This text is part of:
[307] man of the highest type. After completing his medical studies with Dr. Tufts, he settled in Reading, and went thence to the army. After the Revolution, the people of Medford called him, as by acclamation, to become their physician. He accepted; and here through a long life he had no competitor, and witnessed only an increase of business and popularity. It was common for him to ride, in his practice, as far as Andover, Lynn, Watertown, and Boston. He received the honorary degree of master of arts, in 1787, from Harvard and Yale Colleges. From Harvard he received the degree of doctor of medicine in 1810, and that of doctor of laws in 1817. Dr. Luther Stearns, who came to Medford as a teacher, occasionally practised as a physician; but his duties to his school presented obstacles to his wide employment in medical duties, and he finally relinquished the profession. His very acute sensibilities must have made him most acceptable in a sick-chamber; while in surgical cases they may have been a hinderance. On the election of Dr. Brooks to the office of governor, he resigned his medical practice to his pupil and friend,-- Dr. Daniel Swan, of Medford,--who graduated at Harvard College in 1803. He first entered on practice at Brighton, in 1808, where for eight years he had all the success he anticipated. He was invited by the inhabitants of Medford, in 1816, to become their physician; and, having obeyed the call, he has practised nearly forty years as the established physician of the place. Very early he turned his attention to homoeopathy; and, as soon as he could procure the books to examine it scientifically, he became a convert to its principles. His practice did not much diminish on this account; and he may be said almost to have carried the town with him to his new faith. He thinks his success has been much greater under the new system. As he has withdrawn from general practice on account of age, it would seem affectation to suppress here what is every day repeated in the street,--namely, that everybody respects and loves him, and calls him the “good Samaritan.” A graphic writer says of him in print, “His beneficent career is so interwoven with each thread of his existence, that it will be impossible to do him justice until the dead rise and give their account.” Dr. David Osgood (H. C. 1813), born in Medford, selected Boston as his home; and, first as an allopathic, and then
John Wilson and son. 22 School Street. Boston. 1855.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.