Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/859

Rh and honorable, its mission is noble and broad, its future is full of "promise and potency." But, to realize these aright, it is needful that the association shall clearly recognize its obligation as an educating agency and keep in touch with the public, and that the scientists of the country shall sustain it in its work and contribute to it their best endeavors.



ESIDES being an extraordinarily popular and successful practicing physician. Sir Richard Quain contributed materially by his researches to the advancement of medical science, served the public in many responsible and highly useful positions, and earned a world-wide recognition by his work on the "Rinderpest" Commission.

was born at Mallow, on the Blackwater, Ireland, October 30, 1816, and died in London, March 13, 1898. He came of a family which contributed several eminent men to public life—two of his cousins, Jones Quain and Richard Quain, having distinguished themselves in anatomy and surgery, and a third, John Richard Quain, as a lawyer and a judge in the Court of Queen's Bench. His mother also belonged to an honorable family, that of the Burkes of Mallow, and was a great-grandniece of Bishop Burnet, who conducted the services at the coronation of William and Mary. Young Quain is said to have been precocious in his childhood, to have become thoroughly grounded in English and the classics, and to have distinguished himself at the examinations. When fifteen years old he was apprenticed for five years to an apothecary in Limerick, and gained considerable experience and made sagacious observations even at that age; and he is said to have resolutely fought the cholera when it raged in Limerick. In 1837 he proceeded to London and entered University College, where his cousins Richard and Jones held professorial chairs; was graduated thence M. B., in 1840; gained the scholarship and gold medal, and took honors in surgery and midwifery. He was appointed at that time house surgeon, and one year later house physician, or "resident medical officer," at University College Hospital. This institution was, during the five years he held that position, much thronged with "casualty" patients, the work on the extension of the London and Northwestern Railway bringing a large accession of laboring population within its bailiwick. With the degree of M. D., in 1842, he received a gold medal and a certificate of special proficiency. The next year he was elected a fellow of University College. In 1846