Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/99

Rh DARLING, William, physician, b. in Berwick- shire, Scotland, in 1815. His early education was obtained at a private seminary, after which he went to the University of Edinburgh, where he ob- tained a i^rize by competitive examination for his proficiency in the classics. He studied medicine in the College of physicians and surgeons in New York for six years, and, in 1840, was appointed physician to Bellevue hospital, and also took charge of some of the hospitals on Ward's island. His degree of M. D, was received in 1842 from the Uni- versity of the city of New York, which also in a few weeks appointed him its prosector of surgery. In 1845 he was called to the professorship of demon- strator of anatomy, where he remained until 1858, when he became connected with the quarantine hospital, Staten Island. In 1855 he served as senior assistant surgeon in the emigrants' hospital. Ward's island. In 1856 he went to London, England, and, on 21 Nov. in that year, was admitted a member of the Royal college of surgeons of England. He remained in Europe ten years, most of the time in London, attending the lectures and cliniques at the hospitals, as well as lectures at the College of sur- geons, the Royal institution, Gresham college. School of arts. School of mines, etc. During the same period he also attended various lectures in Paris, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. On 14 June, 1866, shortly before his departure for the United States, he re- ceived thefellowship of the Royal college of surgeons. On his return to the United States he was appointed professor of anatomy in the University of New York, and in 1868 censor of the New York college of veterinary surgeons. In 1878 he was appointed professor of anatomy in the University of Vermont. He is a member of many medical societies, at home and abroad, and on 8 Nov., 1877, was elected corre- spondent of the Societe d'anthropologie of Paris.

DARLING, William, Canadian merchant, b. in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1819 ; d. in Montreal, 1 Nov., 1885. He arrived in Canada in 1840, and, taking up his residence in Montreal, established an iron and hardware business, which ultimately be- came the wholesale firm of William Darling & Co. He actively promoted the commercial welfare of that city, and was for some years president of its board of trade, and also vice-president of the Do- minion board of trade. He was largely instru- mental in framing the insolvent act of 1875. Dur- ing the Mackenzie administration he was appointed arbitrator on the Lachine canal claims, an office in which he was continued by Sir John A. Macdon- ald. He was a director of the Merchant's bank, and chairman of the Temporalities board of the Presbyterian church of Canada. In 1878 he was a candidate for a seat in the Dominion parliament, in the liberal interest, but was defeated.

DARLINGTON, William, scientist, b. in Birmingham, Pa., 28 April, 1782; d. in West Chester, Pa., 23 April, 1863. His parents were Quakers, and his early education was received in the country school. He began the study of medicine at the age of eighteen, and was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1804. He studied languages and botany two years, and in 1806 went to India as a ship's surgeon, for which (joining a military organization) he was disowned by the Society of Friends. A sketch of his voyage, under the title of " Letters from Calcutta," was published in the " Analectic Magazine." He returned to the United States in 1807, and for several years practised medi- cine in West Chester. Here he entered into politics, wrote in defence of the policy of President Madi- son, and at the beginning of the war of 1812 aided in raising an armed corps in his neighborhood, and, after the destruction of Washington in 1814, was chosen major of a volunteer regiment. He founded an athenaeum, and a society of natural history, of which he became the president. In 1813 he began a descriptive catalogue of plants growing around West Chester, with the title " Florula Ces- trica" (1826), afterward enlarged as the "Flora Cestrica" (1837; new ed., 18.53), containing a com- plete description and classification of every plant known in the county. He was a member of con- gress from 4 Dec, 1815, till 3 March, 1817, and from 6 Dec, 1819, till 3 March. 1823. In 1848 he edited the correspondence of his friend. Dr. William Baldwin, with a memoir, entitling the work " Re- liquiae Baldwiniana." In 1858 the name of Darling- tonica California was given, in his honor, to a new and remarkable variety of pitcher-plant found in California, in addition to which a number of rare plants were named in his honor by naturalists in Switzerland and America. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Yale in 1848, and in 1855 that of Doctor of Physical Science, by Dickinson college. He was a member of the American philo- sophical society and of forty other learned socie- ties in America and Europe. In addition to the works noted above, he published " ^lutual Influence of Habits and Disease" (1804) and "Agricultural Botanv " (Philadelpliia, 1847).

DARRAH, Mrs. Lydia, heroine. Of her birth and early life nothing is known, except that she was a Quaker. During 1777, while the British army held possession of Philadelphia, the adjutant-gen- eral rented one of her chambers, a retired room, for private conferences. On 2 Dec. he went to her, required that the room be ready with fire and candles by seven o'clock, that her family retire to their beds, and that tlie utmost silence be kept re- garding the visit. These minute directions ex- cited her curiosity, and, divested of her shoes, she crept to the door, listened at the key-hole, and heard an order read for all the British troops to march out on the evening of the 4th and attack Washington's army, then at White Marsh, eight miles distant. Returning to her room, she feigned sleep when called by the officer, at the close of the meeting, that he might depart. Keeping the secret from her husband, she at an early hour in the morn- ing informed the family that they were out of flour, and she would go to Frankfort, outside of the liritish lines, and procure some. A pass was readily procured from Gen. Howe, and she was soon beyond the British lines, and, leaving her bag at the mill, hastened to the American army, walking in a snowy road for several miles. She met Lieut.- Col. Craig, who knew hei', and, under a solemn pledge of secrecy regarding her agency, received the information that placed the American army on its guai'd. She returned to the mill, procured her flour, and went home. That night she watched the British troops departing, and when they re- turned she did not dare to seek any information. The next evening the adjutant-general asked her to walk up to his room, locked the door, and inquired whether any of the family were up when he and the other officers met. She told him they had all " retired at eight o'clock." He then said : " It is very strange : I know you were asleep, for I knocked at your chamber-door three times before you heard me, yet it is certain that we were betrayed. I am entirely at a loss to imagine who gave Gen. Wash- ington information of our intended attack. On arriving near his encampment we found his can- non mounted, the troops under arms, and prepared at every point to meet us, and we have been com- pelled to march back like a parcel of fools."