Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/796

NAME MEACHEM 774 MEASE Arlington, Virginia, and the class of '87 (Yale) erected a tablet to his memory in the Memorial Vestibule of the University. Personal Communications from Dr. Richard P. Strong. Department of the Interior, Manila. Meachem, John Goldsborough (1823-1896) The son of the Rev. Thomas and Elizabeth Meachem of Axbridge, Somerset, England, he was born there May 27, 1823. In 1831 his parents came to the United States and the boy was educated at Richmond Academy, New York. In 1840 be began to study under Dr. Harvey Jewctt at Richmond, New York, and attended lectures at Geneva Medical College one year, and the following year at Castleton Medical College, from which he graduated in 1843, and began to practise the same year at Weathersfield Springs, New York, subse- quently at Linden, and at Warsaw, New York, until 1862, when he came to Racine, Wisconsin, where the remainder of his life was spent. His professional standing was recognized by the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, whose diploma he received in 1862. In 1861 he was appointed enrollment surgeon by Gov. Hunt of New York, and in 1862-63 had charge of the regimental hospital at Camp Utley, at Racine. He was one of the founders of and a physician to St. Luke's Hospital at Racine for more than twenty years. In 1881 he was president of the Wisconsin State Medical So- ciety. A general practice of over fifty years embraced many dangerous and difficult cases in surgery. His numerous cases of amputa- tions, trephining, and liberal practice in lithotomy, ovariotomy, and other lines of his profession attest both skill and knowledge. His contributions to medical literature in- cluded : "Removal of Two Stones Weighing two ounces, from Bladder of Female" ; "Ligature of Carotid Artery for Occipital Aneurism" ; "Medical Education" ; "Stroma- syphilis"; "Fifteen Cases of Puerperal Eclamp- sia, with one death. Bleeding the Remedy"; "Insanity due to Uterine Disease"; "Pneumonia and its Treatment" ; "Lung Diseases as They Occur on the Shore of Lake Michigan" ; "Pass- age of a Needle through the Heart, with Re- covery," and an address before the Wisconsin State Medical Society on "Honor to Profes- sional Men," may properly be mentioned as showing both professional skill and profes- sional spirit. These papers were published in the "Transactions of the Wisconsin State Med- ical Society." Meachem married in June, 1844, Myraette, daughter of Reuben Doolittle. Two daughters. Myraette and Elizabeth, died in their girlhood. One son, John Goldsbrough Meachem, Jr., be- came a physician. He died February 1, 1896, from heart disease after an illness of nearly one year; leaving a stainless character as a heritage for his kindred. t r- ivj t John G. Me.chem, Jr. The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-made Men, Chicago, 1877, with portrait History of Racine and Kenosha Counties, Wis- consin, 1879. Transactions Wis. State Med. Soc, 1896. Obituary by Solon Marks, M.D. Mease, James (1771-1846) James Mease, philanthropist, antiquarian, and a notable figure in the scientific and in- tellectual life of Philadelphia in the first half of the nineteenth century, was born in Phila- delphia, August 11, 1771, ihe son of John and Esther Miller Mease. He entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1784; graduating from the collegiate depart- ment in 1787, and receiving the degree of master of arts in course in 1790. His medical degree was conferred in 1792, at the first com- mencement after the union of the medical schools of the College of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. Among his college classmates were Benjamin F. Bache, grandson of Benjamin Franklin, and father of Franklin Bache; George Duffield, Comptroller- General of the State of Pennsylvania, and judge of the United States Court for the Territory of Orleans ; Samuel H. Smith, mem- ber of the Continental Congress, founder and member of the first board of trustees of the University of the State of Pennsylvania; and James Woodhouse. who went on to the medical department and graduated with Mease in 1792. Mease began to practise in Philadelphia, and gradually his interests broadened, until he was associated with many of the intellectual and humanitarian efforts of his time. He was a member of the American Philosophical So- ciety, 1802; secretary of the Philadelphia Agri- cultural Society, 1813; and first vice-president of the Philadelphia Athenaeum, founded in 1813 to "collect books of reference on politics, literature and science, maps and dictionaries, to be accessible at all hours of th? day," the foundation of a large and useful public library. The Athenseum today possesses a collection of periodical literature said to be unsurpassed. In 1802 tlie "Company for the Improvement of. the Vine" was organized. Benjamin Say was president; Mease was one of the man- agers, and had a vineyard with 3.000 plants. The increasing demand for competent apoth- ecaries led Mease to take the initiative 'n the effort to give systematic instruction in