Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/477

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STORER


Storer, David Humphreys (1804-1891).

David Humphreys Storer, medico- jurisprudentist and obstetrician, son of Chief Justice Storer, of Maine, was born at Portland, Maine, in 1804. His B. A. was from Bowdoin College in 1822, and, in 1825, his M. D. from the Harvard Medical School.

Settling in Boston, he soon had an excellent practice. The annual dis- course at the Massachusetts Medical Society was dehvered by him in 1851, his subject being "Medical Jurispru- dence." He was one of the founders of the Tremont Street Medical School (1837). Later he accepted the chair of obstetrics and medical jurisprudence in the Harvard Medical School, a position held from 1854 till 1868. Everything he did was marked by thoroughness and accuracy.

In the realm of general science his work was equally distinguished as in the more restricted field of medicine. His dis- coveries in natural history were numerous and important. In the field of ichthyol- ogy his writings at the present day are still esteemed most highly. The chief of these wTitings are: "A Synopsis of the Fishes of North America" (1846), and "A History of the Fishes of Massachu- setts" (1867). Among many positions held he was fellow of the American Acad- emy of Medicine; member of the Massa- chusetts Medical Society, of the Obstet- rical Society of Boston; honorary member of the Medical Society of the State of New York; visiting physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1849 till 1858, and to the Boston Lying-in Hospital from 1854 till 1868, and dean of the Harvard Medical School from 1855 till 1864.

He married, April 30, 1829, Abby Jane Brewer, and had five children. Of these, Horatio Robinson was one of the pio- neers in gynecology, and another son, Francis Humphreys, was professor of agricultural chemistry, at Harvard University.

Dr. Storer was tall, slender, and hand- some. He was fond of wearing a long black waistcoat and a long l)lack coat,


421 STOY

yet he was careless in dress and negligent of social conventions. His voice was very pleasant, but occasionally cracked when he grew excited — a trifling defect which only the more endeared him to his students. He was always exceedingly earnest in his manner, whether lecturing or conversing, and was horrified at the beginnings of willful abortion as prac- tised by the women of well-to-do American families, or no families. Con- cerning this matter of willful abortion he frequently wrote and spoke. He was one of the first to show a medical stereo- scopic picture (1870), in Boston.

He died at Boston, September 10, 1891, regretted by all who had known him.

An excellent portrait of Dr. Storer is to be seen in the Boston Public Library.

T. H. S.

Boston of To-day.

Scudiler, Biographical Notifo, Proc. Am.

Acad., xxvii.

Universities and Their Sons, vol. ii.

Cleveland, Ili.story of Bowdoin Coll.

In Memoriam D. H. S. (Meeting Suffolk

Dist. Med. Soc, Jan. 20, 1892).

Harrington and Mumford, The Harvard

Medical School, vol. ii.

Stoy, Henry William (1726-1801).

Henry William Stoy was born in Herborn, Germany, March 14, 1726, and first studied theology, being ordained for that work in America in 1752. He first settled in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, but in 1756 removed to Philadelphia on account of his health, where he married Maria Elizabeth Maus. The marriage caused a great deal of dissatisfaction in the congregation, and resulted in his res- ignation and removal to Lancaster in October, 1758. In the early part of 1763 he resigned and returned to Europe, the Amsterdam classes reporting that he attended their meeting May 3, 1763. It is reported that he went to Leyden and studied medicine, but the matriculation books do not reveal his presence there, but that he went to his native town, Herborn, and studied medicine with Prof. John Adam Hoffman, who was professor