DOWNER
DRAKE
conceded that they contain many valu-
able truths. To him is accorded priority
in directing attention to the momentous
fact that yellow fever is transmitted by
mosquitoes (1S76) five years before Dr.
Finlay enunciated his theory on that sub-
ject. He was the first to perform the
operation which Hahn, of Berlin, named
nephrorrhaphy. Dowell fixed the kid-
ney by a tape suture in 1S74 ("Annals
of Surgery," vol. xii, p. 87), seven years be-
fore Hahn introduced it to the profession.
He married, in June, 1849, Sarah Zelinda, daughter of John H. White, of Como, Mississippi, and when she died, leaving him two sons and one daughter, he wedded in 1S68 Mrs. Laura Baker Hutchinson, of Galveston, who was very beautiful.
On the night of the wedding the boys resolved to give them a charivari, but the doctor considered the mock seranade an insult. He seized a club and rushed out to disperse the crowd and in the melee sustained a severe fracture of the right arm.
For two years he was professor of anatomy in the Soule' University, also lecturer on surgery when that institution became the Texas Medical College. In 1S63 he became a surgeon in the Con- federate Army and was also on the staff of the Galveston General Hospital. He died on June 9, 1SS1. J. F. Y. P.
Tr. Am. Med. Assoc, Phila., vol. xxxiii,
Downer, Eliphalet (1744-1806).
Eliphalet Downer, widely known as the "Fighting Surgeon," was the son of Joseph and Mary Sawyer Downer, of Norwich, Connecticut, and a descendant of Robert Downer, who settled in Xew- bury, Massachusetts about the year 1650. Eliphalet was a native of Roxbury, Massachusetts, but at the time of the Revolution owned a house on Washing- ton Street, Brookline (still standing) near the famous Punch Bowl Tavern. Drake (History of Roxbury, p. 348) speaks of Downer as a " skillful surgeon.
In December, 1775 Downer was sur-
geon to one of the regiments under
Gen. Putnam at Charlestown while the
militia were fortifying Lechmere Point.
Soon after the evacuation of Boston by
the British he enlisted as surgeon to one
of the first privateers fitted out in New
England. It is said that he worked one
of the guns on board the sloop " Yankee ■
when two sloops loaded with rum and
sugar were captured. Later on he was
on board the "Alliance" when she was
captured at sea after fighting seven and a
half hours and losing both her masts.
He was severely wounded by grape-shot,
receiving a compound fracture of the
left arm, and was thrown into Portsea
Prison, near Portsmouth, England. He
made his escape by tunnelling and
succeeded in reaching France. On two
other occasions he was captured by the
British and was imprisoned in Dartmoor
and Forten Prisons but managed to
effect his escape. His family, a wife and
four children, had a hard time to get the
means of subsistence during the three
years he was away from home, all this
time it is said his wife received but one
letter from him. On July 9, 1779
Downer was commissioned chief surgeon
to the Penobscot expedition, with which
he served three months, losing all his
surgical instruments, so the Massachusetts
Legislature appropriated the sum of
fifteen dollars to reimburse him. This
was the last of his services on sea or land
in the cause of freedom.
At the close of the Revolutionary
war he resumed practice in Brookline
and was said to have a large and lucrative
one. He died in Brookline, April 4, 1906
W. L. B.
Memoirs of Major-general Heath, 1798,
Boston.
The Downers of America, by David R.
Downer, Newark, 1900.
Medical Men of the Revolution, J. M. Toner,
1876, Philadelphia.
Drake, Daniel (17S5-1S52).
In a letter dated Louisville, December 15, 1847, Daniel Drake says: "My father, Isaac, was the youngest son of Nathaniel Drake and Dorothy Retna;
