254 



CEUVEILHIER, JEAN. 



CUETIS, BENJAMIN E. 



cation as a lecturer at the teachers' institutes, 

 and from 1854 to 1857 as agent of the Massa- 

 chusetts Board of Education. In 1857 he be- 

 came Principal of the Massachusetts State 

 Normal School at Salem, where he continued 

 till 1865, being remarkably successful. From 

 1865 to 1867 he edited as a recreation a week- 

 ly paper called The Bight Way, but the en- 

 grossing character of his studies led him to 

 abandon every thing else for them. He had 

 published a "Greek and General Grammar," 

 " Greek Tables," " Greek Lessons," an edition 

 of "Xenophon's Anabasis," "Eclogae Lati- 

 nse," " First Lessons in Geometry," and had 

 been engaged for ten years or more on a Greek 

 Lexicon on a different plan from those already 

 published, and to which he was devoting all 

 the resources of his thorough and profound 

 scholarship. His excessive intellectual labors 

 brought on the disease of the brain which 

 caused his death. 



ORUVEILHIER, JEAN, M. D., a French phy- 

 sician, professor, and author, born at Limoges, 

 February 9, 1791 ; died in Paris, March 11, 

 1874. After obtaining a good classical educa- 

 tion in his native city, young Cruveilhier came 

 to Paris to study medicine, where he was a 

 pupil of Dupuytren, and devoted himself to 

 the study of his profession with great assiduity 

 and enthusiasm. He received his medical de- 

 gree in 1816, reading on the occasion a thesis 

 of remarkable originality and ability on pa- 

 thological anatomy. He returned for a time, 

 from family reasons, to Limoges, and practised 

 his profession there. As soon as possible, how- 

 ever, he came back to Paris, and in a public 

 competition achieved the first place among the 

 teacher-pupils. About 1820 he was called to 

 Montpellier, to be a professor in the famous 

 medical school there. In 1822 he published, 

 the first volume of his " Treatise on Operative 

 Surgery, illustrated by Anatomy and Physiol- 

 ogy." In 1825 M. Frayssinous, the Grand- 

 Master of the University of France, wishing a 

 successor to Beclard, who had just died, made 

 choice of M. Cruveilhier, and he was thus 

 called back to Paris. In his new position he 

 devoted himself with the utmost zeal to the 

 study of anatomy, and in 1826 reorganized the 

 old Anatomical Society. His course of lect- 

 ures on anatomy and physiology to his classes 

 was the result of almost incredible labor and 

 research, and it attracted a very large attend- 

 ance. Under his vivid and accurate descrip- 

 tions these usually dry sciences assumed a 

 new and deep interest. This " course " was 

 published in four volumes, 8vo, 1834-1838. 

 Meanwhile the immense resources of material 

 which were opened to him in the great hospi- 

 tals of La Maternite, La Salpetriere, and La 

 Oharite, constantly drew his attention more 

 and more to the subject of his earlier studies, 

 pathological anatomy. Sparing no labor or 

 research, he prepared in the course of eleven 

 years (1829-1840) the crowning work of his 

 life : " The Pathological Anatomy of the Hu- 



man Body ; or, a Description, with Colored and 

 Lithographic Illustrations, of the Various Mor- 

 bid Alterations of which the Human Body is 

 susceptible " (two thick and large folio volumes, 

 with 233 plates). This great work demon- 

 strated his fitness to fill the chair of Pathological 

 Anatomy, founded by Dupuytren, and he was 

 installed as professor in August, 1835. M. 

 Cruveilhier's other published works were : 

 "An Address upon the Duties and the Morals 

 of the Physician," 1837; "Life of Dupuy- 

 tren ; " " The Anatomy of the Nervous Sys- 

 tem of Man," illustrated by plates of life-size, 

 folio, 1845 ; " A Treatise on Descriptive Anat- 

 omy," 1851 ; " A Treatise on General Pa- 

 thological Anatomy," 5 vols., 8vo, 1849-1864; 

 and numerous papers and memoirs in the bul- 

 letin of the Academy of Medicine, of which 

 he was one of the most distinguished members. 

 He was made a commander in the Legion of 

 Honor in 1863. 



CUETIS, BENJAMIN EOBBINS, LL. D., an 

 eminent jurist, for six years one of the Associ- 

 ate Justices of the Supreme Court of the 

 United States, born in Watertown, Mass., 

 November 4, 1809 ; died in Newport, E. I., 

 September 15, 1874. He entered Harvard 

 College in 1825, and was one of the most 

 accomplished scholars of the famous class of 

 1829, graduating with high honors, and imme- 

 diately entered the law-school, where his great 

 abilities were speedily recognized. Admitted 

 to the bar in 1832, he began the practice of 

 law at Northfield, Mass., but soon removed 

 to Boston, where he attained eminence in his 

 profession and acquired extensive business. 

 In early life he was a member of the Whig 

 party, and throughout Mr. Webster's career 

 he was a devoted follower of that statesman. 

 In September, 1851, Justice Woodbury being 

 dead, Mr. Curtis was appointed by President 

 Fillmore to fill his place on the bench of the 

 United States Supreme Court. In the case of 

 Dred Scott he dissented from the decision of 

 the court, and made a powerful argument in 

 support of his conclusions. He upheld the 

 right of Congress to prohibit slavery, and de- 

 clared his dissent from "that part of the opin- 

 ion of the majority of the court in which it is 

 held that a person of African descent cannot 

 be a citizen of the United States." On this 

 memorable occasion only one other justice of 

 the seven coincided with the opinion of Judge 

 Curtis. Finding his salary insufficient, Judge 

 Curtis retired from the Supreme Court in the 

 autumn of 1857, and resumed the practice of 

 his profession in Boston. 



In 1854 Judge Curtis published "Reports 

 of Cases in the Circuit Courts of the United 

 States." This was followed by a more impor- 

 tant work containing the decisions of the Su- 

 preme Court of the United States, with notes 

 and a digest comprising the cases reported by 

 Dallas, Cranch, Peters, and Howard. The 

 plan of this valuable compilation, the old 

 series of which filled fifty-eight volumes, was 



