American Medical Biographies/Blaney, James Van Zandt

2284922American Medical Biographies — Blaney, James Van Zandt1920

Blaney, James Van Zandt (1820–1874)

James Van Zandt Blaney, physician and chemist, the son of Cornelius Dushane Blaney and Susan Cannon, his wife, was born at Newcastle, Delaware, May 1, 1820. He graduated at Princeton University in 1838, but remained after graduation to study chemistry with Professor Joseph Henry (later of the Smithsonian Institution) and received an A. M. in 1841. Being entitled to a diploma in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania before he was of age he "walked the hospitals" until his majority was reached; he is numbered with the class of 1842 with a thesis entitled "The Investigation of the Vegetable Materia Medica." The same year he went west and was associated with Daniel Brainard (q.v.) in founding Rush College where he was professor of chemistry and materia medica from 1842 to 1866. From 1866 to 1874 he was president of this college.

He was widely known as an analytical chemist; in 1846 he "organized a successful mineral exploration of the south shore of Lake Superior" (Browning). His skill as a chemist convicted George W. Green, the banker, tried in 1854 for murdering his wife. Blaney detected strychnine in the stomach of the victim and convincingly explained his method in court; the analysis was much talked of, as it alone was proof of the murderer's guilt.

In 1855 Blaney accepted the chair of chemistry and natural philosophy at Northwestern University, and moved to Evanston where he had a beautiful home and a celebrated garden. In 1861 he became surgeon of volunteers, then medical director; later he was surgeon-in-chief on General Sheridan's staff, and until the end of the war was medical director and purveyor. When the war closed he had the duty of disbursing over $600,000 in pay to medical officers. In 1865 he was mustered out as brevet lieutenant-colonel.

In 1847 he married Clarissa, daughter of Walter Butler and niece of Benjamin F. Butler; they had four children, James R., Charles D., Bessie and Cassie.

He died in Chicago, December 11, 1874.

Group of Distinguished Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago, F. M. Sperry, Chicago, 1904.
Some of Our Medical Explorers and Adventurers, W. Browning, M. D., 1918.
Information from Dr. Ewing Jordan.