Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/581

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
NAME
559
NAME

HORSFIELD 559 HORWITZ such books, scientific instruments, and mater- ials as he could get together in Philadelphia, and undertook a second voyage to Batavia in 1801. There he secured, upon application, an appointinent as surgeon in the Dutch colonial army, and this gave him an opportunity to visit and study various parts of the island. This was the beginning of the eighteen years of study which have linked Horsfield's name inseparably with the natural history, and es- pecially the botany of Java. For several years his researches were con- fined to the vicinity of Batavia, but beginning with 1804 he visited nearly all parts of Java, and made brief trips to several of the neigh- boring islands. In 1811 Java became a British possession, administered by the East India Company; the temporary commissioner au- thorized Horsfield to continue his investiga- tions along the same lines as hitherto, and be- fore the end of the year the new governor, Thomas Stamford Raffles (himself a scientist of no mean attainments), confirmed his ap- pointment in the service of the East India Company. Throughout the period of British rule in Java, and for a few years after its return to the Dutch in 1816, Horsfield con- tinued his researches in that island and neigh- boring ones, devoting much time to the col- lection of specimens for the Museum of the East India Company in London ; and in 1820, the year after his return to England, he was appointed keeper of this museum, a post he held until his death nearly thirty years later. Besides his dissertation of 1798, mentioned above, Horsfield's principal publications were a "Descriptive catalogue of the lepidopterous insects contained in the Museum of the East India Company" (1828-29) and later cata- logues of the collections of that museum ; "Zoological researches in Java" (1824) ; and "Plantae javanicae rariores, descriptae iconi- busque illustratae" (183S-S2) ; he was also one of the contributors to Jardine and Selby's "Il- lustrations of ornithology" (1830). Three gen- era of plants have at different times been named Horsfieldia (Willdenow, 1805; Blume, 1830; Chifflot, 1909; the oldest, for a genus of nut- megs, is in current use), and many species of plants bear Horsfield's name. John H. Barnhart. Horsfield. Plantae javanicae rariores, 18.^3, Pros- pectus, vol. v-viii; 1852, Postscript, vol. i-xvi. Amer. Jour, of Science, Sec. series, 1859, vcl. xxviii, p. 444; 1860, vol. xxix, p. 441. A. G. Gray. Bonplandia, 1860. vol. viii. p. 219. Proceedings of the Linnsean Soc. of London, 1861 (1859-60). vol. XXV. Dictn'y of Nat. Biog., 1891, vol. xxviii, 379, 330. Horton, George Firman (1806-1886). George Firman Horton, physician, botanist and entomologist, was born in Terrytovvn, Pennslyvania, January 2, 1806, son of Major John Horton and Deborah Terry. He came of pure English ancestry, the first American paternal ancestor emigrating to this country from England in 1638 and settling in South- hold, Long Island, in 1640; on his mother's side, Richard Terry came from England in 1635 and settled in Southhold in 1640. His mother was one of the inmates of Forty Fort after the Battle of Wyoming (the episode on which Thomas Campbell based his poem "Ger- trude of Wyoming"). Young Horton was educated at the common schools, then at Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti- tute (at that time Rensselaer School), where he graduated in 1827. He began to study medicine under Dr. Samuel Hayden and in 1828-1829 attended lectures at Rutgers Col- lege, and began to practise at Terrytown in 1829 ; later an honorary M. D. was given him by Geneva Medical College. He was a mem- ber of the American Anti-Slavery Society and an advocate of temperance. He was an organizer of the Bradford County Medical Society (1849), and was president of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsyl- vania (1862). For twelve years he was treasurer and town-clerk of his township ; postmaster from 1830 to 1850; one of the au- ditors of Bradford County, 1836-1838; and 1872-1873 served as a delegate to the Constitu- tional Convention of Pennsylvania. Reports of cases were published in the "Transactions of the Pennsylvania State Med- ical Society" ; he wrote a "Report on the Geology of Bradford County" (1858); "The Horton Genealogy" (1876). Dr. Horton married Abigail, daughter of William Terry. They had eight children. He died at Terrytown, December 20, 1886. Howard .A.. Kellv. Phys. and Surgs. of the United States, W. B. Atkinson. Philadelphia, iS7S. Encyclop. Brit., vol. xxviii, p. 878. Horwitz, Phineas Jonathan (1822-1904). Phineas Jonathan Horwitz was born in Baltimore, Marjdand, March 3, 1822, and edu- cated at the L'niversity of Maryland and at Jefferson Medical College. In 1847 he entered the U. S. Navy as assistant surgeon and dur- ing the Mexican War was in charge of the Naval Hospital at Tobasco. From 1859 until 1865 he was assistant to the Bureau of Medi- cine and Surgery and became chief of the Bureau in 1865-9. He was promoted to sur-