Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/871

NAME NEWTON 849 NEWTON States and Europe, a large part of this period being passed in Paris. In 1851, however, he returned to Cleveland, Ohio, and began to practise, but was too much interested in the natural sciences to enjoy the dull routine of medical practice, and in May, 1855, when of- fered by the War Department the position of acting assistant surgeon and geologist of tne United States Exploring Expedition un- der Lieut. R. S. Williamson, designed to ex- plore the region between San Francisco and the Columbia River, accepted it without hesi- tation. In 1857-1858 he was again assigned by the War Department to accompany Lieut. J. C. Ives on his exploration of the Colorado River, and his report of the results of this explora- tion was scarcely completed when he was ordered to join Capt. J. N. Macomb, topo- graphical engineer. United States Army, in a further exploration of the San Juan and ■upper Colorado Rivers. Elaborate and valu- able reports of these expeditions were pub- lished by the War Department, until the out- break of the Civil War in 1861 turned the attention of the government to more pressing duties. Soon after the close of the war in 1866 he was called to the chair of geology and paleontology in the School of Mines of Columbia College, New York, and this posi- tion he continued to fill with entire success until his death, December 7, 1892. In 1869 he was called to Ohio as state geologist, to direct the geological survey of the state then ordered. He at once organized the work and directed it with energy and success until its completion in 1875. when he prepared and published valuable reports of the results of his labors. In 1884 he was appointed paleon- tologist of the U. S. Geological Survey, with charge of the fossil fishes and plants. Dr. Newberry was a member of the Ohio State Medical Society, before which he read in 1852 a paper on "The Specific Identity of Typhus and Typhoid Fevers." Most of his writings were of a geological or paleonto- logical character. He was one of the original corporators of the National Academy of Sciences, president of the New York Academy of Sciences and a member of numerous scien- tific societies of both this country and Europe. Henry E. Handerson. Cleave's Biographical Cyclopedia of the State of Ohio, Cuyahoga Co. A History of Columbia University, University Press, New York, 1904. A catalogue of the most important scientific wri- tings of Dr. Newberry will also be found in Johnson's Cyclopedia, under his name, and also in the Surg.-General's Cat., Wash., D. C. Newton, Robert Safford (1818-1881) Robert Safiford Newton, eclectic physician, was a descendant of John Newton, an officer in Cromwell's army, who fled to America af- ter the Restoration and settled in Massachu- setts — his grandfather on his mother's side, Robert Safiford, went from Massachusetts to Ohio, where he was a pioneer settler. His father was John Newton. Born in Gallipolis, Ohio, December 12, 1818, the younger Newton's early education was limited and the plan was to make him a farmer; but he begged for larger learning than that of the common school and was per- mitted to go to the academy at Lewisburg, Virginia. He was a good student, but his father had him return to the farm in 1834; he taught school intermittently with farming, until in 1837 he decided suddenly, while in the midst of plowing, that he "would never plow another furrow, or even finish the one that was half accomplished," but that he would be a doctor. He had already begun to study medicine, and the next day, with fifty cents as hig sole fortune, he went to Gallipolis, started to study medicine under Edward Naret, working for his preceptor to meet expenses. He belonged to the Methodist Church and his pastor taught him Greek and Latin, and he studied mathematics, history and philosophy under the guidance of the principal of the Gallipolis Academy. He entered the Medical University of Louisville in 1839 and gradu- ated in 1841. One month after graduation he began to practise in Gallipolis (April, 1841); in 1843 he married Mary M. Hoy, of that town. In 1845 he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became well known; in 1849 he accepted the chair of surgery in Memphis Institute, of the University of Memphis, resigning in 1853, to take the chair of surgery in the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cincinnati, left vacant by the death of T. V. Morrow, con- tinuing until 1860 in this or the chair of theory and practice of medicine. He held Newton's Clinical Institute here assisted by Zoheth Freeman. From 1851 to 1861 he edited the Eclectic Medical Journal (with J. R, Buchanan). In 1863 he settled in New York, helped to or- ganize a State Eclectic Medical Society, and served as president for three years; he aided also in establishing the Eclectic Medical Col- lege of the City of New York (chartered in 1865; beginning in 1866). He was one of the original signers of the call for the National Eclectic Medical Association (1848) and was active in reorganizing the Association (1870). He war an assistant editor of the Eclectic Medical Review, and helped editorially with