Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/858

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NAME
836
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MUNSON 836 MtJNSTERBERG ton, Mass. ; studying also divinity, he was soon licensed to preach. In 1755 he acted for a short time as domestic chaplain for the Gar- diner family of "Gardiner's Island." Hard study (so-called) and insufficient exercise, however, soon broke his health, so he re- linquished the ministry for medicine, study- ing under the Rev. John Darbe, of Oyster Ponds, Long Island, and first settled in Bed- ford, New York, as a physician. Two years later he removed to New Haven to spend the remaining sixty-six years of his life as a phy- sician of great eminence in his native town. He was among the first to endeavor to incorporate the Connecticut Medical Society, which he served as first vice-president for two years, or, until, by the death of its presi- dent, he succeeded to the presidency. This office he held for seven years. The degree of M. D. was conferred upon him by the so- ciety in 1794. "It is generally believed that, up to the early part of the present century (i. e., nineteenth) Dr. Munson was the ablest physician who ever practised for a long time in New Haven. In the matter of pro- fessional learning and scientific information, he ranked with the eminent men of his coun- try." On account of his knowledge of min- eralogy, chemistry, botany and materia medica he had a wide reputation, which led to his selection to fill the chair of materia medica and botany in 1810, in the newly established medical institution at Yale, although he was then seventy-nine years old. He was, conse- quently, unable to perform the active duties of this office, which he left to his younger associate. Dr. Eli Ives (q. v.). His quaint dry humor still survives in many amusing anecdotes. Bronson relates that "he was once dining with the Yale corporation at commencement dinner when Pres. Dwight, who was a good trencherman, remarked, pre- paratory to some observation on diet: 'You observe, gentlemen, that I eat a great deal of bread with my meat.' 'Yes,' said the doc- tor instantly, 'and we notice that you eat much meat with your bread.' " He married first Susanna, eldest daughter of Stephen and Susanna Cooper Howell, on March IS, 1761, and had nine children, all of whom reached adult life, and one of them practised medicine for a short while. His wife dying on April 21, 1803, he married again in November, 1804, Sarah, widow of Job Perit, and daughter of Benjamin and Mary Sanford, of New Haven. She survived him three years. His death was due to an enlarged prostate. and occurred on June 16, 1826, at the age of ninety-two. His portrait is in the possession of Yale University and an engraving from it is to be seen in Thacher's "Medical Biogra- phy." His writings consist of a report of two cases in "Cases and Observations by the Med- ical Society of New Haven County, Con- necticut," 1788, pp. 26-28, 84-86; "A Letter on the Treatment most Successful in the Cure of Yellow Fever in New Haven," in 1794, and a letter on a collection of papers on the subject of "Bilious Fevers," by Noah Webster, New York, 1796. Walter R. Steiner. New Haven Colony Hist. Society's Papers, H. Bronson, vol. ii. Vale Biographies and Annals, F. B. Dexter, vol, ii. American Med. Biography, J. Thacher, 1828, vol. i. Some Account of the Medical Profession in New Haven, F. Bacon, 1887. MUiuterberg, Hugo (1863-1916) Hugo Miinsterberg, eminent psychologist, educator and publicist, held a degree of doc- tor of medicine, as did his predecessor m the chair of psychology at Harvard, William James (q. v.). The son of Moritz Miinster- berg, a lumber merchant and traveler, he was born at Danzig, Germany, June 1, 1863. Hugo was the third of a family of four brothers and his was a childhood of happiness in a home where interest in art, literature, and music were fostered. At the age of seven he wrote his first poem, and the muse of poetry never left him throughout a busy life. At nine he took lessons on the violoncello; he attended the city "Gymnasium" of Danzig until 1882, when he began university life at Leipzig, deciding to combine the study of psychology with that of medicine. He worked in Windt's laboratory and received the de- gree of doctor of philosophy in 1885 ; then to Heidelberg, where he was made doctor of medicine two years later after listening to the lectures on philosophy of Kuno Fischer. At the close of his student life Miinsterberg married Selma Oppler, daughter of Dr. An- selm Oppler of Weissenburg, a physician in the German army, and settled as "Privat- docent" of philosophy at the University of Freiburg, becoming assistant professor in 1891. The following year William James in- vited Miinsterberg to become director of the psychological laboratory at Harvard. It was an attractive opportunity and he accepted for a trial of three years, returning to Freiburg in 1895 to resume his professorship. At last, in 1896, the chance to interpret the best spirit of America to Germany and of carrying the ideals of German scholarship to America