concord. Dr. Jarvis was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His writings were voluminous and embraced a wide range of subjects. He wrote a school physiology, which was translated into Japanese and is in use in Japan. Institutional Care of the Insane in the U. S. and Canada, Henry M. Hurd, 1917. Hist. Harv. Med. Sch., T. F. Harrington, N. Y., 1905, p. 1462. Bibliography. Jarvis, William Chapman (1855-1895) William Chapman Jarvis was the oldest son of Jane Mamford and the late Surgeon N. S. Jarvis, a veteran officer of many years service. Dr. Jarvis was born May 13, 1855, amid the romantic surroundings of the old casemates at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, then, as now, occu- pied as officers' quarters. His father was of a familj- well known in New York and New England, which had participated in the estab- lishment of the pioneer civilization of the Eastern States and contributed manj- well- known names to the arts and sciences. Dr. Jarvis' grandfather, Nathaniel Jarvis, was an old-time ship owner and merchant of New York, while his great-grandfather. Captain Nathaniel Jarvis of the Continental Army, who participated in Washington's battles with the British in Long Island and New Jersey, died in the terrible winter of 1777 at Vallej' Forge. On his mother's side he was the great- grandson of the Reverend John Stanford, a