18S6.] "Orf [Allen. 



lute repose. After a prolonged illness, accompanied with great suffering, 

 he died, December 14th, 1885. 



Dr. Smith married Miss Emily Kaighn, daughter of Charles Kaighn, of 

 Kaighn's Point, N. J. He was the father of seven children, five of whom 

 survive him, 



To attain to a commanding position in a difficult art, to become a popu- 

 lar practitioner in a city where professional competition is keen, demands 

 qualities of unusual order. By steady, untiring persistence Dr. Smith 

 conquered a position of eminence among his brethren aDd a place in the 

 hearts of hosts of patients. In the last mentioned relation his rank among 

 the physicians of Philadelphia was, perhaps, unique. 



Dr. Smith was facile princeps the leading obstetrician of his time in 

 America. He developed a skill in the management of cases requiring in- 

 strumental aid which in the opinion of his colleagues has probably never 

 been exceled. In the language of an associate: " He held advanced 

 positions both as a practitioner and a teacher of obstetrics. He used the 

 forceps with unsurpassed skill." 



The excessive toil which is inseparable from the life of an obstetrician in 

 full practice — the irregular hours, the exacting vigils — demand an iron 

 constitution and a determined will. Dr. Smith possessed these qualifica- 

 tions. In common with many men of exceptional endowment, he en- 

 joyed the faculty of sleeping at times which did not interfere with the ex- 

 actments of long-continued toil. Forty-eight hours have been passed 

 without sleep on his part and yet without impairment either of 

 physical or mental vigor. Nothing ever came to him as an interrup- 

 tion. The demands of the most unreasonable patient never annoyed 

 him. When at his prime he was indifferent to fatigue and hardship. I 

 recall on one occasion meeting him at the house of a patient when the 

 cold was extreme, and the streets were all but impassable from the ac- 

 cumulations of ice and sdow, congratulating myselt that I was free from 

 the labor which was before him that day. Yet he failed to comprehend 

 that anything unusual existed, and did not appear to regard in the slight- 

 est degree conditions which are generally held to be distasteful and simply 

 to be endured. 



It has been frequently observed that men of the cast of mind of Dr. 

 Smith are rarely literary in their inclinations. The lives of intense re- 

 sponsibility lead by them ; the fatigue to which they are habitually com- 

 mitted ; the weariness and disposition to repose which is so well known to 

 follow upon long periods of exposure to the open air, no doubt suffice to 

 explain this disinclination. It is a noteworthy circumstance that in 

 spite of this disinclination Dr. Smith was a literary worker. Soon after 

 leaving the Pennsylvania Hospital he is found editing "Ellis' Form- 

 ulary," a work requiring great patience and care. He contributed a 

 number of papers — eighteen in all — to the medical journals. As an 

 evidence of the cast of Dr. Smith's mind it may be noted that of this 



