Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/810

NAME MICHEL 788 MICHEL and Anna Faive Michel. He received the degree of M. D. at the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, at Charleston, in 1857. A surgecn in the Confederate army throughout the Civil War, he was, at the close of the strife, a division medical inspector. From the end of the War until his death. Dr. Michel practised as ophthalmologist ex- clusively, at St. Louis. Missouri. Here he was for many years professor of ophthal- mology in the Missouri Medical College, and surgeon at the St. Louis Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Infirmary. He was also for a time ophthalmic surgeon to the Martha Parsons Hospital for Children. He was the first to employ electrolysis in ophthalmology, and in- vented a number of instruments and opera- tions. He was a very skilful operator and was a clear and forceful writer and teacher. He married, in 1873, at St. Louis, Celeste Nidelet, and they had one son. Dr. Michel was a man of medium height, neither lean nor stout, who wore a mustache and French goatee, had a clear olive com- plexion and blue eyes, and, when the present writer knew him, hair that was absolutely white. His manner, as a rule, was very delib- erate and quiet, but at times he was rapid in the extreme. He was, in his later years, a trifle deaf, but, in case his interlocutor should raise his voice a bit too high, the doctor would sharply rebuke him. "What ! do you think I am hard of hearing? You need only speak distinctly." His son, C. E. Michel, Jr., speaks of him as follows: "From my earliest recollection, I associated my father with books, books of all descrip- tions ; in his reading room, he always had a pile of medical works filled with book mark- ers, and as I studied by his side, he would read and refer to these by the hour. When tired, he usually did some light reading in French literature. "He was an indefatigable worker with the microscope, up to about his seventieth year. His chief enjoyment was the preparation of specimen slides for his classes, and I have been informed by many doctors, that his col- lection of slides was very remarkable. There were hundreds of them, that I know from personal knowledge, took him several hours a day over a period of many years to prepare. "His physical recreation during the sum- mer months consisted of early morning ram- bles in the large rose garden, which he had on his summer place at Normandy, Missouri. Here he had a collection of roses and fruit trees gathered from all over the world, and before leaving for the city and his office each morning, he would spend from one to two hours collecting the choicest of the blooms and fruit. My father was a keen sportsman. A part of each fall he spent in the north woods shooting and fishing to a certain extent, but most of his hours were put in reading in some quiet spot ; he loved and understood nature as but few do." Dr. Michel passed from life at St. Louis, Missouri, September 29, 1913, and the writer will always remember the pang with which he learned of the everlasting departure of this gentle, dignified and skilful father in ophthal- mology. Thomas Hall Shastid. Private sources. Michel, William Middleton (1822-1894) William Middleton Michel was born in Charleston, South Carolina, January 22, 1822. His father, William Michel, was a physician, of French descent and educated in France, and his mother was Eugenia Ash Eraser, of South Carolina, descended from Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, of Scotland. After an eprly education in Paris, France and in Charleston, Middleton Michel, as he was called, studied at the Pension Labrousse, Paris (1835-1837), and in 1842 began the study of medicine in Paris under Richet, Cruveilhier, Coste and Longet; for two years he dissected for Cruveil- hier in his laboratory, and afterward was a private pupil of Coste at the College de France ; in 1844 he gave a course of lectures on anat- omy, in French, for Richet, at the ficole Pratique. In 1845 he received a diploma from the ficole de Medicin, Paris, then returning to the United States he graduated at the Medical College of the State of South Carolina in 1846. He practised in Charleston, where he spent the rest of his life. In 1848 he founded the Summer Medical Institute of Charleston and lectured on anat- omy, physiology and midwifery. During the Civil War he was consulting surgeon to the Confederate Army. From 1868 until his death he was professor of physiology and medical jurisprudence in the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, and from 1871 was visiting surgeon to the City Hospital (Roper). He was presi- dent of the Medical Society of South Caro- lina in 1880, and member of the Charleston Board of Health, 1880-1894. He was editor of the Confederate States Medical and Surgical Journal, 1863-1864, and of the Charleston Medical Journal, 1875-1880. A large contributor to medical journals.