Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/801

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MEIGS 779 MELLICHAMP pital at Blockley; membiT of the biological section of the Academy of Natural Sciences; of the Medico-Legal Society of New York; Societe d' Anthropologic, Paris; and the Anthropological and Ethnological Societies of London. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 1879. vol. ci. Med. Bull., Phila., 1S80, vol. ii and iii. Med Rcc, N. Y., 1879. vol. xvi. Phila. Med. Times, 1879-80, vol. x. Trans. Coll. Phys., Phila., 1881, 3 s., vol. v. H. C. Chapman. Mei«8, John Forsyth (1818-1882) J. Forsyth Meigs was born in Philadelphia, October 3, 1818, the son of Charles D. Meigs (q. V.) and Mary, daughter of William Mont- gomery, of Philadelphia. His early education was obtainifd at Dr. Crawford's school, and when sixteen he entered the medical depart- ment of the University of Pennsylvania; he looked a mere boy, but wore a grave and absorbed expression while listening to the great teachers whom he sat under, 1834-1838. He gave himself to work and kept aloof from the other students. Graduating in 1838, he was immediately elected resident physician in the Pennsylvania Hospital and served for two years. In 1840 he went to Europe and in Paris heard Velpeau and Louis. In 1841 he returned to Philadelphia and be- gan practice with his father. His chief work was among children ; he kept voluminous notes, which in a few years made^a mass of material forming the basis of his work, "A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of Children" (1848). The first three editions were published under his name alone, the fourth and subsequent editions in collaboration with William Pepper (q. v.). In 1843 he lectured on obstetrics in the Philadelphia Association for Medical Instruc- tion, later lecturing also on practice of medi- cine and on diseases of children. He was on the staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital from 1859 until his resignation in 1881. At the re- quest of the managers he wrote "A History of the First Quarter of the Second Century of the Pennsylvania Hospital" (1877). Among his writings was a "Life of Dr. Charles D. Meigs," prepared for the College of Phy- sicians. Meigs had occasion to express himself on the question of women entering medicine, when he said that he did not agree with those who thought that objection arose from jealousy; he added, "I believe the difficulty lies deeper than this. It is a psychological one, and, strange to say, it appears to exist more de- cidedly in the male than in the female sex." In 1844 he married Ann Wilcocks Ingersoll ; a son, Arthur Vincent Meigs (q. v.), became a physician. An attack of pneumonia was the cause of his death on December 16, 1882. A colleague writing of him said: "He has fallen a victim to that peculiarly American habit of life in which a maximum of labor is associated with a minimum of recreation." Biographical sketches have been written by his son, A. V. Meigs, and by William Pepper. History of the Pennsylvania Hospital. 1751-1895. T. C. Morton and F. Woodbury, 1895. Med. News, Phila., 1882, vol. xli, 724. Mellichamp, Joseph Hinson (1829-1903) Joseph Hinson Mellichamp, physician and botanist, was born in St. Luke's Parish, South Carolina, May 9, 1829. His father, preceptor of Beaufort College, later rector of St. James Church, on James Island, Charleston County, South Carolina, was a lover of nature, and was a strong factor in influencing the son's tastes. The younger Mellichamp graduated at South Carolina College in 1849 and received an M. D. from the Medical College of the State of South Carolina in 1852. He studied in Dublin and Paris and returned to settle as a phy- sician in Bluffton, South Carolina. His prac- tice was chiefly among the planters and their dependents, but in the midst of his busy life he found time for botanical research and col- lecting, and specimens of the rarer species described by Walter, Michaux, and Elliott were largely and freely distributed to his cor- respondents. His familiarity with the interesting region in which he lived b.'ought him into intimate touch with contemporary botanists. Engel- mann says of him : "Dr. J. H. Mellichamp, who does not even claim to be a botanist, but is imbued with arduous zeal and keen sagacity and who lives right among the Yuccas, has wonderfully improved his opportunities, and has greatly aided me in my investigation by specimens as well as by observations ;" and again : "P. EUiottii was imperfectly known . . . till Dr. J. H. Mellichamp, of Bluffton, S. C, rediscovered . . . and directed my attention to it. Without his diligent investiga- tions, ample information and copious speci- mens, this paper could not have been written. . . . I am particularly indebted to . . . Messrs. Canby, Gilman, Ravenel and Melli- champ for those of the Northern and Eastern Pines." ("Botanical Works of the Late George Engelmann," edited by Wm. Trelease and Asa Gray. 1887.) Sargent says of Dr. Mellichamp : "He ren- dered substantial service to science . . .