Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/426

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FLEMING


308


FLINT


ings for " Comparative Views of the Ner- vous System" published by Dr. Warren. Dr. Warren stated that the representa- tions of the anatomy were beautifully and accurately executed.

He invented a bone forceps which was extensively used by the medical profes- sion, and in 1S21 published in the "New England Journal of Medicine and Sur- gery," vol. x, page 3S, a description of his improvements on Desault's apparatus for treating fracture of the femur, an apparatus which was long used in the Massachusetts General Hospital.

He graduated from the Harvard Med- ical School in 1S15 and practised medi- cine for two years in TJxbridge, Massachu- setts. Returning to Boston, he married May Wait, a daughter of T. B. Wait, of the publishing firm of Wait and Lilly.

In 1S33 and the succeeding years he allied himself with Dr. N. C. Keep in the manufacture of mineral teeth, inventing and perfecting the best made up to that time. In 1S44-5 he conceived the idea of drilling into the nerve chamber, in order to prevent the ill consequences arising from filling over the exposed or diseased nerve. His results were pub- lished in the " Boston Medical and Sur- gical Journal," January 27, 1847.

In 1846 he was involved in the famous ether controversy opposing the pat- enting of the discovery and was also much interested in homeopathy in his later years. He died December 20, 1853. W. L. B.

Bos. Med. and Surg. Jour., vol. li, 1847.

Fleming, Alexander (1841-1897).

Born in Curmumrock, Lanark, Scot- land March S, 1S41, he came to America when his father emigrated in 1859 owing to ill health. The family then settled in Sackville, New Brunswick.

He took part of his course in medicine before leaving Scotland but was unable to complete it till 1S69, when he took his M. D. at Harvard, first studying at Chicago University where Dr. Brown- Sequard, going on a visit, asked if he would travel with him as assistant dem-


onstrator at his physiological lectures, but this offer was declined: later going back to Scotland to study further and here he was granted the degree of F. F. P. and S., Glasgow, 1S77. He practised at Stanley, New Brunswick, but moved to Sackville in 1871, where he remained ten years, moving in 1S81 to Brandon, Manitoba.

While at Sackville a sick man was landed. The case turned out to be one of small-pox and many were not vaccinated. Dr. Fleming had a tent erected and attended to the man night and day, and there were no other cases.

Dr. Fleming was a typical family physician and as such was the trusted friend of all his patients, more especially of the poor. It is said to have been touching to see the many poor who came before the funeral to have a last look at the one who had been so good and kind to them; he even sacrificed his home and interests for such patients.

He married Louisa Gain Biden in 1867, and had ten children and died at his home in Brandon November 25, 1S97 of angina pectoris.

A monument was erected to his mem- ory by the people of Brandon, an obelisk twenty-seven and one-half feet in height, quarried in Brandon and donated for the purpose by the Canadian Pacific Rail- way. J. H.

Flint, Austin, Sr. (1812-18S6).

The fourth in succession of a medical ancestry, Austin Flint, surgeon, was born in Petersham, Massachusetts on October 12, 1S12. Thomas Flint came to America from Matlock, Derbyshire, England and settled in Concord, Mass- achusetts. Edward Flint, his great- grandfather, was a physician, his grand- father, Austin Flint, did good service as an army surgeon, and his father was a surgeon. The younger Austin studied at Amherst and Cambridge, graduating in Medicine at Harvard in 1S32 and at once beginning to practise in Boston. But he did not stay long, most of his early professional life being passed in