Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1248

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1226
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WHITE 1226 WHITE ing committee of the First Church (Uni- tarian). Throughout these long years Dr. White strove persistently in public utterance and in private acts for the betterment of medical edu- cation and ^or the up-lifting of dermatology and it is perhaps true that he took more pride in his share in the successful outcome of these endeavors than in any other of the many activities of his long medical career. As a writer he was prolific and catholic and his titles extend to 364 numbers. They may be found in the catalogue of the surgeon-gen- eral's library at Washington, D. C. Apart from medical work — the main-spring of his life— Dr. White found time for travel, making six journeys to Europe and two to the Pacific Coast and Alaska. He was devoted to beautiful things and took great pleasure and pride in his old porcelains, his old furniture, his many books, and his good German wines. He was a Unitarian in faith and was a de- voted member of the First Church for per- haps forty-five years. In 1862 he married Martha Anna Ellis and had three sons, one of them Charles James, following dermatology in his father's footsteps. Dr. White died in Boston from one of the infirmities of old age on January 5, 1916, after a life extraordinarily free from illness. His was a long and useful career and he died contented. Charles J. White. While, James Plait (1811-1881) Of Puritan ancestry, descendant of Pere- grine White, the first white child born in the Plymouth colony, he was the son of David Pierson White and was born on March 14, 1811, at Austerlitz, Columbia County, New York. With a fair classical education he at- tended medical lectures at Fairfield, New York. and at Jefferson Medical College, taking his de- gree from the latter in 1834, and the next year marrying Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Henry F. Penfield of New York. Practice came to him before graduation in the shape of a chol- era epidemic at Black Rock, Buffalo, an emergency doctor being required. The estab- lishment of the medical school in BuiTalo was largely due to his exertions and his work as professor of obstetrics and gynecology went on until his death. He was the first to intro- duce into the United States the custom of clin- ical illustration of labor and the innovation roused a storm of abuse from the enemies of the college and in the medical and lay press. Dr. White being obliged to bring a s'uit for libel in self defence, a suit he gained. One of his important improvements in obstetrics was the restoration of the inverted uterus in cases where this condition had existed for a long period, even for fifteen or twenty-five years. Two of his cases were reported before the first publication by Tyler Smith of Lon- don, on behalf of whom priority has been claimed. As an ovariotomist he was very expert, performing over one hundred during the last twenty years of his life. His death was unexpected, following a brief illness, but he was weakened by overwork and this cheery, kindhearted, skilful healer died in the autumn of 1881. His appointments included: president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, 1870; president of the Buffalo Medical Asso- ciation; a founder of the American Gyneco- logical Society. His chief contributions to medical literature were published in the Buffalo Medical Journal and the "Proceedings of the New York State Medical Society. " He was also the author of the article on "Pregnancy" in Beck's "Medical Jurisprudence;" "A Report of the Reduction of Two Cases of Chronic Inversion of the Uterus" ("Transactions New York Medical Society," Albany, 1874) ; "Chronic Inversion of the Uterus" ("Transactions International Medical Congress," 1876, Philadelphia, 1877) ; 'Hints Relative to Intrauterine Medication" ("Transactions American Gynecological So- ciety," 1879, Boston, 1880, vol. iv), D.WIXA ^^■ATERSON. Amer. Jour. Insan., Utica, N. Y., 1881-2. Amer. Jour. Obstet., N. Y., 1882, xv. Med. Record, N. Y., 1881, xx, 4, 15. Trans. Amer. Gyn. Soc, T. G. Thomas, 1S82, vii. 405-411. Memoir. Austin Flint in Tr. Med. Soc, St. of N. Y., 1882, 337-346. While, James William (1850-1916) J. William White, son of James William White and Mary Anne White was born in Philadelphia, November 2, 1850, and died on April 24, 1916. The first American ancestor of this sketch was the Rev. Henry White, who emigrated from England and settled in Virginia in 1649. A later maternal descent in the White family is traced from Richard Stockton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. On his own maternal side he was descended from New England stock. Dr. White's early training was obtained in the schools in Philadelphia, after which he entered upon the study of medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, and was .graduated in 1871, somewhat later in the same year ob- taining a degree of Ph. D. from that university