Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/570

HOLYOKE 548 HOMANS child died in 1756; and second lo Mary, daugh- ler of Nathaniel Viall, a Boston merchant. They had twelve children. Mrs. Holyoke died in 1802, and all but two of the children died before their father. A son, Samuel, became a musician, and at the age of fourteen com- posed the hymn "Arnheim," being the author of several works on music. Dr. Holyoke was below the middle height in stature, and was tough and wiry in build. In college he was interested in the athletic exercises of the day. A silhouette published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Jotirnal pictures him later in life. In demeanor he was described as "dignified, mild, placid and agreeable." Essentially a family practitioner and not ambitious for public distinction, he found time for a good deal of reading of the medical literature of the time, probably in the long evenings after days of active practice, and he was one of the original incorporators of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1781, was elected its first president, and served from 1782 to 1784. He was again president in 1786-7, refusing a re-election. His activity in report-cases and meteorological observations added much to the life of the society during its early years. His practice was based on four drugs, mercury, antimony, opium and quinine, his prescriptions being put up under his own inspection, either by himself or by his pupils. He did little surgery and no major surgery, and during his entire practice is said never to have witnessed the amputation of a limb. As preceptor to thirty-five medical students, he was a prominent factor in medical education, before the days of medical schools. Dr. Holyoke was the first person to receive from Harvard College the honorary degree of M. D.— in 1783— and in 1813 Harvard con- ferred upon him the degree of LL. D. He was president, at various times, of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Salem Athenaeum, and the Essex Historical Society. His health was good until the last years of his life, when he suffered from occasional fainting spells. In a long letter to John F. Watson, Esq., of Gerniantown, written on his hundredth birthday, he says: "My health is good. That is, I have a good appetite and sleep as well as at any period of my life, — and thanks to a kind Providence, suffer but little pain, except now and then pretty severe cramps, — but my mental faculties are impaired, — especially my memory for recent events." He was a constant observer of the external rites of Christianity, and habitually gave much time to theological inquires, especially during the last forty years of his life, so that toward the end he derived much solace from his well founded religious convictions, and from the de- votion of an unmarried daughter. Walter L. Burrace. Med. Commuii. Mass. Med. Soc'y. vol. iv, 1829, 182-260. Lithographic portraits. Sermon by Joliii Brazer. 18J9. Hist. Har. Med. School, T. F. Harrington, vol. i, p. 241. .As to Founding of Massachusetts Med. Soc, Bos- ton Med. and Surg. Jour., vol. civ, 539. Homaiui, Charles Dudley (1826-1886). Charles Dudley Homans, Boston surgeon, brother of John Homans, ovariotomist (q. v.), was born at Brookfield, Massachusetts, De- cember S, 1826, graduated from Boston Latin School, and from Harvard College in 1846, and from Harvard Medical School in 1849; he practised in Boston, after completing his medi- cal education in Paris. When the Boston City Hospital was opened in 1864, Dr. Homans was appointed one of the six visiting surgeons, and served the institu- tion until his death at his summer home at Mt. Desert, Maine, September 2, 1886. From 1884 to 1886 he was president of the Massa- chusetts Medical Society; at the time of his death he was president of the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Charitablt; Eye and Ear Infirmary, and held the same office in the Massachusetts Humane Society, being also a trustee of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded. During his presidency of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and through the efforts of a committee of the so- ciety, the first Massachusetts State Board of Health was formed. By direct descent, he was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, his grandfather having been a surgeon at the Bat- tle of Bunker Hill and throughout the Revolu- tionary War. During the Civil War, Charles Homans served as surgeon, during the Penin- sula Campaign. Of his work at the City Hos- pital, his confrere, Dr. W. Cheever (q. v.), said: "Dr. Charles D. Homans at thirty-eight years of asre brought to the surgical staff a good surgical training and proclivities and a remark- able common sense. He remained in service twenty-one years. He did a great deal of surgery in the hospital. He was always on hand, and very punctilious in his duties." His health was undermined by a broken leg, an infected operation wound, and finally, the end came by gall-bladder disease. Dr. Homans married Eliza, daughter of the Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop, a most remarkable woman, of whom Anthony Trollope said he would rather listen to her brilliant conversa- tion for an hour, as she sat knitting, than take