Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/702

NAME LANGMAID 680 LA ROCHE Army as acting assistant surgeon, remaining until 1865, the close of the Civil War. On his return to Boston he began the prac- tice of medicine, which he continued until a few years before his death. He was physician and surgeon at the Boston Dispensary from 1866 to 1875 and surgeon at the Carney Hos- pital in South Boston from 1868 to 1880. He was also on the surgical staff of the Children's Hospital from 1870 to 1885, when he was made chief of the department for diseases of the throat. In 1881 he was appointed assistant physician for diseases of the throat in the clin- ic of Dr. F. I. Knight (q. v.), at the Massa- chusetts General Hospital, a position which he held till 1892. During all these years there had been an influence at work which caused him gradually to give up general medical and surgical prac- tice and devote himself .to diseases of the throat. He was the possessor of a fine tenor voice which preserved its freshness and power until he was about 70 years of age. He was always much interested in the voice and in the methods of voice production, and he was thus led to the study of the larynx by means of the larv'ngoscope. At the time of his medical studies there was no real knowledge of the living larynx, in fact, it was only seven years since Manuel Garcia, in 1855, had first demon- strated the use of the laryngoscopic mirror. In spite of his having had no instruction in laryngology, Langmaid's love of music and his knowledge of the use of the voice gave him a large acquaintance among actors and sing- ers, whose throats he examined and whose methods of singing he discussed and criticized. In consequence of the experience thus ac- quired he was elected a member of the Amer- ican Laryngological Association in 1880, two years after it was founded, and in 1891 he was chosen president. Even before his medical studies he had tak- en an active and enthusiastic interest in the voice, and while in college was leader of the Glee Club. Immediately after graduation, in 1860, he was elected a member of the Harvard Musical Association and was made its presi- dent in 1902, a position which he held for many years, and during half a century he gave much of his time and talent as a tenor singer in the interest of this organization. He was also a member of the quartet of Trinity Church for twenty-five years as well as of a number of male singing societies. As a member of the American Laryngologi- cal Association the papers which he presented naturally had to do with vocal disabilties and their causes and also the proper manner of using the voice with criticisms of the harm done by many of the then prevalent methods of teaching; and before the American Climato- logical Association, to which he was elected in 1887, he read a paper on changes in the voice in early phthisis. In the Archives of Laryn- gology, N. Y., 1880-1884, and in the Transac- tions of the American Laryngological Asso- ciation, and of the American Climatological Association the papers written by him are to be found. He led an active, useful, professional life, having a large private practice in addition to all his hospital work and his numerous musi- cal duties and was a member of most of the important medical societies of Boston. But he was not a believer in "all work and no play," for no one was a keener sportsman or more enthusiastic fisherman than he, and no one was more willing than he to do his share of storytelling and singing at the club or medical meeting, and, consequently, he was in great demand at social gatherings. His method of singing must have had distinct merit or his voice would have given out long before it did. In 1870 Dr. Langmaid married Miss Ella M. Tuttle of Boston, who with two daughters survived him. j^^^,^ ^_ Farlow. La Roche, Rene (1795-1872) Rene La Roche of Philadelphia was the son of a French physician of the same name (1755- 1819), who was a graduate of Montpellier (1799), and had practised in San Domingo until the insurrection in that island when he came to Philadelphia and cared for the French families of that city. Rene was born in Phil- adelphia in 1795 and had his education there. When seventeen years old he enlisted in the War of 1812 and became a captain of volun- teers in Colonel Chapman Biddle's regiment. At the close of the war he engaged in busi- ness, beginning the study of medicine in 1817 and graduating M. D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1820. Soon after graduation he became connected with "Dr. Chapman's Summer School," and was one of the most active members of the "Kappa Lambda Asso- ciation of the United States" under whose auspices the North American Medical and Surgical Journal was issued for several years, La Roche being one of the editors. When this society ceased to exist, the Monday Evening Club — said to be the first medical club in the United States — was founded. It consisted of the following physicians : Wood, Hodge,