Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/996

NAME RICH 974 RICHARDSON dispensary, which a few years later developed into the Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary, and he served the institution continuously until 1870. Elected an honorary member of the American Ophthalmological Society at its inception, he was one of the founders of the Tremont Medical School, and professor of surgery in this institution until 1845. He delivered the annual discourse before the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1841 on the condition, prospects and duties of the medical profession and he was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Reynolds wrote : "Importance of Knowledge of Physiology to Students"; "Hints to Students on the Use of the Eyes," 1835, and an address at the dedication of the new building of the Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary. He died December 25, 1881, in Boston. Hubbell's Development of Ophthalmology, 1908. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 18S2, vol. cvi, p. 20. Rich, Hosea (1780-1866). This capable surgeon, the son of Paul and Mary Dennis Rich, was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, October 1, 1780. His childhood was spent on a farm, where he obtained that sturdiness which lasted through life. He studied medicine with Dr. John Elliot Eaton, of Dudley, Massachusetts (Harvard College 1777), and with Dr. Thomas Babbitt, of the Harvard class of 1784. He was an apprentice in medicine for five successive years, thus laying a solid foundation for success. On January 6, 1803, Rich married Mrs. Fannie Burke Goodall, by whom he had eight chil- dren, one of whom became a medical prac- titioner. Soon after marriage Rich tried prac- tice at various places without success and finally set sail with an expedition for Port au Prince, as surgeon's mate. Two years later, John Burke, a brother-in-law, having moved to Bangor, Maine, then on the edge of the primeval forest, advised his brother-in- law to settle there, so on July 4, 1805, Rich went to Bangor, there to labor successfully nearly sixty-one years. He was a prominent member of the Maine Medical Society, afterwards president of the Maine Medical Association. The transactions of the latter society not having been printed until Rich was advanced in years, we have no means of knowing what papers he contributed. As he had really no degree, as a reward for his long-continued usefulness and excellent standing in the Commonwealth of Maine, Bowdoin College granted him her honorary M. D. in 1851, gratefully acknowledged by Dr. Rich when he was more than seventy years of age as a token of being well thought of. During the War of 1812 he was surgeon of the Fourth Maine Regiment at the Battle of Hampden, Maine, where some 750 British attacked half that number of Americans. Rich had just extracted a bullet from the hand of a wounded soldier when the enemy entered the hospital. He ran one way, the patient an- other, and they did not meet again for several years. We can imagine the pleasure when at that time Dr. Rich was able to show his patient the bullet that he had taken from his hand. It should be added that on the day after the battle, by permission of the invaders, Dr. Rich resumed work at the hospital. The Dublin Hospital Gazette, February, 1856, reports one of his cases in which a thong forming the nucleus of a calculus was successfully removed, July 3, 1855, at Bangor. His patient had foolishly pushed a leather thong into his bladder by means of a broken twig. Nothing happened for a long time. Then pain set in and an operation became im- perative. Rich did the operation, and removed the calculus. In it was the missing leather thong. This calculus was exhibited by Dr. William Brown, of Bangor, who was then at Dublin. He had assisted at the operation, and with the consent of Dr. Rich took the cal- culus to Europe for exhibition. It was com- posed of triple phosphate and phosphate of lime and fusible in the blow-pipe. His first capital operation was an ampu- tation of a leg in 1809. His last was a couch- ing for cataract June 27, 1865, when he re- stored, to a man older than himself, a good amount of sight. On August 14, 1855, he was taken ill with what was to be his only and last illness, for he passed away slowly, week by week, dying finally January 30, 1866. J-i^MES A. Spalding. Trans. Maine Med. Assoc, Portland. 1866-1868, Richardson, Alonzo Blair (1852-1903). Alonzo Blair Richardson, eminent as an. alienist and neurologist throughout the United States, and superintendent of the Government Hospital for the Insane at Washington, Dis- trict of Columbia, died in that city on the evening of June 27, 1903, after but a few hours' illness. Dr. Richardson was born near Harrisonville, Scioto County, Ohio, September 11, 1852. Entering the Ohio University at Athens, Ohio, he remained two years, going thence to the Ohio Wesleyan University at