in the open air and gymnasium; he blindfolded himself, and
thus went about for weeks in order more fully to enter into
the life and spirit of his pupils. His work outgrew the size
of a commodious house, and in 1839 ne secured larger quar-
ters.

Tn the midst of these arduous duties he heard of a seven-
years-old child, blind, deaf and dumb, and deficient in the
sense of smell, the result of an attack of scarlet fever in in-
fancy. She was at Hanover, New Hampshire. Here was
the opportunity for putting to a test his long cherished belief



748 HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL

that, notwithstanding the positive statement to the contrary
of such high authorities as Sir James Mackintosh, Sir Thomas
Dick Lander, Dugald Stewart, and Sir Astley Cooper, such
a child could be educated. The story of his success with
Laura Bridgman has become too well known to require repe-
tition. It was one of the most brilliant exploits in philanthropy,
ancient or modern. Who may not envy Samuel Howe the
joy of that hour when his persistent, patient, almost super-
natural power reached the light of reason in the child's hith-
erto lifeless mind, and she answered with a smile of surprise?
If you would follow the history of Laura Bridgman's won-
derful progress, study the annual reports of the Blind Asylum
by Howe, and Charles Dickens' inimitable and pathetic de-
scription.

Howe continued as superintendent of the Perkin's Institu-
tion (as it soon came to be known) for forty-three years, and
many of his ideas remain to-day practically unchanged. Two
points in his administration of that institution are worth spe-
cial mention. First, he maintained that the blind should be-
come self-supporting, and to accomplish this he established
a department of manual labor. Second, he strove for the
development of those individual traits or tendencies inherent
in the several pupils. Music was the branch mostly taken
advantage of by these unfortunates, although many other
occupations were developed.

Uusy as Howe was with bis duties at the Institution for the
Blind, he found time to aid another class of dependants whose
presence in the community is a grave offense. These are the
feeble-minded and idiotic. He bad seen, also, the successful
workings of the articulate method in teaching deaf-mutes,
when he was in Europe. He tried to introduce the method
here, and was met witli ridicule, indifference and strong oppo-
siton. "Don Quixote" was the term most often employed in
referring to his suggestion. The American Asylum for Deaf



EMINENT ALUMNI 749

Mutes at Hartford refused to give him an opportunity to
test his convictions, so he quietly began with two little deaf-
mutes of his own finding, and by going to the homes of others
succeeded in inducing the parents to give the method a trial.
Soon people ceased to laugh, then they admired and wondered,
and then the School for Feeble-Minded Children was estab-
lished. To-day it is one of Massachusetts' noblest public in-
stitutions.

The State acquiesced in Howe's suggestion that a commis-
sion be appointed to investigate the number and condition of
idiots within its borders. The report of that Commission
(1848), of which Howe was chairman, was a revelation as
well as a mortification to Massachusetts folk. The Legisla-
ture appropriated $2,500 per annum for three years, to try the
experiment of teaching ten idiotic children.

Then, in 185 1, Howe plunged into the anti-slavery move-
ment ; with several others he started the "Commonwealth,"
and for more than a year was its literary editor. In that cause
he was a vigorous partisan. When the Civil War broke out,
though he had long passed the military age, Howe put himself
at the disposal of the government, and was appointed a mem-
ber of the Sanitary Commission ; as such he followed the course
of the struggle with close and intense interest. He was of
great assistance to the Union, for he was a trained man of
vast experience. In 1863 he was appointed one of the com-
mission to inquire into the condition of the freedmen of the
South, and the subsequent report of that Commission resulted
in establishing the Freedman's Bureau.

In 1865 Governor Andrew appointed him chairman of the
recently established Board of State Charities (1863). Mis
successor, Frank B. Sanborn, thus spoke of Howe's services
on this board :

" When he came to the head of the public charities of Massachusetts,
late in 1865, his genius soon found means t>> turn both our theory and



750 HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL

practice in new directions, and to convert by gradual changes the existing
policy of congregating the poor and defective in large establishments,
into a wiser system. In practice, it is true, much remains to be done,
especially with regard to the insane; but Howe's theory has become
the accepted one in New England and elsewhere. He began with the
dispersion of children, then in poorhouses and reform schools, among
the kindly families of New England, and now there is hardly a state of
the Union where such is not the adopted policy. When the inmates
of a charitable establishment could not be wisely placed in a family,
he advised that the establishment should be kept small, and its manage-
ment brought as near to the mass of the people as practicable."

Howe's "General Principles of Public Charity" is often
quoted ; here are some of those principles :

" It is better to separate and diffuse the dependent classes than to
congregate them."

" We ought to avail ourselves of those remedial agencies which exist
in society, the family, social influences, industrial occupations, etc."

" We should enlist the greatest number of individuals and families in
the care and treatment of the dependent."

" We should build up public institutions only in the last resort."

' These should be kept small, and arranged as to turn the strength and
faculties of the inmates to the best account."

Such views, like his views on the care and education of the
blind, deaf and insane, were once thought revolutionary, but
to-day the civilized world conducts such departments upon
the lines laid down by Howe. He was the first to suggest the
establishment of visiting agencies. He resigned from the
board in October, 1874.

Some of my readers may remember the interesting meeting
held at Bumstead Hall in January, 1869, in behalf of the
Cretans. Howe was one of the prime movers, and the $37,000
raised was entrusted to his care. Personally he visited the
seat of war in order thai he might the better disburse the
funds. This visit was a triumphal march, and witnessed the
gratitude of the Greek nation in recognition of his service
then as well as that of forty-five years before. After eight
months of hazardous work in distributing food and clothing



EMINENT ALUMNI 751

to those unhappy people, he returned to Boston, organized a
Fancy Fair, and so added twenty thousand dollars to that
fund. He also published a paper called "The Cretan," to ad-
vocate the lost cause.

In 1870 Howe was one of the commissioners appointed by
the Federal government to visit Santo Domingo and report
upon the feasibility of annexing it to the United States. An-
nexation having failed, a company was formed in this country
to lease from the island the Peninsula of Samana. Howe be-
came one of the directors of this enterprise, and again visited
the West Indies. Success seemed within his grasp, when one
of the frequent island revolutions shattered public confidence
and the project failed. However, he spent a year in Samana,
trying to regain his health, which had been shattered. Finally
he was able to return home, where he took up his duties as a
Trustee of the Massachusetts General Hospital, but his vigor
gradually failed until his death in Boston on January 9th,
1876. The Governor of Massachusetts sent the following
special message to the Legislature, then in session :

" I have the mournful dulv of communicating to the General Court
tidings of the death of a distinguished citizen of Massachusetts, Dr.
Samuel G. Howe of Boston, for nearly half a century connected most
prominently with the charitable and educational institutions of the com-
monwealth.

'The services rendered by Dr. Howe to Massachusetts, to the United
States, and to the whole world, by his eager, energetic and long-continued
labors to educate the blind and the deaf, to reform the discipline of prisons,
to instruct the idiotic, and to ameliorate the condition of the insane,
and of the unfortunate of all classes, merit the recognition which they
have received in years past, and call for some public tribute to his mem-
ory, now that his long and noble career of philanthropy has closed.

"At the time of his death he was still at the head of the Massachusetts
Asylum for the Blind, of which he was the founder, and for more than
forty years the Director. I am informed that his funeral rites will be
performed there, in presence of the pupils whom his skill has instructed,
and of whom, at his suggestion, this Commonwealth has long been the
beneficent patron.

"I leave to the wisdom of the General Court the adoption of such



752 HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL

measures as may testify the sorrow which the people of Massachusetts
feel at the death of a philanthropist so illustrious, and a public servant
so faithful in his high vocation."

The Senate and House held appropriate services at which
speeches were made by leading members, and the following
resolutions were adopted :

" RESOLUTIONS OF THE GENERAL COURT.

"'â–  Resolved, That the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, ever mindful of
the welfare of the poor and the claims of the unfortunate among its
people, recalls with gratitude the constant and efficacious service devoted
by the late Dr. Samuel G. Howe to the education of the blind, the deaf,
and the feeble-minded children of this Commonwealth, to the improvement
of the discipline of prisons and reform schools, to the better care of the
insane, the prevention of pauperism, and, in general, to the public char-
ities of Massachusetts, with which he has been for a whole generation
officially connected.

" Resolved, That especial mention ought to be made of that grand
achievement of science and patient beneficence, the education by Dr. Howe
of deaf, dumb, and blind children in such a manner as to restore them
to that communication with their friends and with the world which
others enjoy, but from which they seemed wholly debarred until his
genius and benevolence found for them the key of language, accustomed
it to their hands, and thus gave them freedom, instead of bondage, and
light for darkness.

"Resolved, That the people of Massachusetts, always desirous of
liberty for themselves and for others, proudly cherish the recollection of
that gallant spirit which led Dr. Howe, in youth, in mature manhood
and in advancing age, to rank himself, with many or with few, among
the champions of oppressed races and emancipated nationalities, emu-
lating in this the deeds of his countrymen in the American Revolution,
and the noble career of his friend and the friend of mankind — the illus-
trious Lafayette.

" Resolved, That we tender our sympathy to the family of the deceased,
and that a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to them."

Governor Bullock in his eulogy said : "Nor can we l>etter
discharge the duty of this hour than by fastening upon his
memory the title which shall carry to the schools of the State,
to all the walks of life, whether of study or business or leisure,
to all the ambitions and activities of this wonderful people,



EMINENT ALUMNI 753

suggestions and inspirations for the consecration to the wel-
fare of the race, — the title of the Massachusetts Philanthro-
pist."

Henry I. Bowditch wrote, "With the exception of Gari-
baldi, I have always considered Samuel G. Howe as the man-
liest man it has been my fortune to meet in this world. The
two are in my regard equal, and very simliar in their traits
of character. Both have been fearless of any personal danger
in the fight ; both have been intensely loyal to what they
deemed the right ; both have always been ready to throw them-
selves into the front ranks in defense of the weak and down-
trodden; both, at times impulsive in word and action, often to
a fault, yet always commanding the respect even of oppo-
nents, because self seemed always subordinate to their ideals
of justice and of truth."

George F. Hoar said, "His is one of the great figures in
American history ; I do not think of another who combines the
character of a great reformer, of a great moral champion,
of a great administrator of great enterprises, requiring busi-
ness sagacity and wisdom as well as courage, always in the
van, with the character also of a knight-errant who crossed the
sea, like the Red Cross Knight of old, to champion the cause
of liberty in a distant, nation. There was never on the soil
of Massachusetts, fertile as that soil has been of patriots and
heroes and of lovers, a more patriotic hero, a more loving
knight."



*&>'



DAVID HUMPHREYS STORER.

I )avid Humphreys Storer was born in Portland, Maine.
March 26th, 1804. After receiving his A. B. degree from
Bowdoin College in [822, he studied medicine at the Harvard
Medical School, whence he was graduated M. D. in 1825.

Early he became interested in medical education, and in
1838 helped to found the Tremont Medical School. With



754 HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL

him were associated Edward Reynolds, Jacob Bigelow, and
Oliver Wendell Holmes, — all to become professors, as was
himself, in the Harvard School. In the Tremont School,
Storer was a hard worker. Warm-hearted, with an impulsive
nature, he threw himself into his tasks. His enthusiasm was
contagious, and did much to popularize the teaching at that
School, which for a quarter of a century produced so many
well equipped and prominent physicians. To young men be-
ginning the study of medicine, Storer was a warm friend.
For him the Hippocratic relation of father and son was the
position of teacher and pupil. With his eager nature, and
the courage to call a spade a spade, he often ruffled the older
men, but all admitted that his motives were honest and his
purposes just.

In 1854, September 9th, he was elected Professor of Ob-
stetrics and Medical Jurisprudence at Harvard, as the succes-
sor to Walter Channing. These branches of medicine had not
reached that state of high cultivation of which we boast to-
day, so it was fortunate for the school and its students that
they were entrusted to such a hard, conscientious worker as
was Storer. In the fourteen years of his professorship, Storer
was never absent from his duty, and tardy but thrice. This
unusual fidelity seems the more remarkable when one learns
of the immense obstetrical practice under which he staggered.

As a lecturer, Storer was a success; clear, positive, practical
and interesting. Each student felt that the instruction given
was directed to his individual needs. The men soon learned
that they had in this teacher a sympathetic friend as well as
a valued adviser. One of bis associates in the Faculty said
of him: "As a Professor lie was remarkable beyond any of
his colleagues for the personal interest he took in the students,
He kept up a familiar, friendly, paternal, or rather fraternal
companionship with many among them, and did more prob-
ably than any one of us to make them love their medical Alma



EMINENT ALUMNI 755

Mater." These qualities caused them to elect him Dean of
the School, a post he held for nine years (1855-64) with in-
creasing advantage.

Storer's treatment of the subject he taught was eminently
practical ; he taught "patience and expectancy up to the proper
time for interference, prompt and fearless action when that
time came." That is a good motto for the obstetrician. To
it should be added Storer's other maxim, that "Codes of
ethics are made for thieves, not for an honorable profession."
He was visiting physician at the Massachusetts General Hos-
pital from 1849 t0 ^58 and there his instruction to the house-
officers made his service a great training school.

Running parallel with this busy life in the practice of medi-
cine was another of equal activity in natural history. Storer
was one of the earliest members of the Boston Society of
Natural History. It is worthy of mention that at the first
annual meeting, 183 1, of this Society, six of the seven officers
then elected were physicians, a proportion which held good
at the annual election of 1855. Schools of natural history
were then few in this country, and we find many physicians
who afterwards became prominent taking their lessons in
advanced science at the meetings of this Boston society. Rog-
ers, Gould, Cabot, Jackson, Agassiz, Gray, Pickering, Brewer,
Bryant, Bouve, Sprague, Wyman, Green, Binney, Ware, Har-
ris, Warren, Channing and Shurtleff were some of the physi-
cians associated with Storer in this society, in that important
era of biological upheaval — the Darwinian era. These meet-
ings had much of the attraction of a social club. Each member
endeavored to add his contribution, and by suggestion aided
to improve the contributions of the others. Among this group
of workers Storer held a high place. Elected as the first
Recording Secretary, he shared with the President, Jeffries
Wyman, much of the detail work in laying a solid foundation
for the Society. Pie held this office for six years, and was



756 HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL

one of the seven members appointed to give lectures. In that
capacity he made a report (1831) on Mollusca for the Geo-
logical Survey of the State, and gave two lectures on Shells.
In 1836 he was elected curator, and so won by their votes
the thanks of the Society "for the great zeal, accuracy, and
fidelity which he had manifested in its behalf since its estab-
lishment.'' When Curators were elected (1838) for the sep-
arate departments, Storer was chosen for the department on
Reptiles and Fishes. This was in the year following his well-
known report to the Legislature upon the Fishes and Reptiles
of Massachusetts. In 1843 ne began a seventeen years service
as Vice-President of the Society.

The Mason Street rooms of the Society were found in-
capable of further enlargement to meet the needs of the grow-
ing Cabinet, and in 1845 Storer, Binney, Gould and Charles
T. Jackson were appointed a committee to solicit funds for
the erection of a new building. In 1848 the Society pur-
chased the old building on Mason Street, then recently va-
cated by the Harvard Medical School. For this accomplish-
ment Storer shared with his associates the thanks of the So-
ciety "for the earnestness and perseverence shown by them
in raising the funds for adapting the new building to the use
of the Society." The annual address was assigned to him
for that year, and the records call his effort eloquent and in-
teresting. Concerning his thirty years of constant service to
this Society the historian says :

" Dr. D. Humphreys Storer was continually bringing forward speci-
mens for the cabinet ; at one time he presented seventy specimens, all
carefully put up by him in glass bottles and labelled. To his generosity
mainly was due the fact, that out of one hundred and twenty species of
Massachusetts fishes then known, ninety were in the collection, and every
described reptile of the State with one exception."

Storer's important publication on natural history was his
"Historv ot the Fishes of Massachusetts," 1867. It consists



EMINENT ALUMNI 757

of 287 pages with thirty-seven plates, and is a classic in
North American Ichthyology. More recent works may have
increased the variety, but for the species described by Storer
no better or more accurate book has appeared. This work
grew out of his appointment in 1839 as one of the Commis-
sioners on the Zoology of Massachusetts. That commission
was the forerunner of the fishery commission of the national
government and of various state commissions. In compiling
this book Storer had to obtain his information from the mar-
kets or from the fishermen, and the fact that years of work
by other investigators have failed to alter materially his state-
ments shows that he made no mistake in the choice of his
sources of knowledge. A fellow worker in this field of natural
science says of him : "In the amount of information given,
with its accuracy and style of presentation, he has established
his claim to present and future gratitude, and has proved his
right to rank amongst the foremost of American ichthyolo-
gists."

Storer was an active member also in the American Acad-
emy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical So-
ciety, the Boston Society of Medical Improvement, the Mas-
sachusetts Medical Society, the American Medical Associa-
tion, the American Association for the Advancement of Sci-
ence, Honorary Member of the New York Medical Society,
and of the Rhode Island Medical Society, and Corresponding
member of the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia.
Bowdoin College conferred the LL. D. upon him in 1876.

Upon the resignation of Professor Storer his associates in
the Medical Faculty sent him the following letter :

"Dear Friend and Colleague: Tt is with great regret that we, tlic
members of the Medical Faculty, have received your note staling thai
you have sent your resignation to the Corporation. We had hoped to
continue long to profit by your services and to enjoy your companionship.
We trusted that you would sharp with us the pleasure of seeing our



758 HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL

institution, so long and deeply endebted to your labors, flourishing and
extending still further its usefulness and reputation.

' You will carry with you the kindest remembrances of your colleagues
and the recollection of services which we feel to have been of the highest
value to the cause of medical education. We are sure that the Medical
School and the University, on the roll of whose honored instructors your
name will stand recorded, when the edifice which now shelters their
students shall have all crumbled to ruin, you will still remain, as we
confidently believe, the friend and counsellor of those with whom you
have been so long associated.

" As a teacher you have been eminent, interesting, instructive, inde-
fatigable ; as Dean, attentive to every duty, and ever watchful for the
welfare of the students ; as a colleague always kind and devoted.

"This is our record in simple truth and justice. Accept our kindest
wishes at parting and believe us

""' Very sincerely your friends."

(Signed by the members of the Faculty.)

As a man, Storer was genial and charitable. An enthusiast
of the highest type, he was successful in many branches of
work which would have crushed a less active man. Fearless,
impulsive, positive in his opinions, with a frankness of ex-
pression which often brought him antagonism, his nature
rebelled against all forms of deceit and hypocrisy, and he
never hesitated to expose either. He died at the age of eighty-
seven, in Boston, on September 10, 1891.

JOHN BARNARD SWETT JACKSON.

J. B. S. Jackson was born in Boston, on September 5, 1806.
He was graduated from Harvard, A. B., in 1825, and took
his M. D. there in 1829.

Jackson never took up practice, but like his two associates
in the Medical Faculty elected at the same meeting* with him-
self, he gave his life to the scientific aspects only of medicine.
It has been said by one of his biographers that he was too

* April 3, 1847. Oliver Wendell Holmes and Jeffries Wyman. Cor-
poration Meeting.



EMINENT ALUMNI 759

sensitive, too scrupulous, to work as a private practitioner. By
others it has been said that his constitution and nature were
too delicate for the rough out-of-doors work of the physician's
life. Whatever the cause, his reputation rests upon his accom-
plishments as a pathologist. Disease and its effects upon or-
gans, rather than its relation to health, was his life-long study.
As a pathologist his fame became international. Holmes
styled him the first American pathologist of his generation.
Jackson was not a microscopist ; indeed, microscopists were
scarce in his time. But what he knew, he knew thoroughly,
and never assumed to know more than his eyes taught him.
He was devoted to his work, and early won a reputation for
sagacity and accuracy which made his word law. His opinion
was given with such modesty and truthfulness that it was
never questioned.

Jackson loved knowledge for its own sake, and as a teacher
he imparted that knowledge with such exactness and original-
ity that its genuineness was immediately recognized. It was