LIFE, CHARACTER AND WORKS OF PROFESSOR J. W. 
M’LAUGHLIN, M. D. 
H. L. Hilgartner, M. D* 
\ 
Mr. President, Members of the Texas Academy of Science, Ladies 
and Gentlemen: 
By the untimely death of Dr. J. W. McLaughlin on November 13, 
1909, under circumstances of peculiar sadness, and at a comparatively 
early age, we lost, I am sure we will all agree, the foremost physician 
in the State. 
It has been said that “the history of an epoch is the history of its 
leading men. They are the center and source of intellectual energy. 
In them the ever-widening waves of mental progress have their ori- 
gin, and it is under their vivifying influence that science and learning 
grow and spread.” We, therefore, do well, from time to time, to 
gauge our gains by contemplating the life work of men who have 
largely contributed to them, and have thus left behind the imprint 
of their power and individuality. It is considerations such as these 
that induce the Texas Academy of Science to see in these occasions, 
brought to our notice by the stern act of death, opportunities, not 
only for showing our esteem and admiration for those who have 
wrought faithfully and well, but also for dwelling for a too brief 
moment upon their life history and estimating albeit imperfectly the 
worth of their labors and their lives. 
As a friend of nearly twenty years, who enjoyed a rarely privi- 
leged intimacy for more than half that time, I have charged myself 
with the sad, but cherished, duty of pronouncing a few words in honor 
of the memory of my friend. That my effort will prove but feeble, 
I know only too well. It would require a man of broad learning and 
real power, a gifted orator and a master of our English speech, to do 
justice to the life work of J. W. McLaughlin. 
Born near Springfield, Ohio, the 7th day of September, 1840, on 
the death of his father, C. D. McLaughlin, the subject of this sketch, 
to use his own words, “engaged in the study of medicine with his 
uncle, A. C. McLaughlin, with whom he lived until the breaking ou 
of the war between the States in April, 1861. Being an earnest and 
ardent supporter of States’ rights, the Wide-Awakes soon convinced 
young McLaughlin that south of the Mason and Dixon line was his 
only safe domicile, and, this move being in perfect harmony with the 
political views of the young man, he quietly disappeared from his 
* Austin, Texas. 
