Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/802

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MENDENHALL 780 MERCER ana I am glad to take this opportunity to acknowledge my indebtedness to him for the assistance he has rendered me by studying the trees, and especially the oaks of the Caro- lina Coast Region" (Silva of North America). W. H. Canby says that Mellichamp "Prac- tically discovered Pinus Elliottii;" he records also of him that "Very acute observations on the insectivorous habits of Sarracenia var'w- laris were published in the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. . . . Dr. Gray so esteemed his assistance that he named a Mexican Asclepiad in. his honor, Mcllichampia." He died at James Island, October 2, 1903. South Carolina Botanists: Biography and Bibli- ography, W. Gee (Bulletin of the Univ. of S. C, Sept., 1918). Mendenhall, George (1814-1874) George Mendenhall was the son of Aaron and Lydia Richardson Mendenhall and was born at Sharon, Pennsylvania, May S, 1814. In 1844 he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he practised until his death. While he enjoyed a large general practice, his reputation was made in obstetrics, in which he was an authority. Mendenhall was of Quaker ancestry. The family came to America in 1682, and formed a part of WilHam Penn's colony at Philadel- phia, one of his aunts, Mary Mendenhall, married Benjamin West, the artist. Dr. Men- denhall had his primary education in a country school ; Latin he studied at odd times behind the counter of a country store. In 183S he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and to help in obtaining this coveted education he sold the horse he had ridden over the mountains from his country home. He was a member of several state and na- tional societies. The only vacations he took were at the times of attendance on the ses- sions of the American Medical .Association. In 1870 he was its president, when it met in Washington. In 1873 his health began to fail, and he went to Europe to recuperate. During his stay in Wiesbaden the honor of member- ship in the Royal Obstetrical Society of Lon- don was given him. During the Civil War he was prominent in the Sanitary Commission, both in the field and at home. When the Miami Medical College was founded, 1852, Dr. Menhenhall was elected professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and children, a position he held until 1857, when the school was united with the Medical College of Ohio, where he became professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and chil- dren and professor of obstetrics in 1859. When the Miami Medical College was re-estab- lished, in 1865, he was again professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and children there until 1873. He was dean of the Miami Medical College from 1853 to 1857; and again from 1865 to 1873. Dr. Mendenhall was on the staff of the Cin- cinnati Hospital from 1858 to 1872. October 7, 1838, he married Elizabeth S. Maule, of Philadelphia, and had seven children. Upon his return from Europe 'n 1873 he was stricken with paralysis, from the effects of which he never recovered, and died in Cincinnati, June 4, 1874. Mendenhall was not well known as an author, but his "Students Vade Mecura" (1852) passed through eighteen editions and was for a long time much consulted by stu- dents. A paper on "Vaccination" by Dr. Menden- hall will be found in the Transaction of the Ohio State Medical Convention of 1848; an- other on "Nitric Acid as an Antiperiodic" in the same Transactions for 1854, and a report on "The Epidemics of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan" made to the American Medical Association in 1852. Alexander G. Drury. Appleton's Cyclop. Amer. Biog., N. Y., 1888. Centennial History of Cincinnati, C. T. Greve. The Cincinnati Lancet and Observer, vol. xvii (1874). Trans, of the Ohio State Med. Soc, 1874. Mercer, Alfred (1820-1914) Alfred Mercer, of Syracuse, N. Y., was born on the Ballard Farm, High Halden, Kent. England, November 14, 1820 ("at 4 A. M. in a snow storm"), the seventh and last child of William and Mary Dobell Mercer, both natives of England. Alfred died in Syracuse, New York, August 5, 1914, in his ninety-fourth year. Of the Mercer ancestry little is known. The Dobells descended from a Sussex family of whom some were cavaliers in the days of King Charles. Of the same stock were the Dobell brothers, Sidney, the poet, and Doctor Horace, originator of Dobell's Solution ; and their nephew, Clive Riviere, now a London phy- sician and author. In later childhood Alfred lived in the cen- turies-old stucco, timbered and thatched- roofed Ransley (or "Ramley") farm house, near High Halden, which in earlier days was the home of the Ramleys figuring in G. P. R. James' "Smuggler." and in recent years the summer residence of the actress, Ellen Terry. While living there the boy attended schools in High Halden, Lydd and Woodchurch. In 1832, when twelve years old, Alfred.