MEMORIAL 
-OF — 
GEORGE MARVIN, M. D. NOTE. 
THE LATE'DR/ MARVIN. 
Estimate of his Social and Professional Services. 
“ At a meeting of the Medical Society of the County 
of Kings, held January/19, 18V5, the following Memoir 
and Resolutions concerning the late Dr. Marvin, an 
ex-President of the Society, were reported by a commit- 
tee appointed at a piVvious meeting, and adopted. Dr. 
Marvin was one of/he most resbected, as he was one of 
the most venerable and influential of the distinguished 
physicians of Ehrooklyn.”—Brooklyn Eagle. ]lmi rA p h i e.ttrS k h t c h . 
George, Marvin, w+iose long and useful life 
tn jfT rhtnr in thin rity. on the 23d of December, 
1874, was born in Norwalk, >*■- Fairfield County, Con- 
necticut, on the 23d of February, 1798. tic was; 
-tqUeTiUy nemly scvetlLV-SCreii years of 'age at-the time 
death. Dr. Marvin graduated from Yale College, 
in 1817, nqfPTa uf sinty ona mwmbci'j. 
class appears to have included an unusual number of 
men who became distinguished, honored and useful in 
after life. Of thtHj; number, sixteen became Christian 
ministers, twenty-five were lawyers, and five physicians. 
Three-fourths of the number were thus professional 
men. Of these, two were presidents of a university or a 
college, one a bishop ■ of the' Protestant Episcopal 
Church, five were professors in colleges, one a professor 
in a theological seminary, one a professor in a medical 
college, two were judges of a supreme Court (State), 
four judges of subordinate courts, three representatives 
in Congress (of the United States), one a representative 
in a foreign-feottil. aild Iavo were mayors of cities. Who* 4 
memorial. 
will doubt that under the guidance of one of the most 
successful educators who ever presided over the affairs 
of an AmeHcim college (the renowned president, Dr. 
Timothy association of young Marvin 
with such men, during theTowiuitive years of his char- 
acter, did much to develop and strengthen those traits 
which distinguished him through life ? 
On leaving college, Mr. Marvin took charge of an 
academy in Maryland, for six months, and commenced 
the study of medicine, and, in 1821, graduated in the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, receiving the degree of Doctor 
in Medicine, then far less common, and a far higher evi- 
dence of advanced comparative attainment in medical 
knowledge than at the present day. In July of that year 
(1821), he settled in the city of Rochester, N. Y., and 
engaged in a profitable practice in co-partnership with 
Dr. Backus, a prominent and highly reputable physician 
of that city, a son of the ceTetirated Rev. Di\~Asahf.l 
Backus, President of Hamilton College, in Central New 
York, and himself afterwards a senator of this State for 
one or two terms. 
In 1824, Dr. Marvin was married to Miss Agnes 
Platt, of Westport, Connecticut. This union, which 
proved to be the source of more than ordinary happiness 
to both parties, continued for 46 years,—Mrs. Marvin 
preceding her husband to the grave in May, 1870. 
Dr. Marvin resided in Rochester seven years, when, 
in consequence of the ill health of Mrs. Marvin, it was MEMORIAL. 
5 
deemed advisable that she should return to her native 
town, U» the hrrpe that she~would~1rrtd~iu the atmosphere- 
in which she was born, the health of which she had been 
deprived since her residence in Rochester. 
This hope having been in a measure realized, Dr. 
Marvin removed to the city of New York, and soon 
thereafter, in 1831, at the urgent solicitation of friends 
residing here, came to thenceforth clevoted 
himself to the active pursuits of his professional calling 
until the day of his death, a period of almost forty-four 
years. 
Two, only, of the fifteen or twenty physicians resid- 
ing in this city or county at the tinre of his removal 
here, survive him. 
A prominent trait in the character of Dr. Marvin, was 
his modest estimate of himself. His judgment—a faculty 
of vast importance to a medical man, and one for want 
of which not a few men of brilliant and large literary 
and scientific acquirements fail in practical life—was 
sound. He arrived at his conclusions after deliberate 
examination, and his decisions were usually correct. 
This carefulness in diagnosis, and an unwonted facil- 
ity in the adaptation of remedial measures, made him a 
very successful practitioner. Dr. Marvin was a man of 
indefatigable industry, never resting when duty called 
him to labor, and apparently happiest when most fully 
employed. To these characteristics, he added the strict- 6 
MEMORIAL. 
est integrity and a practical sympathy, which endeared 
him to his patients, and secured their entire confidence. 
Nor was that confidence misplaced, for Dr. Marvin was 
not a mere active, attentive, faithful, routine physician. 
He was fully aware of the vast, rapid, and numerous 
changes going on in the profession. He kept himself 
well informed in the periodical literature of the day, and 
by intercourse with intelligent members of his profes- 
sion, hailed every well established improvement with 
genuine satisfaction, and, to his latest day, availed him- 
self of the aids which science and practical observation 
contributed to the healing art. 
V At the time when Dr. M awviai..to .Rrtmklyn 
Jr 
there was neither dispensary nor hospital in the city, 
nor was there any public provision adequate to the 
proper treatment of the pauper population, then, per- 
haps, as large, in proportion to the total number of in- 
habitants, as at present. The medical relief of this 
class, consequently, fell upon the medical residents of 
the city. The amount of labhr performed in this way 
was very great, and Dr. Marvin did his full share of the 
work. No one, it is believed, who appliechto him, was sent 
away unrelieved, although, as a consequence, the won- 
derful power of continuous and combined mental and 
bodily effort 'connected with his stalwart frame and ro- 
bust health, was not seldom taxed to its utmost. Dr. 
Marvin, we have said, was of singular industry, yet, 
in his His was not an industiv MEMORIAL. 
7 
prompted alone by the prospect of pecuniary gain, but 
mainly by a true professional zeal, and by a kindness 
of heart too seldom found united in this money-seeking 
age, in which the lustre of many really good, and even 
valuable discoveries, is tarnished and dimned by the too 
evident desire to divert them to personal advantage. 
This love for his profession, and this benevolence 
toward his fellow men led Dr. Marvin to prosecute his 
calling to the last week of his life, although with health 
impaired by arduous service, and by the hand of time. 
a)f intrigue on which too many 
strict integrity and truthful-' 
and just in his intercourse 
hren, he was content to know, 
o await (not impatiently), the 
y rewarded >y the respect, the 
tion of a large constituency, 
who for years continued steadfast in their regard, and 
he had the gratification of ministering, in numerous in- 
stances, to the children’s his early friends. 
The rich and the cultured respected and .confided in him. 
The odor loved him, and gratefully received his kind 
ijHnistrations. X 
Dr. Marvin, although always hesitating to take a 
prominent position, and never aspiring to the place of a 
leader, was a most reliable supporter of those movements 
by which existing institutions in have been im- 8 
MEMORIAL. 
proved, and new institutions founded. He was Presi- 
dent of this Society for one term, and declined a second 
election. He was Consulting Physician to the first City 
Hospital, known better as the Adams Street Hospital, 
and for several years a Councillor of the Long Island 
College Hospital, which last office he held at his death. 
This imperfect sketch of the life and character of our 
deceased associate would be signally incomplete, did we 
fail to notice the religious element which influenced and 
modified themt Dr. Marvin was, for thirty-five years, 
a member of the First Presbyterian Church, in thw-etyv, 
•which he joined during the early pastorate of the Rev. 
Dr. Samuel H. Cox. His religious character was that 
of a sincere, unostentatious, consistent Christian. 
Thus has passed away the veteran of more than half 
a century, respected by all who knew him, without an 
enemy, in the fullness of his age, “ before the evil days 
had come,” which have no pleasure in them. “As a 
shock of corn, fully ripe, is gathered into its garner, so 
he hath been gathered.” Few men in our community 
have left a better example, or one which it would be 
safer for us to follow. 
The following resolutions were also adopted: 
Resolved, That the Medical Society of the County of Kings, 
recognizes in the death of its late associate and one of its former 
Presidents, Dr. George Marvin, the removal here, 
of one of its oldest, most honored, and most estimable member's.' MEMORIAL 
9 
Resolved, That his high integrity, his assiduous discharge of the 
duties of his profession, his strict regard and unselfish devotion to 
the welfam,of his patients, the liberality and kindness which marked 
his intercourse with his professional brethren, and with the commu- 
nity in which\for so many years he lived, his disposition to put a 
charitable construction upon the motives of those who differed with 
him, and even those who injured him, in fine, to do to others as he 
would they should oto to him—all these traits, as excellent as they 
are rare, and illustrating, in an unusual degree, the principles of our 
ethical code, commend nis memory to the kindest and most respect- 
ful recollection of his coevals, and his example as a citizen, a Chris- 
tian, and a physician, to all the members of this Society. 
vTheodore L. Mason, 
\S. Thorne, 
J.’C. Halsey, 
• Committee. 
The Society, represented by\ts officers, and a large 
number of its members, attended\he funeral services, 
directed the Secretary to present an engrossed copy of 
the foregoing Memoir and Resolutions *o the bereaved 
family, and to publish them in the papers at the city. in 
GEORGE MARVIN, M. D.