Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/59

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JERVEY
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JEROME

lina, December 4, 1808, and obtained his early education at Charleston College, which he left before graduation to study-medicine. He graduated in medicine from the Medical College of South Carolina in 1830, after which he studied for two years in Paris. Conspicuous for good scholarship from his earliest school days, Dr. Jervey won distinction at the Medical College of South Carolina, taking, at the end of his course, in 1830, the silver cup awarded for the best Latin thesis.

Soon after his return to Charleston in 1832 an outbreak of cholera occurred. Volunteer physicians were called for by the city to take charge of cases isolated in an emergency hospital on Folly Island and Dr. Jervey responded and remained at his post until all danger was passed. During the session of 1851-52, and thereafter for several sessions, Dr. Jervey delivered courses of lectures upon comparative anatomy and medical jurisprudence at the Medical College of the State of South Carolina. These lectures were marked by the daily attendance of many of the faculty; and in 1852 the students themselves adopted resolutions "to express to Prof. L. Agassiz, M. D., and to James Postell Jervey, M. D., the high appreciation of their lectures dehvered before them during the winter."

Dr. Jervey practised in Charleston until 1861. He was then given a commission as surgeon in the Confederate States Army and for some time was in charge of the hospital at Summerville, South Carolina. At the close of the war he moved to Pohowatan County, Virginia, where he lived until 1873 when he returned to Charleston.

Sympathetic and eager in relieving every form of suffering, and an excellent raconteur, he was a welcome guest in social, literary and professional circles.

Dr. Jervey married in 1832, Miss Emma Gough Smith, daughter of Dr. Edward Darrell Smith, professor of chemistry in the South Carolina College of Columbia. They had twelve children, of whom seven lived to maturity. One son, Henry Dick- son, and one grandson, J. Wilkinson, Jervey, followed the medical profession.

J. W. J.

Jerome, James H. (1812–1884).

James H., Jerome son of Horace and Nancy Reed Jerome, was born at Cochecton, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, September 28, 1812. His general education was obtained at the common schools and Ovid Academy, Michigan, and during this time he learned the trade of a hatter which he followed till 1834, afterwards beginning to study medicine with Dr. Moses Tompkins at Hecla, New York. In 1837, passing the examination of the New York State Censors, he received legal authority to practise. At once he began work at Trumansburg, New York, soon acquiring a good reputation as physician and surgeon. During the intervals of his medical college courses Dr. Jerome acted for one season as prosector for Dr. Willard Parker. In July, 1855, he was elected professor of anatomy and physiology in Geneva Medical College. In 1858 he resigned and was appointed physician-in-chief of the Marine Hospital Service in the port of New York with a salary of $5,000. His salary being held up by a complication of practical politics, he resigned to resume practice at Trumansburg, New York. In 1865 he removed to Saginaw, Michigan, and became engrossed in land deals, lumbering and farming, but always retained a lively interest in medical societies. Immediately after beginning practice he joined the Tompkins County (New York) Medical Society; September, 1847, he organized at Oswego, New York, the South Central New York Medical Association and was its president in 1851. He was a founder of the Saginaw County Medical Society; a founder of the third epoch of the Michigan State Medical Society and its president. In 1855 Hobart Free College gave him her honorary M. D. Dr. Jerome was a man of vigorous intellect, keen perceptions, retentive memory and independent character.