EDWARD HAMMOND CLARKE. 437 



EDWARD HAMMOND CLARKE. 



Edward Hammond Clarke was born in the town of Norton, 

 Massachusetts, February 2, 1820, and died in Boston, November 

 30, 1877. 



His fether, the Reverend Pitt Clarke, born in 1763, graduated at 

 Harvard College in 1790, was minister of the first Congregational 

 Sdciety in Norton for tlie long period of forty-two years, and died in 

 1835. He left a brief Autobiography and a " Confession of Faith," 

 both of which are interesting, revealing as they do the simplicity and 

 purity of his character and the manly clearness of his intelligence. 



Mary Jones Clarke, tlie mother of the subject of this notice, was 

 a woman in every way worthy of her most estimable husband. She 

 joined to great excellence of character a remarkable poetic taste, and 

 a talent which found expression in many pleasing domestic, devotional, 

 and descriptive poems. She died in 1866, at the age of eighty-one 

 years. 



Edward was the fourth and youngest of their children. He gradu- 

 ated at Harvard College in 1841. His health became so much impaired 

 during his' college studies that he could not be with his class at Com- 

 mencement, and consequently could not claim his place in the final 

 distribution of honors ; but, at the time when he left college, he stood 

 first in rank. He had some question about the choice of a profession 

 after graduating, but settled at last upon medicine, and went to Phila- 

 delphia to pursue his studies. After taking his medical degree in 

 1846, he travelled extensively in Europe with the eldest son of the 

 late Mr. Abbott Lawrence. On returning to this country, he established 

 himself as a physician in Boston. For some years, he made a specialty 

 of diseases of the ear, in addition to his general practice. As the latter 

 increased, he gave up the special branch, in which he was for a consider- 

 able period the principal, if not the only, expert generally recognized 

 as such by our community. 



His business increased rapidly, and included many of the leading 

 families of the city and its neighborhood. He was often sent for to 

 visit patients in distant places, and his consultations at home were 

 resorted to by large numbers from all parts of the country. 



Dr. Clarke united many, perhaps it would not be extravagant to say 

 most, of the qualities which best fit a man for medical practice. His 

 mind was at once inquiring, observant, reflective, and judicial. Some 

 physicians are restlessly curious, but without the penetrating glance of 

 the natural observer. Some are curious and penetrating, and pick 



