Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/243

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NEWBERRY


215


NICHOLS


1822. While he was yet an infant his father, Henry Newberry, removed to Summit County, Ohio, where he founded the present town of Cuyahoga Falls. The son was educated entirely in Ohio, and graduated in 1846 in the Western Reserve College, located at Hudson. He immediately turned his attention to the study of medicine, attended lectures in the Cleveland Medical College, and re- ceived his degree of M. D. there in 1848. The next two years of his life were spent in travel and study in both the United States and Europe, a large part of this period being passed in Paris. In 1851, however, he returned to Cleveland, Ohio, and began to practise, but was too much interested in the natural sciences to en- joy the dull routine of medical practice, and in May, 1855, when offered by the War Department the position of acting assistant surgeon and geologist of the United States Exploring Expedition under Lieut. R. S. Wilhamson, designed to explore the region between San Francisco and the Columbia river, accepted it without hesitation. In 1857-S he was again assigned by the War Department to accompany Lieut. J. C. Ives on his exploration of the Colorado river, and his report of the results of this exploration was scarcely completed when he was ordered to join Capt. J. N. Macomb, topographical engineer, United States Army, in a further exploration of the San Juan and upper Colorado rivers. Elaborate and valuable reports of these expeditions were published by the War Department, until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 turned the attention of the government to more pressing duties. Soon after the close of the war in 1866 he was called to the chair of geology and paleontology in the School of Mines of Columbia College, New York, and this position he continued to fill with entire success until his death, December 7, 1892. In 1869 he was called to Ohio as state geologist, to direct the geological survey of the state then ordered. He at once organized the work and directed it with energy and success until its completion in


1875, when he prepared and published valuable reports of the results of his labors. In 1884 he was also appointed paleon- tologist of the United States Geological Survey, with charge of the fossil fishes and plants.

Dr. Newberry was a member of the Ohio State Medical Society, before which he read in 1852 a paper on "The Specific Identity of Typhus and Typhoid Fevers." Most of his writings were of a geological or paleontological character. He was one of the original corporators of the National Academy of Sciences, president of the New York Academy of Sciences and a member of numerous scientific societies of both this country and Europe.

H. E. H.

Cleave'a Biographical Cyclopedia of the State of Ohio, Cuyahoga Co. A History of Columbia University, Univer- sity Press, New York, 1904. A catalogue of the most important scientific writings of Dr. Newberry will also be found in Johnson's Cyclopedia, under his name, and also in the Surg.-general's Cat., Wash., D. C.

Nichols, Charles Henry (1820-1889).

Born on October 19, 1820, at Vassal- boro, Maine, Dr. Nichols stood long in the front rank of American superintend- ents of institutions for insane, and was associated with very much of their work.

He went as a boy to the schools of Maine and Providence, Rhode Island, and afterwards to the Universities of New York and Pennsylvania. He held his M. D. from the latter, also M. A., Union College, and an LL. D. from Columbia College, District of Columbia. His tutor- age in ministering to the insane was under Dr. Amariah Brigham in the State Asylum at Utica, New York, where he was chosen medical assistant in 1847. In 1849 he was appointed physician to the Bloomingdale Asylum, New York City, and resigned in 1852.

He was mentioned by Miss Dorothea Dix and selected by Pres. Filmore to superintend the construction and take charge of the government hospital for the insane at Washington. It was a great