874 JAMES CLARKE WHITE. 



much work outside the curriculum in natural history — botany and 

 ornithology especially — fascinating studies under such teachers as 

 Gray and Wyman." During vacations he shot and stuffed birds for 

 the college Natural History Society. May 15, 1853, he wrote in his 

 diary, " There came to me this afternoon in church the sudden con- 

 viction that I would choose medicine as my life work." 



While a student in the Medical School he took special interest in 

 chemistry, analyzed the Warren collection of urinary calculi, and 

 wrote an essay based on that work which received the Boylston 

 Society's prize. 



In 1855 he served a year as medical house pupil at the Massachu- 

 setts General Hospital, and in August '56, went to Europe, choosing 

 Vienna instead of Paris partly at the suggestion of Professor Calvin 

 Ellis who had lately visited that city and recognized the advantages 

 offered b}' the group of remarkable men then there active, — Oppolzer, 

 Skoda, Rokitansky, and Hebra. In this step he showed a character- 

 istic trait, that of doing his own thinking. Paris was then living 

 on the medical glamour of the past. White was among the first to 

 separate glamour from fact. After a year in Europe, a year which 

 all who knew him are sure was filled with diligent purpose alike in 

 purely professional and in general improvement, he settled in general 

 practice in Boston. In dermatology and medical chemistry he had 

 qualified himself especially. His character, his knowledge, and his 

 readiness to use them fully wherever service could be rendered, met 

 with prompt recognition. The memory of those Vienna days was 

 kept alive by a club of six men who had studied there together, — 

 Drs. Hay, H. K. Oliver, B. J. Jeffries, Hasket Derby, F. P. Sprague 

 and J. C. White. They dined together regularly, and a photograph 

 of the group occupied a prominent place on Dr. White's office wall. 



In 1858 he was appointed instructor in chemistry and in 1866 

 adjunct professor thereof, often appearing in court as a medico-legal 

 expert. He made it a rule to appear only for the government, a 

 practice which, in combination with his obvious sincerity and com- 

 petence, enhanced respect for the impartiality of his evidence. Mean- 

 time he was doing general practice and was visiting physician at the 

 Massachusetts General Hospital, all the time increasing his knowledge, 

 which in dermatology was greater than that of any contemporary in 

 Boston. He soon found that there was ample exercise for his faculties 

 in this branch alone. As thorough a man as he could not slur 

 work, and he had to reconcile or decide between the rival claims of 

 general practice, medical chemistry, and dermatology. To all of 



