MARCH 7t)l MARION years of his professional life. Yet those of which there is record number seven thousand one hundred and twenty-four. In the "Transactions of the American Med- ical Association of 1853," on pages 505 and 506, we find in connection with his essay on morbus-coxarius, mention of an invention designed by him, to fulfill a very important indication in the treatment of this disease. Dr. Bryan, professor of surgery in the Philadelphia College of Medicine, in speak- ing of Prof. March's essay on improved for- ceps for hare-lip operation, says : "It em- bodied so much that is valuable that we think this production of one of the most distin- guished surgeons of New York ought to be made to assume a permanent form, and be embodied in the standard works." In 1860 Dr. March also invented instru- ments for the removal of dead bone; and, in 1867, employed a new method^ for remov- ing urinary calculi. Dr. March, it is believed, delivered the first course of lectures ever given in New York, on anatomy, with demonstrations and dissec- tions of the recent subject. They were de- livered to a class of fourteen students, in the fall of 1821. "The first subjects," he says, "ever dissected for pubhc demonstra- tion, to the medical students in Albany, I procured from Boston, by what might now be called the overland route, by horse power across the Green Mountains, for you will please bear in mind there was no railroad communication at this time. It was then that I prepared arterial anatomical specimens, and formed the nucleus of the museum of the Albany Medical College." In 1834 he established a Practical School for Anatomy and Surgery, the Albany Med- ical School being broken up by a disastrous fire which destroyed the building, and with it much of March's valuable anatomical and pathological preparations. When the Albany Medical College was es- tablished in 1839, through March's efforts, he was appointed professor of surgery, giving his first course of lectures that year, 1839, and remaining professor of surgery until his death, a period of thirty years. -Mthough the establishment of surgical clinics has been claimed by another city, yet it is believed Albany was the first to inaugurate this mode of imparting medical instruction ; and the honor should be con- ceded to Dr. March as the first to organize them in this country. His appointments included : 1825, professor of anatomy, Vermont Academy of Medicine, Castleton ; 1827, professor of anatomy, Albany Medical Seminary; 1833, professor of anatomy and operative surgery, Albany Medical School ; 1834, professor of surgery, Albany Medical College; 1832 and 1833, president of the Albany County Medical Society ; 1857, presi- dent of the New York State Medical Society; 1864, president of the American Medical Asso ciation, and one of its founders. Other ap- pointments were: honorary member of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, the Con- necticut State Medical Society, and the Rhode Island State Medical Society. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Williams College in 1868; in 1869 he became an honorary member of the "Institut des Archivistes de France." Nearly all his essays and reports were read by him before the New York State Medical Society, and published in the "Transactions." In 1841, 1848 and 1856 he visited Europe, not only to perfect himself in his profession, but also to investigate, critically, that grave malady morbus coxarius, or hip disease. March married Joanna P., daughter of Mr. Silas Armsby of the town of Sutton, Massa- chusetts, February 22, 1824. His family con- sisted of four children, two boys and two girls. Two died in infancy. Henry became a physician. An intimate friend, in speaking of March, as a professor of religion, said : "The crown- ing glory of Dr. March's character was his consistent Christianity. About the middle of May, 1869, he felt the symptoms of approaching illness which terminated his life. On the twenty-seventh he visited his daughter, where he became sick and remained all night, expecting to return to his home the following day, but he was not able. He lingered until Thursday, June 17, 1869, when he died. James L. Babcock. Autobiography of Samuel Gross, 1887. The late Alden March (W. C. Wey), 1869. Nat. Med. Jour., Wash., 1870-1, vol. i (J. Mc- Naughton). Tr. Med. Soc., Co. of Albany, 1870, vol. ii. Tr. Med. Soc., State of New York, Albany, 1870 (J. L. Babcock). There is a portrait in the Surg.-Gen.'s Lib., Wash., D. C. Marion, Otis Humphrey (1847-1906) Otis Humphrey Marion, the son of Abner and Sarah Prescott Marion, was born in Burlington, Massachusetts, January 12, 1847, graduated at Kimball Union Academy in 1869, Dartmouth College in 1873, and Harvard Medical School in 1876, and became house surgeon at the Boston City Hospital in 1876- n, spending the winter of 1878 studying abroad, and settling eventually in Allston (Boston), Massachusetts.
