Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/775

NAME MC SHERRY 753 MC WILLIAMS ful nature, he made the best of life, despite the terrible misfortune of his later years, terminating in blindness from glaucoma. He contributed to the pages of the Boston Med- ical and Surgical Journal, 1838, 1849 and 1853, papers on "Women's Diseases" ; "Cod Liver Oil," and "Removal of an Ovarian Tumor." He also wrote a pamphlet of fifty pages on "Ulcerations and Abrasions of the Cervix Uteri." Having lost his sight, an affliction he was enduring with remarkable cheerfulness, he was next loaded down with physical pain and renewed burdens in the shape of gallstones. Every attack weakened him more and more until he was willing to give in. He died suddenly April 5, 1873. His career was remarkable, saved as he was from shipwreck, far from Scotland, and then rescued to live, honored and renowned in his American home. James A. Spalding. Trans., Maine Med. Assoc, 1873. McSherry, Richard (1817-1885) Richard McSherry was born at Martins- burg, Virginia, November 21, 1817, son of Dr. Richard McSherry, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1816. He first went to Georgetown College and then studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1841. In 1842 he married a daughter of Robert Wilson, a lawyer of Baltimore. McSherry entered the Army and served under General Taylor in the Seminole War; leaving the Army in 1843 he entered the Navy as an assistant surgeon under Dr. E. K. Kane and served for nine years in the East and West Indies, and in South America, and coursing around the world in the old Consti- tution. In Scott's campaign in Mexico he was surgeon to the marines ; resigning in 1851, he settled in Baltimore. He was professor of materia medica and therapeutics in the University of Maryland (1863-64) ; upon the death of Samuel Chew (q. v.), he was made professor of principles and practice of medicine (1864-85). He was president of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland in 1883-1884; president of the Maryland State Board of Health in 1884. McSherry was a facile writer on subjects both professional and literary. "El Puchero" (1850) gives an account of Scott's campaign, with military sketches ; he wrote "Essays and Lectures on Various Occasions" (1869) ; and "Health and How to Promote It" (1879). He died at Baltimore, October 7, 1885. Howard A. Kelly. Med. Annals of Md., Cordell, 1903. Maryland Med. Jour., Bait., 1885, vol. xiii, 499. Med. News, Phila., 1885, vol. xlvii, 448. New Eng. Med. Month., Sandy Hook, Conn., 1883-4, vol. iii, 562. Portrait. McWilliams, Alexander (1775-1850) Of Scotch descent, the first of a family who came to this country having escaped threatened arrest for treason on account of political connection with the party of the pre- tender, Alexander McWilliams was born in St. Mary's, County, Maryland, in 1775. Soon after graduating he entered the navy (1802) as assistant surgeon and afterwards was ordered to sea in one of Jefferson's gun-boats. He served during the Tripolitan War, and was present at the burning of the Phila- delphia. On his return voyage he was taken ill with a continued fever and was left at Gibraltar, remaining there several weeks, fin- ally returning home on the frigate Consti- tution and getting a post at the navy yard, Washington. But this he resigned and be- gan private practice, settling near the navy yard, then the most thickly populated part of the city and seemingly offering the best pros- pect for a doctor. He was an honorary M. D., 1841, Columbia College, District of Columbia ; an incorporator of the Medical Society, District of Columbia, under both charters; assistant surgeon, United States Navy, 1802-05, and president of the Medical Association, District of Columbia, 1847-50. Dr. McWilliams was very fond of natural science, more especially of botany, to which he devoted much attention, and often, during the proper season, neglected his professional work to make excursions in search of new plants and flowers. During the early years of the medical department in Columbia Uni- versity he was professor of botany, and sub- sequently published the "Flora of the District of Columbia." He was one of the "Botanic Club" which published, in 1830, the "Prodro- mus of the Flora Columbiana." He was the first resident to build a conservatory, which he filled with many rare plants. This he superintended and managed in person for his own amusement, without any commercial pur- pose. Connected with the conservatory was a large aviary, in which he had many rare foreign birds. He was also a good mineralo- gist, and made a large collection of minerals. His inventive genius was somewhat remark- able, but unprofitable. He invented a ship