American Civil War Medicine & Surgical Antiques

Surgical Set collection from 1860 to 1865 - Civilian and Military

Civil War:  Medicine, Surgeon Education & Medical Textbooks

Dr. Doug Arbittier

 

Follow on Instagram @medical.antiques

 

 

 Home page  |   Feedback & Contact Dr. Arbittier  |  SEARCH this site   |  Article Indexes   |   Medical Faculty & Authors

 Civil War Medical Books  |  Medicine Containers   |   1800's & Civil War Surgery Set Displays

Medical College Index - Lecture Cards  |  Civil War Medical Book Author-Title Index

 

 

 Alonzo B. Palmer, M.D.

Click on image to enlarge

Death date: Dec 23, 1887
Place of death: Ann Arbor, MI
Type of practice: Allopath
Journal of the American Medical Association Citation: 9:835, 10:764

Professor Alonzo B. Palmer, M. D., LL. D., Professor of Pathology and the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Department of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Michigan, died at his residence in this city on Friday, the 23d of December, 1887, in the seventy-third year of his age.

Dr. Palmer was associated with the University of Michigan for more than thirty-five years. In 1852 he was appointed Professor of Anatomy ; in 1854 he was transferred to the mixed chair of Materia Medica and Therapeutics and the Diseases of Women and Children. And again, in 1860, he was assigned to the Professorship of Pathology and the Theory and Practice of Medicine, which position he held up to the time of his death.

During this long service, which almost covers the life history of the Department of Medicine and Surgery, and engaged as he was in teaching therein several branches of medicine, he had a large influence in shaping the general policy of the Medical Department, and contributed very materially to its unbroken success ; and it was his rare good fortune to see the college which had started as a feeble organization, limited in patronage and weak in influence and power, steadily develop into one of the largest and most prominent of the medical colleges of the country, and to realize that he could with strict justice assume to himself no little credit for his efforts in contributing to this end.

His success and his reputation as a teacher were not limited to the bounds of our own University, and he was tendered appointments in other institutions. The arrangement of the annual term of lectures in the Medical Department was then such that a portion of each year was unoccupied in his professional work here, and he therefore, in 1863, accepted an appointment to the same chair which he filled here, in the flourishing Berkshire Medical College, at Pittsfield, Mass., and in 1869 a similar position in the Medical Department of Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, Maine.

These engagements were terminated, at Pittsfield, by the gradual decline and ultimate dissolution of the Berkshire school, and at Bowdoin College by the adoption in our own University, in 1877, of the graded system of medical education, and the extension of the lecture term to the full collegiate year of nine months, which neccessitated his continued residence here.

In the different colleges in which he was engaged, it is probable that from eight thousand to ten thousand students have sat under his teachings. The large majority of them entered into practice, and it is simply impossible to estimate the influence which our late colleague must have exercised upon the working members of the medical profession in this country ; and it is simply appalling to think of the limitless disaster that must come from one not governed by high and manly motives, and pure and elevating principles, in association with such a large number of young men.

Outside of his chief work as a teacher, his fixed principles led him to other efforts at doing good. He was a stern and uncompromising opponent of the use of alcoholic or other stimulating or narcotic agents. His devotion to fixed convictions of duty in these matters was firm and constant, and so he was always found in the front ranks of the workers for reform, urging with all his strength others to join in the work, and encouraging by his advice, his personal example, and his aid, the support of organizations formed for such purposes.

In the literature of medicine, Dr. Palmer contributed many fugitive essays of interest and value. Besides these, he published " Lectures on Homoeopathy," in permanent book form, and a text-book for schools entitled " Temperance Teachings of Science," which has had a wide circulation. As the crowning work of his life he published, in two large octavo volumes, a complete treatise on " The Theory and Practice of Medicine." In preparation for this work, he was many years collecting materials, and just previous to the immediate work of composition he spent over a year in Europe, in the colleges and hospitals, to avail himself of the most recent advances in medical science and art. It will remain a monument to his industry, his ability, and his devotion to duty, and his intense desire to aid in the advance of the study and work of his life, practical medicine.

The esteem in which his ability and attainments were held by his brethren in the profession is indicated by the fact that in the International Medical Congress, which recently met at Washington, he occupied the important position of chairman of the Section of Pathology, and in that capacity gave an address in the general session of the Congress ; and in the American Medical Association he held at the time of his death the office of chairman of the Section on the Practice of Medicine.

From the Bowdoin Alumni:  Lectr. Theory and Practice of Med.  1869-70;  Prof. Pathology,  Therapeutics 1870-73;  Pathology, Practice Med. 1873-79;  M. D. at College of Physicians and Surgeons, Western Dist.  N. Y. 1839;  A. M. Univ. of Nashville 1855;  LL.D Univ. Mich. 1881.  Born Richfield, N. Y. 1915.  Physician in Chicago, Ill.  Prof. Material Medica, Diseases of Women and children, Univ. Mich.  1854-60

Surgeon 2nd Michigan Volunteers 1861.  Professor of Medicine Univ. of Michigan 1860-80.  Died 1887,  Ann Arbor, Mich.
 

 

Medical Antiques Index

American Civil War Medicine & Surgical Antiques Index

 

Topical Index for American Civil War Surgical Antiques 


 

Contact Dr. Arbittier with questions or if you have Civil War medical related items for sale

 

 

Civil War Medical Collections    Sitemap for entire website 

 

Direct links to all medical & Civil War collections on this site           

American Surgical Sets:

Pre-Civil War:  1 | 2  -   Post-Civil War:  3  -  Civil War 1861-1865:  4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8   INDEX

Medical Text-Books:

1 | 1a | 2 | 2a | 3 | 3a | 4 | 4a | 5 | 5a | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 9a | 10 | 11 | 12    INDEX

Surgeon General's Office Library printed catalogues: 1840 | 1864 | 1865
Medical Lecture Cards: 1a | 1b 2 | 34 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21    INDEX

Medical Faculty and Authors:

INDEX

Navy Surgeon Exams:

1863 Navy Surgeon Applicant Exams with Biographies   INDEX ONE | INDEX TWO

Surgeon CDVs, Images

Surgeon's Medical Service Swords, and Pistols

Army: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8    INDEX    

M.S. Surgeon Swords and Pistols:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4  INDEX

Navy: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8   

Hosp Dep't Bottles, Tins, 

U.S. Army Pannier:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

American Civil War Medicine & Surgical Antiques

Please request permission before commercial use or publication of any content or photos on this site and credit any use with:  "American Civil War Surgical Antiques"   All content and all original photography on this Web Site is copyrighted since 1995 and may not be used on any other web site or in commercial print without the expressed e-mail permission from Dr. Arbittier:  Contact   All rights reserved. 

 

Students doing reports or projects are welcome to use the content of this site without permission, but credits would be appreciated.

 

Please note: information on this site may not be normally referenced as this is an active and long-term educational research project.  Personal notes may not be properly cited for publication.  Various articles are digitally reproduced under the 'fair-use act' of the copyright laws and are intended for educational purposes only.  Many citations are from Google digital 'books' and can be traced backwards via a search of a unique string in the citation.

 

 Arbittier Museum of Medical History Tour:   1 | 2 | 3

Follow on Instagram @medical.antiques

 

Last update: Tuesday, July 16, 2024