John Edwards
Holbrook, M.D.
1794 -1871
Professor of Anatomy
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HOLBROOK, John Edwards,
naturalist, born in Beaufort, South Carolina, 30 December, 1794; died in
Norfolk, Massachusetts, 8 September, 1871. He spent his early life in
Wrentham, Massachusetts, which for many years had been the home of his
father's family, and was graduated at Brown in 1815. He took his medical degree
at the University of Pennsylvania in 1818, and then continued his
professional studies for two years in London and Edinburgh,
after which he spent two more years on the continent, devoting much time
to natural history, especially in Paris. In 1822 he returned to the
United States, and established himself as a physician in Charleston,
South Carolina He was chosen professor of anatomy at the Medical college
of South Carolina in 1824, and continued to occupy that chair for more
than thirty years. Dr. Holbrook attained a high reputation by his
lectures, owing to his wonderful knowledge of comparative anatomy, but
seldom performed a surgical operation or attended an obstetric case.
During the civil war
he was head of the examining board of surgeons of South Carolina.
Dr. Holbrook's work as a naturalist made his name widely known, His
first contribution to science was "American Herpetology, or a
Description of Reptiles inhabiting the United States" (5 vols., 4to,
Philadelphia, 1842). The simplicity and precision of its descriptions,
and the beauty and correctness of its illustrations, attracted attention
not only in the United States, but also in Europe. Through it he became
acquainted with Louis Agassiz, with whom he afterward maintained the
friendliest of relations, visiting him annually during his summer trips
to New England. He then began a "Southern Ichthyology," to include
descriptions of the fishes of Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida, but,
after the publication of two numbers, he found the field too extensive,
and therefore confined his studies to the "Ichthyology of South
Carolina" (Charleston, 1854 et seq.), of which ten numbers made their
appearance. In consequence of the civil war this publication was
discontinued. He was a member of the American philosophical society and
an early member of the National academy of sciences.--His brother, Silas
Pinckney, author, born in Beaufort, South Carolina, 1 June, 1796; died
in Pineville, South Carolina, 26 May, 1835, was graduated at Brown in
1815, studied law in Boston, and practised at Med-field, Massachusetts
He was one of the most popular contributors to the "New England Galaxy"
and the " Boston Courier," to which he furnished sketches entitled
"Letters from a Mariner and Travels of a Tin Peddler," under the name of
"Jonathan Farbrick," and amusing "Letters from a Boston Merchant," and
"Recollections of Japan and China." These, with others, were published
as " Sketches by a Traveller" (1834). He also wrote the European part of
Peter Parley's "Pictorial Geography," and conducted the "Boston
Tribune," and a comic paper called the "Spectacles."
Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM
Thomas
Grimball Prioleau, M.D.
Samuel
Henry Dickson, M.D.
Stephen
Elliot, LL.D.
Henry
Rutledge Frost, M.D.
John
E. Holbrook, M.D.