Memoir of John Collins Warren, M.D.

Date:
[1865?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoir of John Collins Warren, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    in the temperance reformation, operating, as they have done, more ex- tensively on the prosperity and happiness of the community, are a source of more satisfaction than any other labors. Probably my other occupations might have been as well or better performed by some one else ; but perhaps it would have been difficult to find another person who would have been willing to undergo the opposition, ridicule, la- bor and expense in the cause of temperance. Dr. Warren was one of the first members, and for many years an active officer of St. Paul's Church, which he joined in 1820. As a child he had attended with his father's family at the church in Brattle street, then strictly Oalvinistic in creed. For a few years after his marriage he attended the Old Brick, or First Church, which then stood upon the present site of Joy's Building, nearly opposite the head of State street. On the death of the pastor, Rev. Win. Emerson, he returned to Brattle street, then under the pastoral charge of Mr. Buckminster. After the death of this gentleman and the resignation of his successor, Mr. Edward Everett, who was called to the professorship of Greek in Harvard College, Dr. Warren was led to make a careful study of theo- logy, and having decided in favor of the Trinitarian doctrine, was naturally led to attach himself to the new organization of St. Paul's. He took an active part in all the affairs of the church, and was for seventeen years one of the wardens ; he continued a member of the vestry until removed by death. In 1823, Dr. Warren purchased three acres of land, including the top of Bunker Hill, where the action of June 17, 1775, was fought, with the view to the erection of a monument to commemorate that event. A large sum was raised by subscription, and advantage was taken of the visit of Lafayette to this country to lay the corner stone. As chairman of the building committee, Dr. Warren devoted much time and labor to the work, and at one time became, with Col. Per- kins, Wm. Sullivan, and Amos Lawrence, jointly responsible for the sum of 32,000 dollars for the advancement of the building. The two brass field pieces, the Hancock and Adams, now in the cham- ber near the summit of the Monument, were procured by Dr. Warren in 1825, from the Commonwealth, and were presented to the Bunker Hill Monument Association on the completion of the structure, in 1842. In 1837, Dr. Warren published his Surgical Observations on Tu- mors, an illustrated octavo volume of over six hundred pages, which was the first extensive work of the kind ever published, if we except the collection of cases by John Bell, published in his Principles of Surgery. This work was favorably noticed by the principal medi- cal journals in this country and in Great Britain. Of the cases which