BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 7 



entered the town at this, and at subsequent periods, but almost all retired before 

 his death, long before which time his own success had become complete. I 

 think it may be said, not invidiously, that he took the first rank as a surgeon 

 in that vicinity. For many years he experienced the bitter influences of poverty. 

 But though straitened in means, he would never consent to become a mere 

 routinist in the profession. He knew that there was progress, and he determined 

 not to fall behind the foremost. Accordingly, in 1849, he quitted practice and 

 spent several weeks in study at New York with immense advantage. 



In 1837, six years after beginning practice, he sent a communication to the 

 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. From that time until January, 1855, he 

 was a frequent contributor to the pages of that journal. These papers are all 

 written in a curt, pithy style, exactly to the point, with not a word too many 

 or too few. He evidently never writes for mere effect, but simply to tell, as 

 clearly and as concisely as possible, whatever he meets with in his daily practice 

 that he thinks will be of real value to his profession. The papers are mostly 

 on the surgical cases, but he likewise records some very interesting cases in 

 medicine proper and pathology. We can trace the gradual rising of his repu- 

 tation by the gradually increasing severity of the accidents mentioned. These 

 records, by their gentle allusions and occasional bursts of real feeling, demonstrate 

 that he never operated without having a feminine tenderness for the suffering 

 of his patients. 



In February, 1854, he delivered an address before the Franklin District Medical 

 Society, admirable in its philosophy, and wise in the accumulated experience of 

 seventeen years of active practice. The subject of this address was "Fractures 

 of the Thigh." 



In May, 1855, he prepared, at the request of a committee of the Massa- 

 chusetts Medical Society, a communication on the "Hygienic Condition of the 

 Survivors of Ovariotomy." 



In 1854 he was chosen Vice-President of the Massachusetts Medical Society, 

 which office he held for the usual period of two years. 



We have alluded to Dr. Deane's delight in nature. Even while a mere child 

 he made his juvenile scientific investigations upon the growth of trees, and spent 

 his time much more eagerly in the woods and along the trout brooks than in 

 the milking of cows. 



In the early part of the year 1835, with many of his fellow-citizens, he noticed 



