184 HENRY PICKERING BOWDITCH— CANNON. [Mbmoim ivou™£ 



of Secession ville. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, his regiment was part of the 

 reserve. He participated in General Stoneman's raid in April, 1863, and on May 13 was com- 

 missioned captain, Company E. Thereafter he was in the battles of Stevensburg, Aldie, Upper- 

 ville, Culpeper, Rapidan, and Bristoe. His regiment was on important guard duties at Gettys- 

 burg. During the engagement at New Hope Church, November 27, 1863, he was shot in the 

 right forearm while leading a charge. A furlough during his convalescence from this wound 

 permitted him to return to Boston. On February 15, 1864, he was honorably discharged from 

 the Army, but promptly reentered it as major in the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry (colored) . He 

 took part in some of the earliest movements against Petersburg and entered Richmond with 

 Weitzel on April 3, 1865. 



Maj. Henry L. Higginson has described Henry Bowditch as he appeared during the war — "a 

 handsome, refined, and homebred looking youth, with a fondness and faculty for keeping face 

 clean and clothing neat when those attributes were a rarity * * * an upright and fine 

 officer, often reserved and even unbending in his manner, but unflagging in his faithfulness and 

 unflinching in his courage." In a conversation with Maj. Higginson, after the Battle of 

 Antietam, Bowditch confessed that he had no liking for Army life, and that he longed for the 

 time when he could devote himself to scientific studies. 



MEDICAL EDUCATION. 



On June 3, 1865, he resigned his command. He reentered the Lawrence Scientific School 

 and resumed his study of comparative anatomy under Prof. Jeffries Wyman. In later years he 

 frequently referred to Wyman's stimulating influence on his scientific development. Con- 

 tinuing his interests and labors at the scientific school between terms, he finished the require- 

 ments of the Harvard Medical School. As his graduating thesis, he presented a review of 

 observations on the physiological action of potassium bromide, some of them personal. This 

 thesis was published at the request of Prof. E. H. Clark as a "valuable addition to our 

 knowledge." In 1886 Bowditch received the A. M. degree, and in 1S68 the M. D. degree from 

 the University. 



PHYSIOLOGICAL STUDY IN PARIS. 



In the late summer of 1868 he went to Paris to study. In a letter of February 12, 1869, he 

 wrote, "I wish I could see a real good opening for a purely scientific career. Dr. Wyman and 

 Dr. Holmes (Oliver Wendell Holmes) both advised me to study science and let practice go, 

 but pure science in our country is rather hard to live on. " At the beginning he appears to have 

 had the idea that he might combine scientific interests and medical practice. A notebook 

 kept during the first months in Paris has repeated references to clinics and to the great clinicians, 

 Charcot, Broca, and Louis. He had planned, however, to work with Brown-Sequard, who 

 had lived in Boston and Cambridge and was well known to Wyman. Brown-Sequard was 

 encouraging, but failed to provide a place for Bowditch to work in. He therefore turned to 

 Claude Bernard and to Ranvier, spending three days a week in physiology and the other three in 

 microscopy. His letters home mentioned with enthusiasm the interest he found in his scien- 

 tific work and the pleasures of his association with Ranvier. John Collins Warren, William 

 James, and Charles Emerson were also in Paris at this time and together with Ranvier and other 

 acquaintances they formed frog-hunting parties which were the source of much amusement 

 and the occasion for establishing close friendships. After five months he wrote, "I have been 

 devoting myself lately almost entirely to the purely scientific part of my profession, which 

 centainly has much greater attraction for me than the more practical portion." This tendency 

 seems to have been closely watched at home, for on March 1 his father sent him a letter urging 

 him to follow his desires for a career in science. On March 18 the son, after expressing his 

 gratitude, continued: "My only hesitation arose from the feeling that in following pure science 

 I should probably not be able to support myself so soon as in taking a more practical branch. 

 But now, being reassured in this point, I shall push on and aim at getting as thorough a physi- 



