DILLARD 315 DIX lege. He was active in medical societies, and a president of the various local societies, as well as of the New York State Medical can Medical Association. His unflagging zeal in promoting higher standards of medical education was his most important achievement. As early as 1880 Didama advocated and secured for the Syracuse Medical College a three years' graded course of nine months each to take the place of the old short term lectures and unsystematic work. His recreation was travel ; he visited most of the interesting places of the world and wrote many descriptive articles for the local press under the non de plume Amos Cottle. He had a magnetic personality, a high sense of humor and was ever ready to take a stand on public matters. He died in Syracuse on October 4, 1905, of chronic cystitis and senility. Frederick W. Sears. Dillard, Richard (1822-1887). Richard Dillard was born December 1, 1822, in Sussex County, Virginia, of Scotch lineage, and inherited the intellectual characteristics of that race. He graduated at the University of Virginia, and took his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1839. He then came to North Carolina and settled in the town of Edenton, where his long and useful life was spent. During the period of 1861-65 he gave his professional services, and largely of his wealth, to the Confederacy. He was at one time brigade surgeon to Gen. Roger A; Pryor; and the first honorary member of the State Medical Society ; a member of the State Senate in early life, and the choice of his district for a seat in the United States Congress at the breaking out of the war be- tween the states. He died November 27, 1887, as a result of repeated strokes of paralysis. He was survived by one daughter and a son. Dr. Richard Dillard. LiDA T. Rodman. Dimock, Susan (1847-1875). Dr. Susan Dimock, born in Washington, North Carolina, April 24, 1847, was one of the first among the women of this country to study medicine. Her father, Henry Dimock, was a native of Limington, Maine ; he moved to Washington, North Carolina, and married Mary Owens of that place. Susan, their only child, was precocious and decided at the age of thir- teen to study medicine. In 1864 her father died and with her mother she went to Massachu- setts. Through the aid of Miss Bessie Green of that state she was enabled to study medicine. In 1866-7 she was a student at the New Eng- land Hospital for Women and Children, and in 1868, being denied admission to the classes for male students in this country, she went to Zurich and graduated at the University in 1871, going afterwards to Vienna and studying under Dr. Funk, who was so impressed by her talent that he wrote : "Should it be required of me to furnish a pattern for a young Aesculapius about to put forth, I should only say, 'make yourself to be like Miss Dimock.' The ques- tion whether a woman can be fit for the study and practice of medicine has been definitely answered by the appearance of Dr. Susan Dim- ock." After a few weeks study in Paris, she re- turned to America and took charge of the New England Hospital for Women and Children, Boston, managing this institution with signal ability. She also visited her old home, Wash- ington, North Carolina, and performed sev- eral successful operations. In 1875 this promising career was brought to a sad end by the wreck of the Schiller off the English coast, she being one of the many pas- sengers drowned at that time. The regret at her untimely end was so great that a free bed in the New England Hospital was endowed in her memory by contributions from friends in this country and abroad. LiDA T. Rodman. Dix, John Homer (1812-1884). John H. Dix was born in Boston in 1812, graduated in arts at Harvard in 1833, standing ninth in a class of fifty-six members, and in medicine at Jefferson Medical College in 1836, afterwards, when in practice, devoting himself specially to ophthalmic surgery in which he acquired great skill, and was the first to follow Dieffenbach in the operation for strabismus. He was one of the founders of the American Ophthalmological Society. In 1841 he pub- lished "A Treatise on Strabismus," and in 1849 "A Treatise on the Nature and Treat- ment of Morbid Sensibility of the Retina, or Weakness of Sight," the Boylston prize essay for 1848. Another work was "The Ophthal- moscope and Its Uses," 1856. Dr. Dix built The Hotel Pelham, the first family hotel in this country, and lived in it for many years. He was very fond of music. He died in Boston August 25, 1884, aged 72. Hubbell's "Development of Ophthalmology." Phys. and Surgs. of U. S. W. B. Atkinson, 1878. Appleton's Cyclop. Amer. Biog, New York, 1887.
