American Medical Biographies/Armor, Samuel Glasgow
Armor, Samuel Glasgow (1819–1885)
Samuel G. Armor was born January 29, 1819, in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and soon after came to Ohio with his parents who were of Scotch-Irish descent.
He went first to Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio, an institution which in 1872 honored him with the degree of LL. D., then read medicine with Dr. Irvine, Millersburg, Ohio, and graduated from the Missouri Medical College in 1844. Rockford, Illinois, was chosen for his life's work, but the turning-point in his career came in 1847 when he accepted an invitation to deliver a short course of lectures on physiology in Rush Medical College. Later he was tendered the chair of physiology and pathology, but declined because of the previous acceptance of the same chair in the medical department, University of Iowa, at Keokuk. This position was soon exchanged for the chair of natural sciences in the University of Cleveland (non-medical), in connection with which he also engaged in general practice.
In 1853 Dr. Armor was awarded a prize by the Ohio State Medical Society, which held its annual meeting in Dayton, for an essay, "On the Zymotic Theory of the Essential Fevers." This paper focused the attention of the college men of southern Ohio on the talented young author and led to his accepting in the fall of that year the chair of physiology and pathology in the Medical College of Ohio, where he soon fell heir to the chair of practice, made vacant by the death of Lawson.
In May, 1856, he married Miss Holcomb, of Dayton, and in 1861, having been tendered a professorship in the University of Michigan, he went to Detroit, becoming a member of the firm of Drs. Gunn & Armor. After a service of five years he accepted the chair of therapeutics, materia medica, and general pathology in the Long Island College Hospital, Brooklyn, and in the following year succeeded to the professorship of practice and clinical medicine made vacant by the resignation of the elder Flint.
After years of wandering this peripatetic teacher found himself at last permanently anchored and retained this position until his death in 1885.
Dr. Armor was tall and well-formed, in complexion dark, with hair straight and black as an Indian's.
He was immensely popular in college and one of the finest lecturers to whom I have ever listened. His graceful delivery and modulated voice, the rounded sentences of pure English, and a wealth of illustration enabled him to breathe life and beauty into the driest of medical themes and to enthuse the dullest of students.
Dr. Armor was not a voluminous writer, although his contributions covered a wide range of subjects and were valuable.
Dr. Armor died from cancer of the abdominal viscera in 1885 and sleeps by the side of his first wife in Woodland Cemetery.