Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/953

POTTER he settled in practice in Baltimore and continued in active professional work until his last illness. On the organization of the College of Medicine of Maryland (later the University of Maryland), December 28, 1807, he became professor of principles and practice of medicine and continued in the occupancy of this chair until he died. The other positions which he held were: Dean of the College of Medicine, 1812, 1814; president, Baltimore Medical Society 1812; president Medical Society of Maryland, 1817; one of the editors of Maryland Medical and Surgical Journal, 1840–1843. Among his more important writings were: "An Account of the Rise and Progress of the University of Maryland," 1838; "Memoir on Contagion," 1818; "On the Locusta Septentrionalis," 1839; American editions of Armstrong on "Typhus Fever," 1821, and (with S. Calhoun) "Gregory's Practice," two volumes, 1826 and 1829 (two editions).

Professor Potter was of medium height, full figure and ruddy complexion. There is an oil painting of him at the University of Maryland, pronounced a faithful likeness. He was an implicit believer in the resources of medicine; and relied especially upon calomel and the lancet, carrying the use of both far beyond what would be considered allowable at this day. He did not believe in the vis medicatrix natura, and is said to have told his pupils that if nature came in the door he would pitch her out of the window. Potter was a man of wonderful skill in diagnosis and of national fame. He showed his courage by making himself the subject of experiments with the secretions of yellow fever patients, thus establishing the non-contagiousness of that disease. In this he combated the view of Rush. His later years were embittered by pecuniary embarrassment and the expenses of his burial were borne by his professional friends. He died suddenly, during a fit of coughing, January 2, 1843, in his seventy-third year. His remains repose in Greenmount Cemetery, unmarked by stone or device.

He married twice, but his family is now extinct.



Potter, Samuel Otway Lewis (1846–1914)

S. O. L. Potter, of San Francisco, produced quiz-compends of anatomy and materia medica that were of great use to a generation of medical students. The son of the Rev. Samuel George and Elizabeth Magill Potter, he was born in CushendumCushendun [sic], County Antrim, Ireland, September 18, 1846. He had a private education in England, beginning the study of medicine at the age of fourteen, and coming to America at seventeen to serve in the United States Army, first in the volunteers, and later, after the Civil War, in the regular army. From 1872 to 1882 he was in the engineer department of the army. In 1878 he graduated from the Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri, St. Louis; he got an A. M. from the University of Chicago two years later, and in 1882 graduated in medicine from the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. After a year as assistant surgeon, U. S. Army, settling in San Francisco, Dr. Potter became professor of the practice of medicine in Cooper Medical College, filling the chair from 1886 to 1893. From 1898 to 1902 he was major and brigade surgeon, U. S. V., with service in the Philippines. At one time he was president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, San Francisco. In the year 1891 he became a member of the Royal College of Physicians, London.

Some of his writings are: The Quiz Compends, already referred to, the seventh edition being published in 1905; "Analytical and Topical Index to Reports of Chief of Engineers, 1866 to 1879," 1880; "Index of Comparative Therapeutics," 1879; "Handbook of Materia Medica, Pharmacy and Therapeutics," 10th ed., 1905; "Speech and Its Defects," 1882.

He died in St. Luke's Hospital, San Francisco, April 21, 1914.



Potter, William Warren (1838–1911)

William Warren Potter, president of the New York State Board of Medical Examiners, editor of the Buffalo Medical Journal, and permanent secretary of the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, was born at Strykersville, N. Y., December 31, 1838. He was born and lived in a medical atmosphere, as his father, Lindorf Potter, and his paternal grandfather were both practitioners. His mother was Mary Green Blanchard Potter. Young Potter was educated at Arcade and Genesee Seminaries and at the University of Buffalo, where he received his M. D. upon the attainment of his majority in 1859. Engaged in practice with his uncle, Dr. Milton E. Potter, in Cowlesville, N. Y., on the breaking out of the Civil War he enlisted as