New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-10-09
AN Army SURGEONS
LIFE OF SERVICE
A Welcome Biography Of the
Late DR.. John Shaw Billings

JOHN SHAW billings A Memoir. - Field
inz H. Garrison VI. ID svo. - az. &. !.
Puinan'5 sons.
DR.. Garrison has done a capital piece
Of work in this memoir of his friend,
for it reflects the character Of its sub
ject He shows US the man as he was
a big man and strong, made Of ono
piece, four-square, "a Westerner carved
out OF New England granite" II is for
the work which he did at the end Of
his long career Of service that Dr.
Billings has come 20 be chiefly re-
membered. 1t was a giant task, this
organization Of the New York Library.
as those who remember the somnolent
ways of the institutions which were
united in it well know, but ere that
he had done remarkable work in other
fields. 1t is, however, the man himself,
so sharply delineated here, who IS best
worth our while. for he was a typical
representative of the giants Of the
generation Of the Civil War, self-made
to the utmost possibilities OF his mag
nificent natural endowment.
John Shaw Billings was born on
April u, 1888. in Cotton Township.
Switzerland County. Indiana, OF poor
parents Of Colonial ancestry. When the
child was i've years old the family
moved 70 a farm on Narragansett Bay,
and his first memory was OF working
on neighboring farm at the age OF
eight. When he was ten, his father
went into business at Allensville, o.,
"a. 10. 10 no
III my father would help me through
college in the least expensive way, all
Of his property should go to my sister"
He took his b. A. at Miami, in 1857,
supported himself for year by
tutoring and lecturing IN lantern
slide picture show. and in 1888 matrIcu-
lated at the Medical College Of OHIO.
his student days were passed 10 almost
incredible indulgence; IN later years he
said that he had never recovered from
the effects Of one winter IN which he
lived on seventy-tive cents week. He
took his degree Ia 1850, and imme-
diately was madeAemonstrator Of anat-
omy at his almt mater. In Septem-
Der. 1861. he joined the Medical Corps
OF the United States army, serving till
the end of the war in the ield and az
Washington. In these days OF modern
military medicine and surgery and
their magnificent equipment 1t is in
forming 70 read OF the primitive con-
dtions with which our army surgeons
had 10 struggle then. Or. Billings
left ample record OF his experiences,
and his biographer draws upon Il at
great and interesting length. These
pages Of the memoir abound in graphic
pictures Of the war just behind the
lines. In December. 1854, Or. Billings
was attached 70 the Surgeon Generals
Office in he War Department. where he
remained on continuous duty until his
retirement, al his own request, in 1895.
| During these thirty years he made the
Army Medical Library az Washington
| the third largest and probably the
most valuable collection of its kind
in the world. and compiled the Index
/ Catalogue. which more than doubled its
usefulness. He was for a while medical
adviser of Johns Hopkins Hospital. and
lecturer AT its medical school, took a
prominent and purposeful part in the
activities Of the American Public
Health Association. wrote and lectured
much on medical and sanitary sub
jects, and IN the course Of lis career
J accumulated string OF initials after
| his name. which. he playfully explained
''to his friend Weir Mitchell. was his
principal title to be consid ered man
| Of letters" His work at our Public
Library erovpsd his oArssg.