Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/317

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CRAIG 2

an essay on the " Origin of the Circula- tion of the Blood," Philadelphia, 1834. D. W.

Amer. Med. Times, N. York, 1S64, n. s. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 1850.

Craig, Benjamin Faneuil (1829-1877).

Born in Watertown, Massachusetts, the eldest son of Gen. H. K. Craig, chief of ordnance, United States Army, he was educated in Boston schools and finished at the University of Pennsyl- vania, graduating B. A. in 1849 and M. D. in 1851. Inspired with an earnest in- terest in chemical and physical science, he desired to perfect himself in this rather than engage as a medical practi- tioner, and immediately after graduation went abroad and studied in London and Paris. Returning in 1S53, he was ap- pointed professor of chemistry in the Georgetown Medical College and lectured there for five years. In 1858 he was appointed to the chemical laboratory of the Smithsonian Institution.

On the outbreak of Civil War it became necessary to engage a consulting chemist for the immense transactions that de- volved on the purveying department of the army medical staff, and Craig was chosen. The various reports and in- numerable analyses that he prepared were necessarily confidential; but had they appeared in scientific journals, they would outweigh the material on which many prominent modern scientific re- putations are founded.

After the close of the war Craig con- tinued in charge of the chemical labora- tory of the Army Medical Department, and in addition supervised and collected the meteorological observations reported by medical officers at various points. In 1 873, at the request of the secretary of tin- treasury, he made two voyages to Europe to make a series of elaborate experiments on the air of the steerage in emigrant steamers, with a view of establishing regulations for more sanitary conditions. For a year before his death on April 10, 1877, he was engaged in drawing up a report of (lie influence of climate on


i CRAIG

the health of troops, designed as an ad- dition to the medical history of the war.

He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an associate or correspondent of other learned bodies. His published works are few, but his printed papers are models of conciseness and precision, and include:

"Products from the Combustion of Gunpowder under Different Pressures." ("Journal Science and Arts," 1866, vol. xxxi.)

"Report on Nitrification," presented to the Smithsonian Institution in 1858 (in "Smithsonian Annual Report," 1861).

"Remarks on the Comparative Me- chanical Energy Developed by the Com- bustion of Gun Cotton and Gunpowder in Fire Arms." ("Smithsonian Annual Report," 1864.)

" Variations in the Temperature in the Human Body" (read before the Philoso- phical Society of Washington), "Ameri- can Journal of Sciences and Arts," 1871, vol. ii).

"Determination of the Zero Point." ("American Chemist," 1873, vol. iii, p. 325.) D. S L.

Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 1S77, xcvi.

Craig, James (1834-1888).

This obstetrician was born in Glasgow, Scotland, but came to the United States when seventeen, first staying a while in Canada then graduating at the University of the City of New York, afterwards settling in New Jersey for the rest of his life. He was eminently successful as an obstetrician in over 4,000 cases without the loss of a mother. He invented the clastic ligature for the umbilical cord in 1861; elastic electrodes in L884, introduced hydrate of chloral as an hypnotic to the profession in New Jersey, and was the fixsl to demonstrate hydriodic acid as a curative in acute inflammatory rheumatism,

lb- was attending physician to the St. Francis Hospital, a member of the New York Mcdico-lcgal Society, and a frequent contributor to the medical journals.