Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/336

DICKSON 314 DIDAMA of the care of the insane, giving great care to the preparation of his "Asylum Reports." He instituted many reforms, introduced vol- untary labor for the inmates, and abolished the use of alcohol and beer, substituting cof- fee and other drinks. The first in Canada to adopt this latter measure, he was called be- fore the Parliamentry Committee and in a long speech of clear reasoning won over those who opposed him. Ill-health forced him to resign in 1879. He was a member of the General Council of Medical Education and Registration of Upper Canada (later the Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario) from its formation in 1866 until 1869 and was its first president. In 1867 he was made fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. In 1839 Dr. Dickson married Anne, only daughter of James Benson, of Kingston. They had seven children, five of whom, with his widow, survived him. Two sons and a daughter were physicians ; the daughter graduated at the Women's Medical College, Kingston, in 1886, Charles Rea Dickson graduated at Queen's in 1880 and at the University of New York in 1881, another Staff Assistant-Surgeon of Her Majesty's Forces, died in service at Allahabad, India. Dr. Dickson died at Wolfe IslSnd November 23, 1882, and was buried in Cataraqui Cemetery, Kingston. Howard A. Kelly. The Medical Profession in Upper Canada, 1783- 1850, by William Canniff, Toronto, 1894. Institutional Care of the Insane in the U. S. and Canada, Henry M. Hurd, Baltimore, 1916-1917, vol. iv. Dickson, Samuel Henry (1798-1872). This pioneer physician of South Carolina was the son of a Scotchman who came to America before the Revolution and fought in the South under Gen. Lincoln, teaching school in Charleston after the war and dying in 1819. Samuel H. Dickson was born in Charleston September 30, 1798, studied there, graduated A. B. at Yale in 1814, and began the practice of medicine in Charleston during the yellow fever epidemic in 1817. In 1818- 19, he attended medical lectures at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania and graduated in 1819. In 1823 he delivered a course of lectures on physiology and pathology before the medical students of Charleston, and in 1824 Ram- say and Frost helped organize the Charleston Medical College, filling at first the chair of the institutes and practice of medicine. He withdrew in 1832, but on the reorganization of the college in 1833, as the Medical College of South Carolina, was reelected. Removing to New York in 1847 he was professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the Univer- sity of the city of New York for three years when he returned to Charleston at the urgent request of his fellow townsmen and carried on a consultation practice until 1858, in his native city. In that year he was called to the chair of the institutes and practice of medicine in the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, a position he filled until his death, March 31, 1872, at the age of 73. The University of New York gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1853. Dr. Dickson's writings appeared in the Sou- thern Quarterly Review, Charleston, and in Chapman's Philadelphia Journal. He wrote upon the yellow fever in Charleston in 1817, further upon yellow fever in 1827, upon dengue in 1828 (American Journal of the Medical Sciences, and heat stroke, 1829 (Ibid.), he was the author of "Manual of Pathology and Prac- tice of Medicine," New York ; "Essays on Pathology and Therapeutics," two volumes. New York, 1845 ; "Elements of Medicine," Philadelphia, 1855. Dr. Dickson wrote also on literary and current topics, and added a graceful style to thoroughness of learning. He delivered many speeches, lectures and address- es. HOBART Amory Hare. Dnyckinck in Diet, of Amer. Biog. F. S. Drake, 1872, 271. Appleton's Cyclop. Amer. Biog., New York, 1887. Didama, Henry Darwin (1823 1905). Henry Darwin Didama was born at Perry- ville, N. Y. on June 17, 1823, of Dutch New England ancestry. His father, John Didama, came from Holland, and his mother, Lucinda Gaylord, was born in Connecticut. His early training was at Cazenovia Seminary and his medical education was obtained at the Albany Medical College where he graduated in 1846. He began practice in Romulus, New York, but moved to Syracuse in 1851 where he continued in active practice until the infirmities of age caused him to give up his work. He married Sarah Miller of Granby in June, 1848. They had three children, none surviving. His principal work was as a teacher, in con- nection with the Medical Department of Syra- cuse University, where he held the chair of professor of the principles and practice of medicine from 1873 until 1888; professor of the art of medicine from 1888 to 1893, when he was also dean of the medical col-