Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/900

NAME PALMER 878 PALMER pointed was his "Treatise on the Science and Practice of Medicine, or the Pathology and Treatment of Internal Diseases," two volumes of about nine hundred pages each, published in 1882, followed by "A Treatise on Epidemic Cholera and Allied Diseases," of two hundred and twenty-four pages, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1885. Many of his papers are to be found in the columns of the Transactions of the Michigan State Medical Society. Leartus Connor. Representative Men in Mich., Cincinnati, Ohio, 1878, vol. ii. History of the University of Mich., Ann Arbor, 1906. A Memorial Discourse on the Life and Services of Alonzo Benjamin Palmer, M. D., LL. D., by Corydon L. Ford, M. D., LL. D., 1S88. Medical Age, 1887. Med. Record, N. Y., 1887, vol. xxxii. Trans. Mich. State Med. Soc, Detroit, 1888. Memorial volume, Alonzo Benjamin Palmer, 1890, Cambridge, by Mrs. Palmer. Palmer, James Croxall (1811-1883) Jatnes Croxall Palmer, surgeon-general of the LInited States Navy, was descended from an old English family. He was born in Balti- more, Maryland, June 29, 1811, and received his A. B. from Dickinson College in 1829 and began the study of the law. He studied medi- cine at the University of Maryland, took his M. D., and was commissioned assistant surgeon in the navy in 1834. He spent seventeen years of his life in actual sea cruises and had many interesting experiences all over the world. He, married Juliet Gettings, daughter of James Gettings, of Long Green, Md., May 22, 1837. In 1842 he was promoted to the rank of surgeon. Palmer served in the Mexican as well as in the Civil War. He was with Far- ragut on the Hartford in the famous battle of Mobile Bay. At the close of the war his health was shattered by malaria and for four years he was in charge of the Naval Hospital in Brooklyn. He made several contributions to medical literature through the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. In 1871 he was appointed medical director and on June 10, 1872, surgeon-general of the Navy. He retired June 29. 1873, and died in Washington, April 24, 1883. Phys. and Surgs. of the U. S., W. B. Atkinson, 1878. Biog. Em. Amer. Phys. and Surgs., R. F. Stone, M. D., Indianapolis, 1894. Palmer, John Williamson (1825-1906) He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, April 4, 1825, the son of Edward Palmer, a mer- chant and descended from Edward Palmer, 1572-1625. the Oxford scholar and antiquarian, who in 1624 designed the foundation of the first college of arts in America on Palmer's Island, at the mouth of the Susquehanna. Dr. Palmer graduated M. D. from the ae- partment of medicine of the University of Maryland, in 1846. He practised for some years, being first city physician of San Fran- cisco, 1849-50, and surgeon in the East India Company's service in the second Burmese War, 1851-52. After traveling extensively in China, Hindustan and other far Eastern countries, he returned to the United States in 1853 and abandoned medicine for literature. During the Civil War he was southern correspondent for the New York Tribune; attache of the Confederate Government charged with singular and hazardous responsibilities skilfully and bravely discharged, and valued volunteer on the staff of Maj-gen. John C. Breckenridge. After the war he settled in New York City. The following are the titles of some of his works: "The Queen's Heart," comedy, 1858; "The New and the Old, or California and India," 1859: "Up and Down the Irawadi," and "Folk Songs," 1860; "Epidemic Cholera," 1866; "The Poetry of Compliment and Court- ship," 1867; "The Beauties and Curiosities of Engraving," 1879; "A Portfolio of Autograph Etchings," 1882; "After his Kind," 1886; "For Charlie's Sake and Other Lyrics and Ballads," 1901. He translated "L'Amour" (Michelet). 1859; "La Femme" (Michelet), 1859; "Histoire Morale des Femmes" (Legouve), 1860. Years before Bret Harte discovered the California of fiction. Palmer had revealed it in such stories as "The Fate of the Farleighs," "The Old Abode," "Mr. Karl Joseph Kraft of the Old Californians," and a number of others. He also contributed to the leading magazines and was one of the editors of the Century and Standard Dictionaries. Palmer thus had a varied experience as traveler, editor, prose writer and poet, but it was especially in the last-named role that he achieved fame and success. As a lyric poet he shines preeminent among Americans. His style is spirited and original, his language full of vigor, grace and pathos. He wielded the pen of a master and remarkable are the word-pictures he dashed off in the moments of his inspirations. His most famous poem was the Confederate war song — "Stonewall Jackson's Way" — composed within sound of the guns on the day of the Battle of Sharps- burg. September 17, 1862, and familiar to all Confederate soldiers. Some of these poems were published in 1901, under the title "For Charlie's Sake and Other Lyrics and Ballads." His poem "King's Mountain," a ballad of the Revolution, was published in the Yale Alumni Weekly. His mind was clear and active up to