Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/250

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NOURSE


222


NOYES


of the Earth" (1857). The last two were prepared in connection with Mr. George R. Gliddon. The object of these works is to refute the orthodox theory of the unity of the human race, by showing that the present types of manivind lived around the Mediterranean 3,000 B. C, and that there is no evidence that during the last 5,000 years one type has been changed into another.

From the Med. Reg., State of N. York, vol

xi., 1873-4.

J. Authro. Soc, Lond., 1868 (11. R. II.

Mackenzie).

Tr. Am. M. Ass., Phila., 1878, vol. xxLx

(W. H. Anderson).

Tr. M. Ass., Alabama, Montgomery, 1877

(W. H. Anderson).

Nourse, Amos (1794-1877).

Destined to be versatile as a man and as a physician, Amos Nourse was born in Bolton, Massachusetts, was educated at Andover Academy, graduated from Har- vard in the class of 1812, and studied medicine with Dr. John Randall of Boston. After some years, during which his career is not discoverable, we find him in 1819 a partner of Dr. Ariel Mann of Hallowell. Here he remained practising until 1844, when, having got into the current of politics, he moved to Bath, Maine, where he was collector of customs for several years.

Side by side with this position, he maintained regular consulting hours, kept up his studies, and, as a result, be- came known as a good obstetrician, and in 1846 was appointed lecturer on that topic in the Medical School of Maine. He lectxired steadily until 1854, when he accepted the chair of medicine in the same school, and filled it until the year 1866. After resigning the position of collector at Bath, he was elected judge of probate of Sagadahoc County, and filled that position for twelve years. To show his versatiUty, and the general esteem in which he was held, we may mention that in 1861 the governor of Maine appointed him to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate, which he might have held permanently for life had he so desired.


Although not educated for the law, his ability, culture and common sense, his ideas of justice and his impartiality combined with strict integrity fitted him for the faithful discharge of his duty as judge of probate. He was a member of the Maine Medical Society, and later on of the Maine Medical Association, with whose interests he was identified from its formation. His address as president of the association in 1865 was on "The Faults and Defects in the Cultivated of our Profession." In 1864 he wrote for the " Boston Medical and Surgical Jour- nal" a paper on "Menstruation."

As a teacher, his instruction was sound, and he was particularly noted for his personal interest in seeing that pupils understood what he said. If he discover- ed in conversation that he had not been understood, he improved his lecture at the next opportunity.

Amos Nourse had one or more strokes of paralysis at a good old age and died after what might be called an illness lingering but not painful. He passed away at Bath, April 7, 1877, aged eighty- two, revered and honored.

J. A. S. Trans. Maine Med. Assoc, 1877.

Noyes, Henry Dewey (1832-1900).

Henry Dewey Noyes was born in New York City in 1832 and graduated from New York University A. B., 1851, A. M., 1854, and M. D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1855. After serving three years on the resident staff of the New York Hospital, and spending a year in study in Europe, he entered upon the practice of diseases of the eye and ear, 1859, in New York. He was assistant ophthalmic surgeon in the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, 1859 to 1864, surgeon from 1864 to 1900, and executive surgeon from 1875 to 1898; professor of ophthalmology and otology in Bellevue Medical College from 1868; one of the founders of the American Ophthalmological Society in 1864 and president from 1878 to 1884. His special ability lay in his fine teaching