REPORT ON AMERICAN MEDICAL NECROLOGY, 1879. By J. M. TONER, M.D., CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEE. IN making up the report on Necrology for 1879, I wish to acknowledge my very great indebtedness to those members of the Committee from the several States who have interested themselves in the discharge of the duty assigned to them by the Association. Their contributions are credited to them. It is to be regretted, however, that from some of the States no records of the deaths of even some of our most eminent members have been furnished. Why is this? Ought not defects of this nature to be corrected in future? The purpose of having on this Committee a member from each State is, I presume, that such member can and should report annually the deaths, with brief biographical sketches, of all worthy physicians of his State who have been honored with membership in this body. I trust that future reports will exhibit greater zeal on the part of members, and thereby secure greater completeness in this direction. The biographical sketches in the Report for 1878, unlike its predecessors, are arranged in alphabetical order, and not by States. A Supplement to the regular Report contains as complete a list, with brief sketches of the lives, of the physicians who died of yellow fever in 1878 as could be collected. J. M. T. ARNOLD, THOMAS ALLEN, M.D., died of diphtheria at his home in Columbia, Mo., December 5th, 1878, aged thirty-seven years. He was a graduate of the State University, and took his professional degree at the St. Louis Medical College in 1869. After serving a term as Assistant Physician at the St. Louis City Hospital, he established himself in practice at Columbia, where he continued in the ardent prosecution of his profession until his untimely death. His life was sacrificed by extreme zeal in the VOL. XXX.-51 discharge of duty: he had performed tracheotomy on a patient suffering with diphtheria; the tube becoming clogged, he impulsively sucked upon it to clean it out; virus thus gained access to his system, and in two weeks proved fatal. Dr. Arnold was an active member of the Medical Society of Boone County, Mo., and of the Missouri State Medical Association, and became a member of the American Medical Association in 1873. His local Society passed appropriate and eulogistic resolutions as a tribute of respect to the memory of the deceased. A. J. STEELE, M.D. ATLEE, WASHINGTON LEMUEL, M. D., was born at Lancaster, Pa., February 22, 1808; died at his residence in the city of Philadelphia September 9, 1878. "He was a descendant of an old English family, many members of which reached distinction very early in the history of England. William Atlee, of Ford Hooke House, England, married against the wishes of his family Jane Alcock, a cousin of William Pitt, and he shortly after obtained a position as secretary to Lord Howe. He came with Howe to America, landing in Philadelphia in July, 1734." His son, the Hon. William Augustus Atlee, was an active Whig during the Revolutionary war, and was one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He left several children, amongst whom was William Pitt Atlee, Esq., a lawyer, who married Miss Light, the daughter of Major John Light, an officer in the Revolutionary army. They had six children, of whom the subject of this memoir was the youngest. When he had reached the age of seven years his father died, leaving him under the care of his grandparents. While with them he continued at school, pursuing the ordinary English studies until he was fourteen years old, when, contrary to his own wishes, he was placed in a drygoods store. After remaining in this business for fifteen months he determined to leave it and study medicine. He chose his brother, Dr. John Light Atlee, as his preceptor, who made him a member of his family and directed him in his studies. Thus encouraged, he worked with ardor, and with the aid of tutors supplied the deficiency of an early classical training, studying at the same time French, German, philosophy, and the natural sciences. He entered the Jefferson Medical College in the winter of 1826-7, where his industry and talents attracted the attention of Dr. George McClellan, the Professor of Surgery, who invited him to become his private pupil. Stimulated by the example and guided by the counsels of this great teacher, the efforts of young Atlee were redoubled, and on his return to Lancaster he at once engaged in practice amongst the poor, almost living in the Lancaster County Hospital. His efforts were so successful, and he became so popular, that before he received his degree he had attended forty cases of obstetrics. His connection with the hospital gave him abundant opportunity to study practical anatomy, of which he was very fond; and much of his time was employed in dissection. Nor did these engagements fully occupy his time, for, "during the summer of 1827-8, he actively pursued the study of practical botany, and was a correspondent of Dr. William P. C. Barton, then Professor of Materia Medica and Botany in the Jefferson Medical College. He collected about four hundred specimens of Lancaster County plants into an herbarium, accompanied with a written description of each plant, which collection he subsequently presented to the Linnæan Society of Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg, Pa." He attended full courses of lectures at the Jefferson Medical College, and graduated in the spring of 1829. His thesis was on "Parotitis Gangrenosa," a title of his own, and a subject furnished in his own experience. Soon after graduation he located in Mount Joy, a small village in his native county, twelve miles from Lancaster. While here he orginated a temperance society and a lyceum, delivered a lecture on temperance which was published, also a lecture on the great display of falling stars in November, 1833, a course of lectures on botany, and read several miscellaneous papers before the lyceum. Dr. Atlee was married, April 15, 1830, to Miss Ann Eliza Hoff, daughter of John Hoff, of Lancaster. The issue of this marriage was ten children, the youngest having been born in the fall of 1844. Six of them survive: Kate, wife of David Burpee, M.D.; Mary, wife of Thomas M. Drysdale, M.D.; Eliza, wife of John Sheaff, Esq.; Margaret H. Atlee, Washington L. Atlee, M.D., and Charles L. Atlee, Esq. In the autumn of 1834 Dr. Atlee removed to Lancaster, his native place. He was soon elected to the staff of Lancaster County Hospital, and in 1837 was appointed treasurer to the Commissioners of Lancaster County. For several successive |