300 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



he took the degree of Doctor in Medicine in 1809. Dr. Mussey was 

 a representative of a class not uncommon in New England, of young 

 men early thrown upon their own i-esources, whose diligence, enter- 

 prise, good sense, and indomitable self-reliance have gradually conducted 

 them to elevated positions in society. He was an original thinker, an 

 honest reformer, a leader rather than a follower of public opinion. 

 While a student at Philadelphia he instituted some important experi- 

 ments on the subject of cutaneous absorption, which gave distinction 

 to his name then and afterwards. He began the practice of medicine 

 at Salem, with much success ; and took at once so marked a position 

 that he was elected into this Academy at the anniversary meeting in 

 1811, fifty-six years ago. He was soon (in 1814) made Professor of 

 the Theory and Practice of Medicine in Dartmouth College, where 

 he was the principal pillar of the Medical School, lecturing simul- 

 taneously on three several departments of medical science. His prac- 

 tice, especially in surgery, was large and arduous. His celebrity as 

 a teacher procured for him invitations to join the medical schools of 

 several of the most important cities of the West, and ended in his 

 establishment at Cincinnati as one of the pi'incipal professors in the 

 Ohio Medical College. After fourteen years in this service, and six 

 in connection with the Miami Medical College, he resigned his official 

 du^es, and returned to spend a serene old age among his friends and 

 kindred in Boston. 



Dr. Mussey was a prominent friend of temperance ; and his unspar- 

 ing efforts, both by precept and example, have done much to abate the 

 abuse of stimulatiiig liquors in our own country, if indeed that crying 

 evil can be said to be yet abated. His opinions as to diet were those 

 of an ultraist. It is well known, that he subsisted for the last thirty 

 years of his life without meat or stimulants, confining himself wholly 

 to vegetable food, water, and milk. It is probable that he will not 

 have many followers in this ascetic mode of living ; yet, as he enjoyed 

 unusual health and activity of body and mind to a very advanced age, 

 his example, added to others previously known, may at least help to 

 establish the fact that such a diet, when not contra-indicated, is safe 

 and salutary, as it is economical. 



Dr. Augustus Addison Gould died in Boston, suddenly, of 

 jholera, on the 15th of September last, in the sixty-first year of his 

 age. He was born at New Ipswich, New Hampshire, April 23, 1805. 

 When old enough to labor, the larger part of the year was given to 



