Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/245

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
NAME
223
NAME

CLARK 223 CLARK article on "Peritonitis" in "Pepper's System of Practical Medicine," vol. ii. Like many other physicians who possess a vigorous constitution, he did not take enough rest. The disease from which he finally died dated back several years, a degeneration of the cerebral circulatory system. He did not leave his house for six months before his death on September 13, 1887. Once when vertigo, a symptom of his last illness, seized him while lecturing, he dropped into a hastily fetched chair and held his head in his hands. Then, looking up, he said cheer- fully, "for many years I have held this chair and never until this moment occupied it liter- ally." Among his writings are found : "A New Mode of Ascertaining the Dimensions, Form and Condition of Internal Organs by Percus- sion" (written with Dr. G. P. Camman, 1840) ; "On the Treatment of Puerperal Peri- tonitis by Large Doses of Opium," 1855 ; Lec- tures on "Typhoid Fever," 1878; lectures on "Cholera," 1866-7; on "Localized Peritonitis," 1878; on "Eruptive Fevers," 1880; on "Dis- eases of the Heart," 1884. He held the professorships of materia medica at the Berkshire Medical Institution, 1843-1854, and theory and practice of medicine at Wood- stock, Vermont, thirteen years ; the chair of physiology and pathology, College of Physi- cians and Surgeons of New York, 1848-1855, and practical medicine 1855-1885 at the same institution, where he was also dean and presi- dent of the faculty from 1875 to 1885. He was visiting physician, Bellevue Hospital; president of the New York State Medical So- ciety; member of the Pathological Society of New York, and of the New York Academy of Medicine. Dartmouth conferred an A. M. on him in 1844 and the University of Vermont an LL.D. in 1853. Jour. Am. Med. Assoc, 1887, vol. ix. Med Rec., N. Y., 1887, vol. xx.xii. Trans. New York Med. Asso., 1888, vol. vi. Clark, Daniel (1835-1912) Daniel Clark was born at Granton, In- verness-shire, Scotland, August 29, 1835. Ac- companying his parents to Canada in 1841, his early years were spent upon his father's farm. In 1850 he went to California, where he had some stirring experiences during the year or more he remained there. On his return to Canada he attended the Simcoe Grammar School, and subsequently studied classics, ma- thematics and philosophy in Toronto. His medical studies were pursued at the Toronto School of Medicine and at Victoria Uni- versity, Cobourg, where he graduated in 1858. Later, the University of Toronto bestowed on him the degree of M. D., ad eundem. After leaving college, he went to Europe and studied in Edinburgh, London and Paris. Return- ing to Canada in 1859, he began practice in Princeton, Ont., but, when the Civil War broke out in America, joined the Federal army of the Potomac, under General Grant, as a vol- unteer surgeon, gaining more valuable ex- perience. In 1872 he was elected a member of the Ontario Medical Council for four years, and afterwards was re-elected for a second term. He was twice elected president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Ontario, and at one time was vice-president of the Medico-Legal Society of New York. In 1891 he became president of the American Medico- Psychological Association, and in 1906 was made an honorary member of that body. He was immensely popular with the Scot- tish societies of Toronto, occupying many positions of honor with them. In December, 1875, he was appointed medical superintendent of the Toronto Asylum for the Insane in suc- cession to Dr. Charles Gowan, who had filled this position for a short time after the re- tirement of Dr. Joseph Workman (q. v.). The appointment caused a good deal of feeling at the time among certain members of the medi- cal profession, who felt that politics were being made to play too important a part in institutional affairs. On the other hand, the Medical Council strongly urged Dr. Clark's claims, and the government, which had been severely heckled because it had imported a psychiatrist from England, the experiment turning out badly, was glad to accept the suggestions of the Council. Dr. Clark, com- mencing as he did the work of governing a large institution at middle age without previ- ous experience, did admirably and proved a sound and efficient administrator. He was fair-minded and popular with his officers, in- terested in his patients, and had the happy knack of knowing how to deal with the trouble- some public that always tries the patience of the asylum superintendent. Having a fond- ness for metaphysics and the Scotchman's penchant for philosophical discussion, be was not inclined to look with favor upon local- ized pathological conditions as playing any im- portant part in the causation of the different psychoses, and various papers by him, such as the "Animated Molecule," made clear his mental characteristics and bent on this sub- ject. Dr. Clark's point of view never coin- cided with that of the psychiatrist of the pres- ent day, and he belonged to a school pretty