Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/169

 chailleI.

CHALMERS.

having witnessed the massacre of his family, suc- ceeded in escaping to an English vessel at La Eochelle, France, and found refuge in England. About 1700 he settled in Boston. Mass., whence his son Moses emigrated to the eastern shore of Maryland in 1710, became wealthy and died in 1763. Moses, only son of Col. Peter Chailld, was a distinguished patriot in the revolutionary war, a member of the Maryland convention of 1775, a delegate to sign and ratify the U. S. constitution, and a member for over twenty years of the Mary- land legislature. Peter's son, William Hamilton, was born in 1799, emigrated to Natchez, Miss., in 1819, and died there in 1836. Stanford Emerson was educated by private tutors, was graduated at Phillips academy, Andover, in 1847, and at Har- vard college in 1851, receiving his A. M. degree in 1854. He was graduated by the medical depart- ment of the University of Louisiana, now the Tulane university, in 1853. In 1860-61, he was a student in Paris in the laboratory of Claude Ber- nard, where he renewed his studies in 1866-'67. He was a pi^ointed acting surgeon-general of Louisiana in the Confederate army, Feb. 17, 1862, and was made surgeon and medical inspector of the army of Tennessee on the staff of Gen. Braxton Bragg, May 12, 1862. On July 24. 1863, he was appointed hospital surgeon at Atlanta. Ga.. and in January,

1864. surgeon-in-charge of the Ocmulgee hospital, Macon, Ga. In May, 1865, he was captured and paroled, returning to New Orleans in September.

1865. He was resident student of New Orleans charity hospital, 1852-'53; resident physician U. S. marine hospital, 1853-'54; resident physician Circus Street infirmary, 1854-'60; co-editor and pro- prietor New Orleans Medical and Surgical Jour- nal, 1857-'68; demonstrator of anatomy, medical department University of Louisiana, 1858-67; lecturer on obstetrics, 1865-'66, and professor of physiology and pathological anatomy from 1867. He was lecturer on medical jurisprudence before the international medical congress, Philadelphia, 1876; appointed by Congress one of the twelve experts to investigate the yellow fever epidemic of 1878, and served as secretary of this board, 1878-79; appointed by the national board of health one of the four members of the Havana yellow fever commission, and served as its presi- dent in 1879; appointed by the national board of health its supervising inspector, serving from March, 1881, to October, 1882; commissioned by the President one of the civilian members of national board of health, January, 1885; was dean of med- ical department, Tulane university, Louisiana, from March 31, 1885; professor of physiology and hygiene in the collegiate department, 1885-'88. He attended Ex-President Jeffer.son Davis in his last illness, November and December, 1889; ap- pointed professor of pliysiology, hygiene, and

pathological anatomy in the medical department, Tulane university, Louisiana, 1890, and the Louis- iana member of the committee on the organ- ization of the Pan-American medical congress, 1891-93. His contributions to medical literature are valuable, especially as treating authoritatively on yellow fever, sanitary science, and hygiene, and cover a period from 1852. He was elected honorary member of the college of physicians, Philadelphia; of the medical and chirurgical fac- ulty of Maryland; of the academy of medical sciences, Havana, Cuba, and of the Louisiana pharmacy association; a member of the American medical association, and of many other learned societies.

CHALMERS, James Ronald, soldier, was born in Halifax county, Va., Jan. 11, 1831, son of Joseph W. Chalmers, U, S. Senator from ]Missis- sippi. He was graduated at the South Carolina college in 1851, and in 1853 was admitted to the bar. He was made district attorney in 1858, and in 1861 was a delegate to the secession con- vention. He was commissioned as colonel of the 9th Mississippi regiment, in 1861. and in February, 1862, was promoted brigadier-general, serving with distinction throughout the war. In 1875 and 1876 he was a member of the Mississippi state senate, and in the latter year was elected a representative in the 45th Congress. He was re- elected to the 46th Congress, and was given a certificate of election to the 47th Congress, but the office was contested and won by John R. Lynch. He was elected to the 48th Congress, and contested the election to the 51st Congress. He died at Memphis, Tenn., April 9, 1898.

CHALMERS, Joseph W,, senator, was born in Halifax county, Va., in 1807, of Scotch parent- age. He studied law in the University of Vir- ginia, and in a lawyer's office in Richmond. Va. He removed to Jackson. Tenn., in 1835, and prac- tised his profession there for five years, at tiie end of that time going to Holly Springs, ]\liss. He was appointed vice-chancellor in 1842, and held the office during 1842 and '43. He was ap- pointed United States senator from Mi-ssissippi to succeed Robert J. Walker, and .served from Dec. 7, 1845, to March 3, 1847. He tlien resumed liis law practice in Holly Springs, Miss., where he died in June, 1853.

CHALMERS, Lionel, pliysician, was born in Cam])belltown, Scotland, about 1715. He received his degree in the University of Edinburgh, Scot- land, and soon after removed to America and practised medicine first in Christ church parisli, and later in Charleston, S. C. He is the author of: Opisthotonos and Tetanus (1754); Essay on Fevers (1767), and ^4?^ Account of the WeatJier and Diseases of South Carolina (1776). He died ill Charleston, S.C., in 1777.