Meningitis," "New Remedial Agents," "Intoxication by Alcohol," "Diphtheria," "Locality of Consumption in Vermont," and "Hygiene of the Farm." He also wrote the "Early History of the Town of Essex," and the "Historical Address for the Centennial Celebration of the Settlement of Essex." For a number of years he was connected with the preparation of the Vermont Registration Report, and prepared each year the of births and deaths. He was for many years a regular correspondent of the Boston Post, Burlington Free Press and New York World, and associate editor of the Argus and Patriot.

summary

Of his religious life much might be said, but suffice it to say that his ancestors for three generations were Christians. His brothers and sisters all became Christians in early life. He united with the Congregational Church in Essex at the age of eleven, and hence was for more than fifty years one of its members, serving at various times as deacon, teacher, and superintendent of Sunday-school. He loved this Church of his fathers, and, when he came to leave it, provided for the perpetual continuance of his yearly subscription. His faith in God, and in His word as interpreted by the common agreement of the Church in all ages, was strong and unwavering, even in these days when many would exalt reason above God. The old paths in which the fathers lived and died were the paths to which he adhered in life and in death.

His last illness was attended with much pain, as before stated. He was taken in October, 1887, with what he called muscular nervous rheumatism, which increased in intensity all through the fall and winter. He, nevertheless, in the midst of much pain, attended to his daily duties until February, when he was compelled to give up his practice, only so far as it could be attended to at his office. At about this time he wrote the following in his physician's pocket record :—

"During these several weeks I have rested from my labors, professionally, and enjoyed some of the pains and aches I have tried many times to remedy in my patients, sometimes with very little success. My disability is a muscular rheumatism with a mingling of neuralgia. It affects my muscles only, and mainly of my ribs and back. Lame, sore, tired, weak." He, however, rallying somewhat, kept the harness on until he was ready to fall from sheer exhaustion. Indeed, he has been, during the few past years, carrying a load of work sufficient to tax the energies of two men. At no time in his life had he been doing so much work. He said, after he had given it all up and was looking back upon it, "What a heavy load I have been carrying!" But with a resignation which seems more and more wonderful as we think of it. he, stricken down right in the midst of his plans and greatest usefulness, gave up all without a murmur. Conscious to the last, he was quick to recognize the arrival of the grim messenger. Summoning all

his remaining strength, he faintly said, "Good bye," accompanying the word with a farewell wave of his hand, and Dr. Butler was no more.

May 6th, 1845, he was united in marriage to Hannah D. Page, of Essex, who survives him, with a son, Rev. E. P. Butler of Lyme, N. H., and a daughter, the wife of Dr. F. C. Granger, of Randolph, Mass.

His funeral was attended by a large circle of mourning friends and neighbors. An appropriate sermon was delivered by the Rev. Edwin Wheelock, of Cambridge, Vt., the Grand Lodge of Vermont, F. and A. M., having charge of the exercises, and bestowing all the honors of the order. Thus ends a life that we should all do well to emulate.

OBITUARY OF SAMUEL NICHOLS, M. D.

By DANIEL CAMPBELL, M. D., of Saxtons River.

Dr. Samuel Nichols was born in Walpole, N. H., in 1812. After attending Unity Scientific School for a year he entered the Norwich Military Institution, and graduated at this institution with distinguished honor in 1839.

He studied medicine with Dr. Ortt, of Harrisburg, Pa., and graduated at the Vermont Medical College in 1843. He located at Bellows Falls, Vt., in 1847. and continued the practice of medicine in this location up to the time of his last sickness. After a lingering sickness of several years duration, he died from the effects of a paralytic attack, July 8, 1887.

When the good and faithful physician passes away, it is eminently fitting and proper that some permanent record should be made of his life-work. Unlike the other learned professions his work has mainly been confined to the privacy of the sick room. The general public cannot know the anxiety, the responsibility, the sleepless nights of the faithful family physician in his contest with disease in the sick chamber, but he may have the gratitude and kindly remembrance of those for whom he has labored.

Dr. Nichols was pre-eminently the family doctor. He was thoroughly devoted to his profession. He never neglected the calls of the sick and suffering. He was thoroughly qualified and faithful in the discharge of all his professional duties; he was careful in his investigations of disease, and prompt in the application of remedies; good sense, sympathy and perfect integrity were eminently prominent in his mental organization, and he hated quackery and imposture in all its forms, not only outside, but in the profession. He never gave himself a vacation or needed rest from his professional labors; he justly had

the confidence of his professional brethren and the community in which he lived, and no physician was more truly loved in life or more deeply mourned in death. He fulfilled the different relations of life,

as citizen, as husband, as father and friend, with a fidelity that endeared him to all and made his death an irreparable loss.

OBITUARY OF SUMNER PUTNAM, M. D.

BY J. DRAPER, M. D.

"A prominent physician dead!" Under this always startling headline, in the leading daily newspapers of New England on the morning of the 20th of August, 1887, was announced the decease of Dr. Sumner Putnam, of Montpelier. This event, thus heralded to the public, came more closely home to the profession of Vermont than elsewhere, for he had been for more than a score of years a citizen of our Capital town, and one known to the profession of this State as a studious and growing member, each year more and more relied upon, both as a practitioner and a counsellor. To the majority of his fellows in this society the news of his death doubtless came with unexpected suddenness, for his final illness was not a very protracted one, and he had almost reached the allotted age of man before disease had fastened its unrelenting grip upon him. Under date of the 8th of March, 1887, after two or three weeks of increasing insomnia, in a letter to the writer of this memoir, he penned the following statement:

"My health since childhood has been robust, never losing a meal; have been busy of late, however, riding about less, and reading and thinking more constantly. I am now 69 years old, and for a year or so have often during a walk, after meals more particularly, felt dizzy. so that my cane was useful. Cannot put on and button my clothes as quickly as formerly; my voice has weakened and my nerves are very easily excited, and I am very apprehensive. Seemingly my trouble now about sleep arises more from fear and apprehension that I shall not get to sleep than from anything else. On my worst nights medicines seem to have no effect, as XL grains of Bromide repeated and followed by grain Morphia, repeated sometimes, fail to induce sleep. When less nervous XL grains will sometimes send me off. I have not had any pain or extra heat, and no increase of pulse except from some momentary excitement. The restless bad feeling is mostly in my eyes; arises at the epigastrium, attended by frequent sighing and shifting from side to side. Bowels pretty regular, urine normal, and the skin readily perspiring. Am taking small doses of quinia, strychnia and muriatic acid,

and a plain nourishing diet with out-door exercise. What course would you advise for me? How long will this state continue? If I find no relief what would cold water treatment do for me? How should it be used? Would you take hyperotics or not, and if so what?"

In this detail of prominent symptoms, as a whole somewhat ambiguous in their significance, I was unable to see any clear evidence of organic disease, and with the foregoing record of a good constitution, and my knowledge of his uniformly temperate life, I ventured an encouraging prognosis. That he labored under a nervous prostration was evident; and that time at the best would be required, and rest from work be imperative, I did not doubt; but that he was in the beginning of a hopeless decline I was unwilling to believe. Early in the following month I paid him a visit by his request at the home of his son-in-law, Dr. Bisbee, in South Royalton, and found his condition unimproved, but without new developments. He had been to New York and consulted a specialist upon nervous diseases, but without much satisfaction or benefit. Mental introspection was the dominant characteristic of his malady.

There was at this time no evidence of organic or inflammatory disease, and I still hoped for a favorable outcome. But this was not so to be. He gradually grew worse, and little by little his mental faculties gave way. He returned to Montpelier, but not to the renewal of his life-long enjoyments and labors. Prostrated upon his sick bed his life was slowly ebbing away under the cloud which more and more enveloped his mind. Ministered to in the most faithful and assiduous manner by the members of his devoted family, he passed away as we all might wish, save that the full realization of this devotion was denied him, and the support this rendered him in his passage through the dark valley not fully comprehended. Welcome, under such circumstances the light of the future, dawning and breaking upon the darkened way! From Dr. Bisbee, his son-in-law, I have the following statement of the autopsy:

"Body emaciated to an extreme degree.

"Outside the cranial cavity nothing of any great importance was found. A small cyst in right kidney, a slight amount of effusion in the pericardial sac, two concretions imbedded in the substance of the spleen-one two inches in length, on the convex surface of that organ, the other smaller, near the hilum. There was found on opening the cranium a general state of congestion; both arteries and veins seeming distended, with some degree of infiltration and effusion. The dura mater was found slightly adherent to the skull, and, when incised, about ten ounces of serous fluid escaped.

"The arachnoid and pia mater appeared very much thickened, and between them was found a considerable quantity of thick, gelatinous

8

substance. The membranes were adherent to the brain along the longitudinal sinus and the convex surface, so that they were with much difficulty separated. The surface of the brain was especially congested, and its blood vessels very much injected."

From his family I gather the following biographical details :

Dr. Putnam was born February 21, 1818, in East Montpelier, and was the eldest of three children of Sylvanus and Lucinda Bancroft Put

nam.

His preliminary education was received at the common schools, and at Montpelier Academy. His Preceptor in medicine was Dr. Jared Bassett, of Plainfield, and he took his medical degree from the Vermont Medical College at Woodstock, in 1840.

He located in practice at Greensboro, in this State, where he acquired a large and successful business in that and the neighboring towns. While there he was twice elected to the lower branch of the State Legislature, in 1857-9.

In December 1847, he married Diana F., daughter of Dr. Nathaniel and Fanny Davis King, who survives him. They had four children, Ella Frances, Alice M. (wife of Dr. A. B. Bisbee), Charles Sumner, and Sylvanus Clark Putnam. Of these, Mrs. Dr. Bisbee is the only survivor; Ella dying in 1855, Charles in 1865, Sylvanus in 1875, aged 4, 8 and 12 years respectively.

With a desire to take a less extensive practice and also to give his children better educational facilities, he came to Montpelier in 1865, and here he followed his chosen profession till arrested by his last illness; his whole professional life covering nearly half a century.

In 1871 he was President of this State Society, and for ten years its Treasurer.

After the death of Dr. J. Y. Dewey, of Montpelier, in 1876, he was appointed Medical Examiner for the National Life Insurance Company, which business with its associations he very much enjoyed, and which office he held until his decease.

During his busy life he attended several courses of medical lectures in New York city, and was ever a close and untiring student in his profession. To his family he was always devotedly attached, and ever the kindest and tenderest husband and father.

His long and steadily laborious life, it is gratifying to be able to state, should be regarded successful from a business as well as a professional point of view; and it is only just to say that the pecuniary emolument was always the secondary consideration.

Dr. Putnam was a contributor from time to time to the medical journals, and the transactions of this society have been enriched by valuable papers from his pen. The earliest of these was in 1866, upon the subject of "The Epidemics of Washington County." In 1870, he pre