MURRAY
- io
MURRAY
and in 1868 received his degree, and,
after one course at the Jefferson Medical
College, he graduated M. D. there. In
1871, having been resident physician to
the Philadelphia Hospital for fifteen
months, Dr. Murray was appointed
assistant surgeon of the United States
Navy, 1871-72, and did active work in
the United States Marine Hospital Ser-
vice, being senior surgeon of the service
since 1896. He encountered yellow
fever during twenty-five summers in over
fifty towns and in eleven states, besides
on board ship, serving in epidemics of
that disease at Key West, Florida, in
1875; at Fernandina, 1877; and New
Orleans, 1878; and was secretary of the
Thompson Yellow Fever Commission of
that year. He commanded the first
armed cordon sanitaire in the United
States, one hundred miles in length at
Brownsville, Texas, 1872. He had com-
mand of the district of South Mississippi
during the epidemic of 1897, and served
as an inspector to decide on the character
of cases of fever during much of 1898 and
1899. Among the pubUc positions held
by Dr. Murray were those of postmaster
of Bluffton, Ohio; demonstrator of
anatomy, Cleveland Medical College,
1868-70; and in the Philadelphia School
of Anatomy, 1869-71; Florida Medical
Association (of which he was president in
1873); Medical Society of the State of
Tennessee; Medico- Legal Society of New
York; Philadelphia Hospital Medical
Society (of which he was president in
1870); and Association of Military
Surgeons of the United States. He
wrote a number of works of value, prin-
cipally devoted to the specialty which
constituted his life work. Among these
are the " History of Yellow Fever in Key
West in 1875," "Report on the Fernan-
dina Epidemic of Yellow Fever," "Treat-
ment of Yellow Fever," and numerous
official reports and tracts. He deserves
the credit of writing the first letter in 1873,
which led to the organization of the
Florida Medical Society in the following
year. In 1875 he married Lillie, daugh-
ter of the Rev. C. A. Fulwood, D. D., at
Key West, Florida. She died at Ship
Island Quarantine, 1887, leaving five
children. Gillie, Rebah, Karlie, Robert
Fulwood and Joseph Arbour. Dr. Mur-
ray died on the twenty-second of Novem-
ber, 1903, at Laredo, Texas, from
injuries received in a runaway accident,
eight days previously. He had been
ordered from Key West to Laredo, Texas,
in the latter part of September to settle
disputes of diagnosis arising over an out-
break of "fever" along the Texan border
of the Rio Grande River, and which was
variously termed "dengue," "jaundice,"
and "malaria." His reputation as a
diagnostician was worldwide, and because
of this knowledge he was always chosen
and ordered to points where such skill
was demanded, especially was he an
expert in his knowledge of tropical dis-
eases, such as yellow fever and malaria.
Yellow fever was on the wane, the disease
had been conquered and he was at the
zenith of fame at the close of a well
directed and satisfactorily conducted
campaign against a most insidious foe,
when he received injuries from which he
subsequently died. While his own life
from the age of fifteen, when he was
wounded in the war, to his death at fifty-
eight, was one of constant pain and
suffering, yet his own discomforts and
troubles were never spoken of by him,
for selfishness had no place in his nature.
Thus was the man seen by others; to me
he was all of that and a great deal more
besides, but here more cannot be said
without tearing aside a veil of hallowed
memories from a friendship, which a close
companionship of over thirty years
formed; a friendship commencing at the
feet of Esculapias. How many loving
recollections does the mention of his
name bring up?
"For my boyhood friend hath fallen, the
pillar of my trust; " The true, the wise, the faithful, is sleep-
ing in the dust.
J. Y. P.
From the Report of the State Board of
Health, Florida, 1904.
Memoirs of Florida.
