Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/386

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EMLEN 364 EMMET science for the remaining years of his Ufe. He published a translation of Le Play's treatise on the Organization of Labor. He died suddenly July 2, 1874. Margaret K. Kelly. Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc, 1891, vol. xxiv. Appleton's Cyclop. Amer. Biog, New York, 1887. Emlen, Samuel (1789-1828). Samuel Emlen was born in Chester Coun- ty, Pa., March 6, 1789, and belonged to one of the oldest families of Friends. His early education was solid, and in 1808 he began the study of medicine in Philadelphia as a house-pupil of Dr. Parrish, remaining with him for four years, during which time he attended lectures by Rush, Wistar, Barton, Physick, James and Coxe at the University of Penn- sylvania, receiving his medical degree in 1812 ; the subject of his thesis being "Mania a Potu." In June, 1812, he sailed from New York for England, reaching London in July, where he heard lectures and attended hospital prac- tice. The declaration of war by the United States against Great Britain did not interfere with his studies, and he took advantage of the detention to travel through England, Ire- land, and Scotland; fourteen months later he went to Paris, reaching that city about the time of Napoleon's return from Leipzig. From Paris he went to Holland and after being abroad two and a half years, came home in the corvette John Adams, as the bearer of despatches for the Government. Association with eminent physicians and others had given him a wider knowledge, and moving in the elegant society to which he had access, gave to his manners an "urbane cast which is far more estimable and trustworthy than the false and heartless elegance of more fashionable intercourse. They were marked by the gentleness, self-possession, and con- fidence which belong to the gentleman." How- ever, he retained the gravity of his bearing and the "serious and sententious style of his conversation." Soon after his arrival he began to practise medicine and was elected a physician of the Philadelphia Dispensary. His increasing oc- cupations made him resign in 1819, and soon after he was elected one of the managers ; at the death of Dr. Griffitts (q. v.), Emlen be- came secretary to the Dispensary. In 1820 Emlen was secretary to the Board of Health and when yellow fever prevailed along the water front of Philadelphia he made observations preserved in his valuable paper on yellow fever. From 1821 to 1823 he was co-editor of the Journal of Foreign Medical Science and Lit- erature; was a member of the Board of the Guardians of the Poor, and physician to the Magdalen Asylum, the Orphan Asylum and the Friends' Asylum for the Insane. In 1825, he was elected one of the physicians to the Penn- sylvania Hospital, to which office he was an- nually reelected ; and he succeeded Dr. Griffitts as secretary to the College of Physicians. Emlen acquired large statistical knowledge on the vice of drunkenness, and was active in the organization of the Pennsylvania So- ciety for Discouraging the use of Ardent Spirits. In 1819 he married Beulah Valentine, who, also, was a Friend. He died of remittent fever, April 17, 1828. Howard A. Kelly. Lives of Eminent Philadelpliians Now Deceased, H. Simpson, 1859. C. D. Meigs. Emmet, John Patten ( 1 796- 1 842 ) . This scientist was born in Dublin, Ireland, April 8, 1796, the second son of Thomas Addis Emmet, one of the leaders of the United Irish- men, and Jane, daughter of the Rev. John Patten, a Presbyterian clergyman of Clonmel. He was also nephew of the great Irish orator Robert Emmet. His parents emigrated to New York when he was a child, and he was educated in New- burg, New York, and later entered the Mili- tary Academy at West Point. He was pre- vented from graduating by his delicate health, and spent a year abroad, chiefly in Italy, devot- ing himself to the study of languages and art. On his return to New York, he began to study medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, paying special attention to chemistry, and, despite ill health, graduated in 1822, defending an inaugural thesis on "The Chem- istry of Animated Matter," a treatise of one hundred and twenty-five octavo pages. Im- mediately after this he settled in Charleston, South Carolina. While a cadet at West Point he was ap- pointed, on account of his great proficiency, acting assistant professor of mathematics, also assistant to the professor of chemistry, Dr. William H. McNeven, while studying medi- cine. In 1825 he was oflfered the Chair of natural history, as it was then termed, com- prehending zoology, botany, mineralogy, chem- istry and geology, in the University of Vir- ginia, which he accepted. In 1827 his chait was changed to that of chemistry and materia medica, and this he filled until his health gave way in 1842. Before his marriage he filled his residence with pets, accumulating in one room