Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/470

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GOLDSMITH 448 GOODELL erally recognized as the most successful yet discovered. The 'mortaHty from this disease in the field hospitals had always been high and the new treatment undoubtedly resulted in great saving of life. It was during these studies into its action and that of other disin- fectants in diseased tissues that Dr. Gold- smith became interested in the subject of the germ theory of disease. He was an indefatigable and brilliant stu- dent of anatomy and pathology and was thoroughly in touch with the latest European theories. Virchow cordially received him in 1874, and even invited him to lecture to his students. In 1866 Goldsmith resumed practice in Louis- ville. The trustees of the old Kentucky School of Medicine, which had been moribund during the war, appointed him president of the school and he began to reorganize it on Strictly professional lines. Factional feeling at that time in Kentucky ran high and Gold- smith finally relinquished his efforts and in the autumn of 1866 removed to Rutland, Ver- mont. In Rutland, during the succeeding years of his life, Dr. Goldsmith occupied a prominent and picturesque position, not only profession- ally, but in other directions. He was inter- ested in agriculture and in the dairy interests of the state and gave much time to promoting scientific methods. In 1878 he was appointed special commissioner to examine the State Insane Asylum, in regard to which he made an able ai^d critical report. He established the Rutland Free Dispensary. A most con- vincing expert witness before juries, his ap- pearance on the witness stand was very apt to increase the court attendance of the laity. Of large frame and commanding presence, he was instantly conspicuous in any gathering. Brusque in manner, sometimes even gruff, he was withal a gentleman, and his generosity and unselfishness were best known by the poor and afflicted. He maintained to his last days a lively in- terest in every new discovery in his profes- sion, and followed eagerly the early develop- ments of the germ theory. His medical library was the best private library in the state. At his death this went to the New York Academy of Medicine. Dr. Goldsmith married in June, 1843, Frances Swift, daughter of Henry Swift of Poughkeepsie, New York. She died suddenly of heart disease in November, 1887, and the doctor survived the shock of her death but a few days. His death occurred November 26, 1887. Of three daughters one died in infancy, the other two, Rebecca Swift and Mary Middleton, survived him. Charles S. Caverly. In Memoriam, Middleton Goldsmith, J. C. Peters, 1889. IMed. Rec, N. Y., 1887, vol. xxxii. Goldsmith, William Benjamin (18S4-1888) William Benjamin Goldsmith was born Janu- ary 11, 1854, in Bellona, Yates County, New York and graduated from Amherst in 1874, beginning at once to study medicine under Dr. John B. Chapin with the object of specializing as an alienist. He graduated with high honor from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York in 1877 and after a short term in the Presbyterian Hospital was appointed junior assistant in the Bloomingdale Asylum. Wishing to enlarge his experience, he re- signed in 1879, that he might work under Dr. Clouston in Edinburgh and have six months with Dr. Major at the West Riding Asylum. Two months more were spent in London with Hughlings-Jackson when he re- ceived the appointment of senior assistant at the Bloomingdale Asylum. In March, 1881, he accepted the position of superintendent of the Danvers Lunatic Hospital, Massachusetts, where he remained until he again went to Eu- rope to pass a year in studying with Westphal, Krafft-Ebing, and others. Dr. Goldsmith was made superintendent of the Butler Insane Asylum in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1886, where he remained until his death March 21, 1888. M.-VRGARET K. KeLLV. .^mer. Toitr. Insanity, Utica, N. Y., 1887-8, vol. xliv. "570-572. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 1888, vol. cxviu, 3,10. Med. News, Phila., 1888, vol. iii. Trans. Rhode Island Med. Soc., 1888, H. C. Hall, Providence, 1889, vol. iii. Goodell, William (1829-1894) For the last fifteen years of his life Wil- liam Goodell was known in Pennsylvania as a leading gynecologist. He was one of the small group of pioneers who made the gynecology of this country what it is and, moreover, possessed the literary faculty to a high degree. The son of a missionary, the Rev. William Goodell, he was born in Malta on October 27, 1829, getting his academic education at Williams College. A. B., 1851, and his medical education at Jefferson Medical College, where he took his M. D. in 1854. He practised first in Constantinople before he settled down in West Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1861. In 1865 he was placed in charge of the Preston Retreat, and his distinguished career there gave him an