Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/258

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COGSWELL 236 COGSWELL which he was a member, I will relate it briefly, as part of his life and the beginning of the end : November 8, 1890, he was called into the country, and came home late without having had any chance for lunch. He had observed before that if he had no food at noon, he would suffer from headache and a "fortifica- tion scotoma," and was therefore usually careful to eat at noon. This time it was impossible, and, on reaching home, he com- plained of headache, and it was noticed that his right eye turned in. He lay down and was soon found unconscious and breathing stertorously. During his recovery he diag- nosticated a bilateral homonymous hemianop- sia, which remained for life, although central and color vision were preserved. The area of blindness gradually diminished, more in the right than in the left eye. On August 7, 1911, he was affected with right hemiplegia from which he never recov- ered. Several months before his death intense pain set in and persisted to the end. After the hemianopsic attack, Dr. Coggin resigned his hospital position and practice, but as he improved, he began with them all again, and kept on until his last attack. He spent a good deal of time during the last of his life in annotating and arranging his cases and operations and in recovering and arranging chronologically all of the medical papers which he had written. Dr. Coggin was a very genial, conversa- tional man, an excellent adviser in his spe- cialties, and an expert operator. In 1880, at Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, he married Miss Elizabeth Eames Williams, daughter of Jeremiah and Emmeline Childs Williams, and she, with her four children, survived him. James A. Spalding. Trans. Amer. Oph. Soc'y, 1914, vol. xiii, Pt. 3. 594-596. CogsweU, Charles (1813-1892). Charles Cogswell was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 12. 1813, a descendant of ancestors who had come from Massachusetts and settled in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, about 1761. Educated at King's College, Windsor, he graduated in arts in 1831, and took his pro- fessional course at the University of Edin- burgh, where he graduated M. D. in 1836, sub- sequently studying in London and Paris. He then settled in his native city, where he was a valued member of the profession for many years, but he went to London, England, where he became a consulting physician and lived there till his death in 1892. He was elected an extraordinary member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1839, and was president of the Medical Society of Nova Scotia in 1864. Possessing ample means. Dr. Cogswell did not engage in general practice in Halifax, but devoted his time and talents to improving the status of the profession, to promoting the construction of hospitals, and to works of charity. It was said of the family that they were noted for piety, talent and benevolence. He was chiefly instrumental in the organiza- tion of the first medical society in Nova Scotia and also contributed many standard works and provided a liberal endowment for what is known as the Cogswell Medical Li- brary, now in the Halifax Medical College. Dr. Cogswell was also a strong advocate of athletics, especially favoring aquatic sports. He presented the city of Halifax with the land for a small park, and devoted consid- erable wealth to the endowment of King's College, Windsor, and to improvements in his native city. In the early part of his career he gave much time to original research and in 1839 was awarded the Harveian prize in London for the best dissertation on "The Physio- logical Action and Medicinal Properties of Iodine and its Compounds." This essay was published and was for many years regarded as the best authority on the subject; in 18S1 he contributed a valuable paper to the Medical Society of London on the "Endos- motic Action of Medicines." He married Frances Mary Goodrich in 1848 .but had no children. Donald A. Campbell. Cogswell, George (1808-1901). George Cogswell, son of Dr. Cogswell who married the daughter of Gen. Joseph Badger of Gilmanton, was born on February S, 1808, at Atkinson, New Hampshire, and after study- ing in the medical department of Dartmouth College he graduated M. D. in 1830 and was given the honorary A. M. in 1865. He settled in Bradford, Massachusetts, and was about the first physician there to make intelligent use of auscultation and percussion in diagnosis, and, always eager to keep up with the times, he went in 1841 to visit European clinics and on returning became the leading operator in his vicinity. He had we'l appointed anatomical rooms in his own house. In 1851, owing to ill health, he gave up al! work save surgical and consultation work and was successful in this when his life closed at Bradford on April 21, 1901. His first wife