Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/141

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BOISLINIERE
119
BOLLES

In this heroic defense Dr. Bohune fell, while encouraging the crew to resistance. Seven others were killed outright, two died and twenty were wounded. The victory fired the English mind and high tribute was paid the memory of the gallant Bohune.

Purchas used the incident in "Purchas his Pilgrimage," and Captain John Smith recited an account of it in his History of Virginia. George Deseler wrote of it in Amsterdam, and "Tho. Hothersell, late zitysone and groser of London being an I witness an interpreter in this exployte," left a description in manuscript which is still in existence.

Caleb Clarke Magruder, Jr. in the Interstate Med. Jour., St. Louis, June, 1910, 459–460.

Boisliniere, Louis Charles (1816–1896)

Louis Charles Boisliniere was born September 2, 1816, on the island of Guadeloupe, West Indies, of one of the oldest families of the island. His father was a wealthy sugar planter and took his son to France in 1825 in order that he might have every advantage attainable. Here thirteen years were spent in scientific, classical and legal studies at the most celebrated institutions of the day. Young Boisliniere took a diploma as licentiate in law at the University of France and returned to Guadeloupe in 1839 after the death of both parents. Some months there and an extensive journey through South America made him determine to leave the West Indies entirely and settle in the United States. In 1842 he landed in New Orleans but went almost immediately to Lexington, Kentucky, where he received polite attention from Henry Clay's family to whom he had brought letters of introduction. In 1847 his attention was attracted by the advantages that seemed to be afforded to young men in St. Louis, so he went there, continued his medical studies commenced in France, and in 1848 graduated in medicine in the medical department of the St. Louis University. He immediately entered into practice. In 1853 Dr. Boisliniere took part in establishing under the auspices of the Sisters of Charity what is thought to be the first lying-in hospital and foundling asylum founded in America. In 1858 he was elected coroner of St. Louis County, the first physician who held this office. In 1865 he was elected a member of the Anthropological Society of Paris. He held the professorships of obstetrics and diseases of women and children in the St. Louis Medical College and had for a number of years a clinic for the diseases of women at the St. Louis (Sisters) Hospital. For two successive years he was president of the St. Louis Obstetrical and Gynecological Society. In 1879 he received the degree of LL. D. from the St. Louis University. He died in St. Louis January 13, 1896.

Med. Mirror, St. Louis, 1890, vol. i.
Trans. Amer. Asso. Obstet. and Gyn., 1895, Phila., 1896, vol. viii.

Bolles, William Palmer (1845–1916)

William Palmer Bolles, surgeon, of Roxbury, Massachusetts, was born June 14, 1845, at New London, Connecticut, not far from the old family home at Waterford, where he used to like to visit. His father was William and his mother Cornelia C. Palmer. He came of an ancestry that had been prominent in the battle against slavery, and he retained from his early associations a sympathy with the "under dog." He made good use of the New London schools, did not go to college, but studied under the guidance of his father, whose interest in literature and science seem to have, in his son's case, served quite as well as the curriculum. He then, in accordance with general usage for medical students, studied and rode for a year with Dr. Manwaring of New London.

His father died and William came to Boston to pursue his studies. Bolles's class took their degrees before the reform in the Harvard Medical School (1871); all students paid for all the lectures for two years, and could attend them in any order, surgery before anatomy, therapeutics before physiology, if they chose. Microscopy was just introduced, a sort of elective; asepsis was unthought of in the hospitals and antiseptics was being gropingly introduced.

Bolles's advance was most interesting. Not physically strong, without relatives or acquaintances in Boston society, not then striking in appearance, and always plainly clothed, he won general respect among the body of students; he had little chance for an appointment as house officer at the Massachusetts General Hospital, which usually were given then to youths who "came of kenned folk," but he passed his examination at the City Hospital and won his appointment on the surgical side. On leaving the hospital he took a summer vacation, to recuperate his health, as surgeon on a sailing vessel, studied for one winter in Vienna, and soon after his return was placed on the surgical out-patient staff at the City Hospital. He received the appointment of professor of materia medica and botany at the new Massachusetts College of Pharmacy (1874–1884) and he was instructor in materia