Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/845

NAME MORTON 823 MORTON children moved to Westchester, New York, in order to be near her sister. When Samuel was of school age, he went to various boarding schools conducted near Westchester by members of the Society of Friends, and Morton's early education vas derived entirely under their auspices. In 1812 Morton's mother married Thomas Rogers and returned to Philadelphia, and Morton soon afterwards was sent to another Quaker School in West Town, and from there to the private school of John Gummere at Burling- ton, New Jersey, to study the higher mathe- matics. After studying under John Gum- mere, Morton was, in 1815, apprenticed to a mercantile house in Philadelphia. He did not take kindly to business life, and after the death of his mother, in 1816, he gave it up. According to Wood the friendship formed with several eminent physicians who were in attendance on his mother during her pro- tracted illness helped to turn him toward the study of medicine. In 1817, at the age of nineteen, he began this study in the office of Dr. Joseph Parrish (q. v.), who was one of the most successful practitioners of his day. He had so many office pupils that in order to provide adequate tuition for them, he had associated with himself several young instructors in various branches. Among them was the naturalist, Richard Harlan, who exerted a marked influence in turning Mor- ton's thought toward science. In his early school days, Morton is said to have shown a fondness for natural history, and this was fostered by his stepfather, who was an ama- teur mineralogist. He was thus prepared to be influenced by Harlan and other young phy- sicians who took delight in the study of nature. While studying under Dr. Parrish, Morton also attended lectures at the medical depart- ment of the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1820 took his M. D. there. In the same year he became a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, an institution subse- quently much indebted to him for its devel- opment, and of which he was president at the time of his death. In 1821 Samuel went to Clonmel, Ireland, to visit his uncle, James Morton. He was received with open arms by his relatives, but after a brief visit with them was persuaded to go to Edinburgh to continue his medical studies. American degrees were not at this time much esteemed in Europe, so that Mor- ton was obliged at Edinburgh to attend the full term of an undergraduate. In 1824 Mor- ton returned to Philadelphia and began to practise, in 1827 marrying Rebecca Pearsall. Soon after his return he was made auditor and a little later recording secretary of the Academy. In this year he published an "Analysis of Tabular Spar from Bucks County," followed by numerous papers dealing with geology and paleontology. The most im- portant of these were collected and published in 1834, in a volume entitled "Synopsis of the Organic Remains of the Cretaceous Group of the United States," a book which at once gave its author a deserved scientific reputa- tion. According to Marcon it is the starting- point of all paleontological and systematic work on American fossils. In addition to his contributions to paleontology Morton at this period published various zoological papers, among' them one on "A New Species of Hip- popotamus," determined from a skull received from Dr. Goheen, of Liberia. Meanwhile Morton's interest in scientific medicine was likewise advancing. His first published essay was one on "Cornine," a new alkaloid, printed in 1825-1826. His "Illustrations of Pulm^onary Consumption," published in 1834, was a credit to American science. He followed Dr. Par- rish in recommending the open-air treatment of the disease and in 1835 he edited an Amer- ican edition of Mackintosh's "Principles of Pathology and Physic." Morton's chief scientific contributions, how- ever, came from still another direction. He was soon after his return selected by Dr. Parrish as one of his associates in teaching, and lectured upon anatomy in that connec- tion from 1830 to 1835-6. His lectures were characterized by simplicity and clearness with- out any attempted display, and gave entire satisfaction both to his associates and pupils. In 1839 he was elected professor of anatomy in Pennsylvania College, from which his resig- nation was accepted with regret in 1843. In 1849 he published an elaborate and valuable work on "Human Anatomy," special, general and microscopic, completed with much labor and care. "Among the inducements to this work, not the least," as he states in the pref- ace, "was the desire to be enrolled among the expositors of a science that had occupied many of the best years of my life." It was when he began his career as a teacher of anatomy that Morton received the stimulus which led to the work on which his lasting reputation rests. Morton* states that "having had occasion. •Letter to .T. R. Bartlett, Esq., "Transactions of the American Ethnological Society," vol. ii, New York, 1848, quoted by Patterson.