Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/806

NAME MERRILL 784 METCALF picturesque, tinged with delicate fancy and indicated true genius and profound scholar- ship. An ardent lover and complete master of Latin prosody, he solaced his last moments with recitations from his favorite Virgil. Dr. Mercier died in New Orleans on May 12, 1894. J.NE Grey Rogers. Merrill, James Cu.hing (1853-1902) James Gushing Merrill, army surgeon and ornithologist, was born at Gambridge, Massa- chusetts, March 26, 18S3. The son of James Gushing and Jane H. Merrill, he was descended from Nathaniel Merrill who, with his brother John, were among the earliest settlers of Newbury. Massachusetts, and through his grandmother from the Leveretts and Salton- stalls of that state. His great grandmother was Lucy Gushing, daughter of Rev. James Gushing of Haverhill, who traced his descent from John Gushing who, in turn, came to America from Hingham, England, in 1638. James Gushing Merrill obtained his early education at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and completed it at Dresden and other German schools. In 1874 he took his medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania, the title of his graduating thesis being "Anomalies of Human Osteology." Soon after, he was ap- pointed assistant surgeon in the U. S. Army, and during a long period of service on the western and southwestern frontiers, he made an extended study of the birds and fauna of Texas, Oregon, Idaho and what is now Okla- homa. He was a collector of birds, eggs, in- sects, mammals and fishes, sending most of his specimens to the National Museum. During his western experience, he became an ardent sports- man and hunter of big game, and concerning his intrepidity and resourcefulness in attack- ing the grisly bear, Golonel Roosevelt has said in his "Hunting the Grisly" (1900) : — "Dr. James G. Merrill, U. S. A., who has had about as much experience with bears as I have had, informs me that he has been charged with the utmost determination three times. In each case the attack was delivered before the bear was wounded or even shot at, the animal being roused by the approach of the hunters from his day bed. and charged headlong at them from a distance of twenty or thirty paces. All three bears were killed before they could do any damage." On November 16, 1892, Dr. Merrill married Mary Pitt Chase of Maryland, and on March 13, 1894, he was promoted to be full surgeon with the rank of major. On April 1, 1897, he succeeded the late Golonel David L. Hunting- ton (q. V.) as librarian of the Surgeon Gen- eral's Office, at Washington, and here, during the last five years of his life, he worked with ardor and enthusiasm at medical bibliography, assisting Dr. Robert Fletcher (q. v.) in the redaction of the index catalogue, of which Merrill edited volumes iii-vii of the second series. For this task Major Merrill was sin- gularly well fitted. He read thirteen languages, and was studying Russian at the time of his death. He stuck manfully to this confining office work, even after the breaking down of his health and up to a short time before his death. In the summer of 1902 he was pre- vailed upon to spend a few weeks at White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, and died at his home at Washington, D C., October 27, 1902. Major Merrill was an attractive, genial, kindly, modest gentleman who won the loyal affection of all his friends and associates. He was a member of the Dedlo Island Hunting Club and would occasionally go there on a duck shooting expedition with Dr. Horatio C. Wood and would divide the spoils of the chase among the men in the Surgeon General's Library. He was a trained naturalist, an active mem- ber of the American Ornithologists' Union at its first Congress (1883), and for twenty years he was known as one of the leading contributors to American ornithology. He gave full accounts of the birds of Southern Texas, and other localities, and made inter- esting popular contributions to Forest and Stream and the Boone and Crockett books. His ornithological papers include : "Notes on the Ornithology of Southern Texas, being a list of birds obsprved in the vicinity of Fort Brown, Texas from Febru- ary, 1876 to June, 1878" (Proc. U.. S. Nat. Mus., 1878, i, 118-173) ; "Notes on the birds of Fort Klamath, Oregon. With remarks on certain species by William Brewster" (Auk, 1888, vol. V, 139-146, 251-262, 357-366) ; and "Notes on the Birds of Fort Sherman, Idaho" (Auk, 1897, vol. xiv, 347-357; 1898, vol. xv, 14-22). Fielding H. Garrison. Melcalf, W. G. (1847-1885) W. G. Metcalf was born in 1847 in the town of Uxbridge, Ontario. He began asylum life in Toronto on August 7. 1871. as clinical assistant to Dr. Workman (q. v.), and laid the foundation of his future success. In 1874 he left Toronto Asylum to engage in private prac- tice, but shortly after returned to become assistant medical superintendent, a posi-