MEMOIR OF 
Prof. Otis Frederick Manson, M.D. 
BY THOMAS F. WOOD, 
Keprlnt from the North Carolina Medical 
Journal, March, 1888. OTIS FREDERICK MANSON, M.D. 
BORN IN RICHMOND, VA., 1822-GRADUATED IN MEDI- 
CINE 1840-MOVED TO NORTH CAROLINA IN 1841-MAR- 
RIED 1843-JOINED THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF NORTH 
CAROLINA IN 1854-A MEMBER OF NORTH CAROLINA 
BOARD OF EXAMINERS IN 1859-REMOVED TO RICH- 
MOND IN 1862 TO ESTABLISH MOORE HOSPITAL-PRO- 
FESSOR IN MEDICAL COLLEGE OF VIRGINIA IN 1869- 
DIED JANUARY 25, 1888. 
Where medical education conducts one to a degree, his medical 
education is but fairly begun. If one's teachers have done their 
duty the principles of known truth are thoroughly indoctrinated, 
the young physician's powers and methods of observation are 
educated, and when he comes to the bedside of the sick he does so 
with some sense of responsibility, with some degree of independent 
thought, and with a mind open to the reception of truth. He looks 
back at his master's teachings, he looks forward to the unfolding of 
more truth, and a new stage of medical education is begun. Difficul- 
ties arise in his mind, if he be honest with himself, and upon these 
he must ponder and keep his own council, and seek the aid of his 
silent friends in his library. Here are dangers to the student, 
dangers to the doctor, but silent education the outcome. Should he 
have no thoughts of his own, if incidents do not set his own fertile 
brain to work, he may fall into the servility of author worship, and 
this is not bad should he master a great work, or a few of them : 
but otherwise shallow routinism follows, and the public he serves 
detects the lack of conviction, and so a career is ended before it has 
fairly begun. 
The style of medical education half a century ago was that of 
dogmatism. When the master in a certain branch laid down a rule, 
it was expected to be followed, and following it to the bitter end 2 
OTIS FBEDEEICK MANSON, M.tJ. 
was a safeguard against hostile criticism and law-suits in the event 
of disaster. Clinical demonstrations, physiological demonstrations 
and the inculcation of original work were not taught. Such things 
were beginning to be talked about, and highly praised, but the men 
who dared to indulge in them must be screened behind their profes- 
sorial prerogatives, or expect to be snubbed and pilloried by very 
sedate and proper reviewers. A degree of intolerance, of which 
the profession was hardly aware, stifled the thoughts and actions of 
men who had much of the true spirit of science of to-day. When 
Dr. Horace Green, of New York, dared to treat a patient by appli- 
cations to his larynx, he was savagely assaulted by the most renowned 
surgeon of the day, Dr. Valentine Mott, and his procedures pro- 
nounced malpractice, and it was declared to be an impossibility to 
apply medication to the larynx by means of an instrument. Its 
demonstration by the discoverer in the presence of competent 
witnesses mitigated but little the harsh sentence which the medical 
public had pronounced against him. Dr. William C. Norwood, of 
South Carolina, following some individual experiences, found that 
Veratrum Viride lowered the temperature in pneumonia, relieved 
the dyspnoea and cut short the disease, and reasoning from this too 
enthusiastically that he had found a substitute for the lancet in that 
disease, drew down upon his head such intemperate criticism that 
we read at this day with surprise. Dr. Marion Simms, after work- 
ing out the difficult problem of curing a vesico-vaginal fistula, when 
his opponents could no longer assert that he was unsuccessful, proved, 
to their satisfaction, that the position in which he placed his patient 
for examination, his speculum, his silver wire, his wire-twister and 
all of his method had been stolen from so many sources that they 
could see nothing in the whole procedure that deserved the name of 
originality. Gifted men who had gathered some facts about our 
indigenous remedies and were applying them with practical success, 
found no room in our too respectable branch of the profession, but 
gave to Eclecticism such time, proved drugs as podophyllin and the 
numerous resinoids. Ephraim McDowell's cases of ovariotomy 
shocked and incensed the dignified surgeons of the day, and the 
eager men who dared to follow him were denounced as "belly- 
rippers." 
Such was the spirit of the profession when Dr. Manson gained 
his M.D. fr< m the Medical Department of Hampden-Sidney in 1840. OTIS FREDERICK MANSON, M.D. 
3 
That all of the profession were not believers in the perfected 
knowledge of the masters, is exemplified in his career. 
The gifts which education had developed in Dr. Manson were 
essentially those of independent observation. He entered upon his 
field of work as one who had caught the glimpse of the scientific 
method of to-day, and his observation and his studies were at once 
directed to practical things. Theories learnt had to be tested by 
practical application at the bedside. If they were false they were 
mercilessly discarded, but if true, then all zeal, all powers of con- 
centration were brought to bear to extend the truth to its ulti- 
mate end. 
Almost the first trial of professional manhood was a conflict with 
small-pox, if it be right to call it a conflict when one boldly enters 
in and conquers a monster when he has buckled on an armor in 
which he was confident. The work was loathsome, and to go from 
the atmosphere of a library where the young physician was waiting 
for work, into the disgusting atmosphere of negro cabins, where the 
air was laden with the foul odors of the foulest small-pox, was to be 
a test of fitness for his pursuit-a trial of his armor. Lives were to be 
saved for humanity's sake, for the dollar's sake-medical principles 
which had only been accepted on faith from the teachers were to be 
vindicated. Such work for elder confreres was distasteful-was 
repulsive-was rejected. Reasoning could not show it to be their 
duty, for the sake of a few negro slaves, to risk carrying the pesti- 
lence to their bwn homes and to the homes of their reliant patients. 
Were they not the guardians of the health of the wives and children 
of their generous patrons? and would it not be unpardonable to 
risk carrying pestilence among them ? So the rejected work fell to 
the hands of the fledgling doctor, and lo ! he was no fledgling. The 
mantle of Hippocrates had fallen upon the young doctor, and his 
youthful strength proved equal to the task. Dr. Manson at this 
period of his life had barely reached his nineteenth year. He was 
of spare figure, faultless in the neatness of his dress, his eyes black 
and animated, his face and forehead bearing the impress of intel- 
lectual endowments, his manner dignified and courteous, but ever 
joyous and attractive. If the young stranger made any impression 
at a casual glance upon the people in his new home, it was that he 
was dainty and genteel; if any boy-doctor ever took a community 
by surprise he did it when he threw off the garb of the city gen- 4 
OTIS FREDERICK MANSON, M.D. 
tieman and nobly took charge of loathsome cases of small-pox 
among negroes, which meant that he scorned his ease and was 
willing to isolate himself from his friends, to deny himself comforts, 
to endure the effluvia of pestilential bodies in being both nurse and 
doctor. 
It was here the young doctor worked out for himself some of the 
practical problems of his profession. Probably he was now seeing 
his first cases of small-pox. There was no access to friendly 
counsel now, his patients must live or die by the advice and treat- 
ment he was able to offer them. In 1841 vaccination was a well 
established principle and practice, but supplies of vaccine could not 
be commanded at short notice, and there must be no delay. He 
resorted with promptness to inoculation, and with all the keen relish 
of a born physician he treasured up the lessons he was working out 
by experience. The writer of this has heard him relate the story 
of this first battle of his life, and recognized in it the fruits of a 
victory which served as the key-note of his after life-"Prove all 
things, hold fast that which is good." Ever after Manson was 
an authority on small-pox-its diagnosis, its treatment, its prophy- 
laxis-and, above all, he was master of himself. When he came 
forth from the seclusion of the atmosphere of pestilence, he came 
as a full-grown doctor, the peer of the worthiest in the community. 
An early success is not always the best thing for a young physi- 
cian, indeed it often stunts professional growth by creating a false 
estimate of one's powers and enticing one to rest with the pride of 
one who had " already attained." Not so with young Manson-he 
was only beginning to learn himself, and the applause of his new 
friends only awoke the student's ambition to prepare for more solid 
achievements. Two years had now elapsed since he came into his 
new home a stranger, professionally, and he had won the daughter 
of a highly influential family for his wife at the early age of 
twenty-one. 
As early as 1846 he began contributions to medical societies, and 
his studies from about this date, to the day of his death, were 
largely upon diseases of our malarial climate. At the date above 
given the use of quinine was in its infancy. Nearly all of the text- 
books of the day were English, and this, together with the lectures 
from Northern teachers, who knew very little of our fevers, consti- 
tuted the prevalent basis of practice. Quinine was given in doses, OTIS FREDERICK MANSON, M.D. 
5 
for malarial fever and pneumonia, that we now know were almost 
inert. Indeed quinine for pneumonia was not a prevalent treatment. 
The stereotyped way in administering the drug was to give a 
teaspoonful of the official solution, containing a grain to the dose, 
every two hours, or, for more marked cases, two grains were given 
every two hours. The sedative effect of quinine was then just 
barely hinted at, and that only by a few physicians of the South- 
west-Cartwright, McPneeters, Perrine and Metcalf-whose voice 
was not authoritative enough in that early day to impress the rank 
and file of the profession educated in the English text-books, and 
by professors who had little experience with the severe types of 
fever known to the Southern doctors practising in the river bottoms 
of the new Southern country. Diseases of a malarial character 
then constituted the bulk of Dr. Manson's practice, as it did that 
of all his contemporaries. To his own cultivated perceptions he 
began at an early day calling around him the silent counsel of books 
and periodicals, and storing his mind with all that was best. While 
he was learning men with a keen insight, so was his discriminating 
mind grasping the valuable and rejecting the trash. He had looked 
with unsatisfied longings to his old teachers, they had shown no 
evidence in their clinical portraitures that they had seen the 
malignant diseases now confronting him and carrying off patients 
in a few days, and as he stood sometimes aghast at his helplessness, 
he redoubled his studies of all these death-working processes, and 
boldly thought and acted for himself. 
In 1856 the Medical Society of North Carolina, after a period 
of incubation, was emerging into active life. The best young 
physicians of the day were coming to its support. The yearly 
meetings were drawing nearer together the individuals of a scattered 
profession, and the annual interchange of thoughts and methods, 
and personal attrition of mind with mind, was building up a spirit 
of study and research which is bearing its fruits in our day. Dr. 
Manson had been but a short time a member of the Medical Society 
when he presented a paper on "Remittent Fever" and in the 
succeeding year, 1857, he followed it by one on "Malarial 
Pneumonia?' Perhaps no paper is so well known in the literature 
of the medical profession of the State as this one. Dr. Manson was 
then thirty-five years of age, and had matured decided opinions 
about the pathology of pneumonia and the therapeutic action of 6 
OTIS FREDERICK MANSON, M.D. 
quinine in its treatment. To most of bis hearers the doctrine of 
malaria] pneumonia was not orthodox. The current belief was that 
Manson had made a new disease of an old one, and what he desig- 
nated as malarial pneumonia was simply the concurrence of the 
latter disease with malarial fever. The controversy which ensued 
between Dr. W. T. Howard, in opposition of Dr. Manson's theory 
occupied the pages of the North Carolina Medical Journal oi 
its second and third volumes. 
Dr. Howard's ability as a physician of large research and reten- 
tive memory, and his qualifications as a controversialist, were emi- 
nently demonstrated, but at this day, thirty years from the .date of 
controversy, it is an undoubted fact that the practice set forth by 
Dr. Manson's original paper has been accepted as the best practice 
of the day, and his theory as to the existence of a pneumonia having 
its origin in malarial poisoning is practically accepted by a large 
number of the most intelligent physicians in the country. Noso- 
logical terms and systems change, indeed may even have their 
fashions, so that in one section of our country a physician speaking 
of malaria does not mean marsh miasm, but emanations from decom- 
posing sewage. It is not infrequent either that one may have a 
preferred system of nomenclature, which, when attempted to be 
applied at the bedside to actual cases, could not be at all distin- 
guished from that of another physician holding opposite views, 
inasmuch as the practice of the two, if they were equally well 
educated, would differ but little. This controversy, viewed from 
the present standpoint, was largely about terms and nosological 
differences, but demonstrated clearly that both parties were learned in 
medicine and skilled in polemics. 
Practically, though, the two papers of Dr. Manson on " Remittent 
Fever" and on "Malarial Pneumonia" had a widespread influence. 
The writer of this then, for the first time, heard remarks in house- 
holds that the doctors had brought back from the Medical Society 
a new way of giving quinine. Instead of the small doses strung 
along in the day, in cases of malarial fever, five-grain doses were 
carefully administered to anticipate the paroxysm of fever. The 
style of Dr. Manson's address was rather florid, not now common to 
scientific medical writers. But in that age of the Medical Society, 
when arts were being employed to attract the interest of the general 
public in the movement for better medical education, and when the Oils FilEbERICk MANSON, M.D. 
7 
audiences were usually of a mixed character, fine writing was 
affected more than now. In fact, Dr. Manson had much of the 
flame of poesy in him, and the ardor of his nature often led him 
into ornate expressions, which, however, were never at the expense 
of the logical strength of his writing. Perhaps more than once 
was the flowing exordium of his paper on "Malarial Pneumonia" 
borrowed to grace the addresses of younger writers before our local 
societies. One instance is fresh in the mind of the writer, when 
an essay to be read before a medical society was looked forward to 
with some pleasurable expectation, it not only being upon "Cholera," 
a few cases of which had occurred in the community, but it was the 
maiden effort of a new-comer. Imagine the surprise of his audience 
when the speaker " approached his august theme with awe," " like an 
intruder into some sacred temple," using the very words of the 
familiar exordium of Manson. To all, these fine sentences were 
familiar, and the knowing glances which passed from eye to eye 
among the audience must have convinced the young essayist that 
the ear-marks of his paper were well-known, as he modestly framed 
an excuse which evaded the courteous invitation to allow a copy for 
publication. 
In 1859 Dr. Manson was chosen bv the Medical Society of North 
Carolina as a member of the first Board of Medical Examiners 
organized in that year. His associates were the following : Dr. 
James H. Dickson, of Wilmington, the scholar, the philanthropist, 
the Christian gentleman, the martyr to yellow fever; Dr. Charles 
E. Johnson, of Raleigh, the great-hearted philanthropist and author 
of a work on the Jurisprudence of Insanity, Surgeon-General of 
North Carolina; Dr. W. H. McKee, of Raleigh, the beloved physi- 
cian who carried sunlight and comfort into so many homes of 
suffering and sorrow; Dr. C. Happoldt, of Morganton, who fell in 
the yellow fever epidemic in 1878; Dr. J. Graham Tull, of New 
Berne, who united his fortunes with the North in the great civil 
war, and Dr. Caleb Winslow, of Hertford, whose contributions 
grace the pages of the old North Carolina Medical Journal 
Alas! all are now numbered with the dead, but they gave the 
impress of their character to the work inaugurated with so many 
misgivings, and blazed out the way which has been followed with 
increasing success since their day. 
The outbreak of the civil war found our people utterly ignorant 8 
OTIS FREDERICK MANSON, M.t). 
of the great duties which the havoc of battles would bring upon 
them. There were military leaders enough and of great skill, but 
the means for the care of the vTounded after a great battle, even for 
the sick from the camps, were rudimentary. The medical profession 
of the South had all been accustomed to the peaceful lives of 
general practice, and surgery was confined to amputations, occasional 
lithotomies, needle operation for cataract, and Marion-Sims' opera- 
tion for vesico-vaginal fistula. Dexterous surgeons were very few. 
North Carolina organized with commendable promptitude, having 
its own separate medical department under the Surgeon Generalship 
of the beloved Dr. Charles E. Johnson. There was a great lull in 
the South after the Battle of Manassas, during which time both 
armies were reorganizing, preparing for the great contest which was 
to be waged for the possession of Richmond. All the power of the 
Confederacy was concentrated around its new Capital, and that city 
was becoming a huge collection of hospitals. The Seven Day's 
Battles around the devoted city in June, 1862, had filled every 
hospital and private house with wounded men. Governor Vance 
was then presiding over the destinies of North Carolina, and was 
rapidly developing those abilities which placed his State foremost 
among her sisters for far-sighted care of her troops in the field and 
for the wounded of her army in the hospitals. It was determined 
to establish a hospital for North Carolina soldiers in Richmond, and 
Governor Vance selected Dr. Manson for this important position. 
In July of 1862 he came to Richmond on that mission, and selected 
a tobacco warehouse on Main street just above Rockets, naming it 
the Moore Hospital in honor of the Surgeon-General of the Confed- 
erate States. The building is now standing. It was a three-story 
brick structure, and, like all the numerous houses of the sort in 
Richmond, abundantly lighted by windows. The organization of 
this Hospital was proceeded with vigorously. The State poured 
out its supplies as lavishly as the growing scarcity of material would 
permit, and beyond what the State could do, the patriotic women 
sent of the luxuries an abundant supply, denying themselves every- 
thing for the sick and wounded. 
In July 1862 the writer of this reported at the Moore Hospital as 
a convalescent from Chickahominy fever. He found the organiza- 
tion in an incomplete state, but noticed with pride the ardor of the 
Surgeon-in-charge, and the skill with which he was overcoming the O±IS FREDERICK MANSON, M.D. 
9 
difficulties of his new position. He had purchased the entire dining 
outfit of the " Curtis Peck," a passenger steamboat which once plied 
between Richmond and Norfolk, and had secured the services of 
Captain Freeman as victualler and general caterer of the eating 
department. On the lower floor were the offices of the Surgeon and 
the Hospital Steward, and bed-rooms and linen rooms and provision 
rooms partitioned from the main space. This main 'room served as 
a general dining-room for the sick and convalescent, and around its 
well-filled board the soldiers of North Carolina were fed in a style 
that rivalled the best hotels of the day. The Hospital had a capa- 
city for about 150 patients-entirely too small for all of our 
wounded, but admirably conducted in all its details. 
The name of the Hospital was chosen by Dr. Manson to compli- 
ment Surgeon-General Moore, but in doing this he had defeated the 
intention of the Surgeon-General to name a larger hospital, proba- 
bly Camp Winder, after himself. This, together with some conflict 
of authority on the part of North Carolina as to the commission of 
medical men appointed and holding her commission, engendered a 
strife which was exhibited on sundry occasions as the war progressed. 
The Moore Hospital was abundantly supplied with everything 
needful, which led the Surgeon-General to send a demand that from 
these supplies there should be contributed a certain part to go to 
other hospitals more needy. In all the strife and conflict Dr. Manson 
bore his part with firmness and dignity. 
It was ordered by the Surgeon-General that the names of hospi- 
tals should be dropped and that they should hereafter be designated 
by numbers, and in this numbering, Moore Hospital was made 
No. 24. 
It is fresh in the remembrance of the writer what an atmosphere 
of comfort prevailed in the office of Surgeon Manson. His fine 
library had been brought to Richmond and set up in his office, and 
to a private soldier who had been enduring the dirt and misery and 
dangers of the camp and field, and who also once had a taste of 
the literature of medicine, the sight was a rare one. It is not 
exaggeration to say that this was the finest medical library ever in 
North Carolina at that day, and it was then doubtless the richest 
one in the city of Richmond, where were congregated the best 
medical men of the South. Authors the writer had often seen cited 
in the foot notes of his text-book were here displayed in all the 10 
OTIS FREDERICK MANSON, M.D. 
amplitude of their neat bindings-Louis, Andral, Grisolle, Giacom- 
mini-French, English, Italian and Latin tomes, which his agents in 
Paris, Bailliere & Bros., poured in upon his shelves, until there were 
twelve hundred volumes. The writer remembers how he fairly gloated 
over the handsome folios of Lebert's " Traite d' anatomie patliologique," 
and " Bernard and Huette's Surgery," and hundreds of others 
known to fame, but seldom within the reach of medical students- 
most of them strangers even to the old practitioner. It was in this 
library that a friendship sprung up on the part of the scholar who had 
brought these choice volumes together and the writer, a friendship 
which continued until his last days. Always ready to encourage young 
men who desired to study, he opened up the treasures of his books to 
the writer, and made him welcome on every occasion where knowledge 
of medicine was to be gained. How he adopted him into his medical 
family, how he secured from the Secretary of War a detail for him to 
attend lectures at the Medical College of Virginia, and finally his 
invitation to go before the Army Board for a medical appointment, is 
recorded here with gratitude as one of a few of the many acts he 
found pleasure in bestowing upon the young aspirants for professional 
honors. 
The library of which we Fave spoken as being so rich and complete, 
was not a vain show. Although the turmoil of war was enough to 
engross the attention of most men, he found pleasure and profit in his 
books day by day, applying himself to study, and in addition to pro- 
fessional matters kept his knowledge of Latin and Greek fresh by 
pursuing a course of study with his eldest daughter, a handsome and 
gifted young lady. 
Even in that city, where there was a large collection of doctors from 
all parts of the South, Dr. Manson was well known. He made no 
claims to special dexterity as a surgeon, but a successful resection of 
the shoulder-joint, performed on the person of a young Virginia 
soldier-Billy Rickets-was among the first of this afterwards fashion- 
able operation, and was contributed to the Army and Navy Surgeon's 
Medical Journal, then conducted in Richmond by the learned Dr. 
Middleton Michel, of Charleston. 
Dr. Manson's views of the therapeutics of quinine were soon known 
in Richmond, and were met with much warmth of opposition, as may 
be evidenced by the fact that Dr. David H. Tucker, then Professor of 
Medicine at the Virginia Medical College, said in one of his lectures; OTIS FREDERICK MANSON, M.D. 
11 
Why, gentleman, there is a North Carolina doctor here in this city 
who, I am told, says he can cure pneumonia with quinine," a piece 
of sarcasm which showed that Dr. Manson was an innovator in the 
use of this drug in the treatment of pneumonia, a practice which 
has since become well established. 
So well were the interests of the State subserved by Dr. Manson, 
that Governor Vance appointed him Medical Agent for North 
Carolina, under which commission he founded a refreshment house 
for the soldiers of this State going to and from the army. This 
excellent institution was under the immediate care of Dr. S. W. 
Murphy, a young man who had been under the friendly tutelage of 
Dr. Manson, who had served as Ward Master at Moore Hospital, 
finally graduating at the Medical College in Richmond. Dr. 
Murphy afterwards became the founder of the Rugby Academy in 
Wilmington, Delaware, where he achieved success. The economy 
of management, the satisfactory way in which food was prepared 
for hungry travellers going to and from the battle-fields, won for 
Dr. Manson the admiration of the whole State, and Governor Vance 
publicly expressed the great satisfaction which he felt for his 
eminent services. 
When the war ended he remained in Richmond as his permanent 
home. He was elected Professor of Physiology and Pathology to 
succeed Dr. Levin S. Jones, in 1869. He afterwards became 
Professor of the Practice of Medicine, continuing his connection 
with the College until 1882. During all his busy career as army 
surgeon, college professor and private physician, he was a student. 
His library was his favorite resort, and his graceful pen was ever 
devoted to recording his experience. As a student he was exhaus- 
tive, as a penman all of his motions were graceful and elegant, as 
his manuscript lectures and letters show. 
In 1882 he published a small volume entitled "A Treatise on the 
Physiological and Therapeutic Action of the Sulphate of Quinine." 
This work embodies, in addition to the history of the introduction 
of quinine and the researches of the work of therapeutists of the 
various schools, the author's peculiar views on the action of the 
drug. He points out that the primary action of quinine is " upon 
that portion of the medulla oblongata from which the auditory 
nerve arises," and by studying these effects he was enabled to deduce 
the observation that that small space in the nervous centres, from 12 
OTIS FREDERICK MANSON, M.D. 
which the auditory nerve takes its origin, is "the hyperesthesial 
region of quinial intoxication." Further he says: "It may be 
regarded as a self-evident proposition that malaria is a materies 
morbi, which, being absorbed by the blood and conveyed throughout 
the system, manifests a special affinity for the nervous system." He 
does not regard quinine as an antidotal agent against the toxic power 
of malaria, but as an agent which " obtunds, stupefies the impres- 
sionable centre, and renders the action of the poison ineffectual.'' 
This paralysant effect being accomplished, the system is afforded 
time to eliminate the noxious agent. Only a brief hint is here given 
of the author's theories, but all through the excellent essay will be 
detected a thorough familiarity with Morton (1737), Werlhoff 
(1775), Torti (1821), Senac (1759), Cleghorn (1768), Chomel (1821), 
Gintrac (1853), Giacommini (1840), Bailly (1825), and all the older 
authors which abounded in his library, and scarcely a paragraph 
escaped him, which was written by Southern authors on the applica- 
tion and effects of quinine. He accords with frankness to Dr. H. 
Perrine, of Alabama, the first publication (1826) of the sedative 
effects of quinine, but it is evident from his writing that he had 
been employing the drug upon this principle for some years before 
he was aware of the writing of Dr. Perrine. Dr. Manson gave to 
his own child (nine years old) a sedative dose of quinine in scarla- 
tina, on the principle of its known value in "diffusing animal heat, 
besides its calming and sedative effects," and had the satisfaction of 
seeing him recover from this severe fever, it being a practice not at 
all established by experieuce, and until he came across the item of 
its employment by Morton in 1737, he was not aware it had been 
previously employed in scarlet fever. 
In 1886 Dr. Manson contributed an important "Treatise on 
Malarial Haemorrhage," embracing all the haemorrhages known to 
occur in the course of malarial seizures. His erudition on this 
subject was very remarkable, and it can be truly said that there are 
but few private libraries that could have furnished the volumes there 
quoted. In this essay Dr. Manson was of the opinion that the cause 
of renal malarial haemorrhage was the presence of Billharzia, a 
proposition which he had not had the means of demonstrating, 
although it is plausible and well worth careful investigation. 
It will be seen by this sketch of the literary career of Dr. Manson 
that a large part of his studies were devoted to fevers of climatic OTIS FREDERICK MANSOTt, M.D. 
13 
origin, their prophylaxis, etiology and treatment. Few students of 
his day were in hearty sympathy with him, as few of them had had 
so extensive an acquaintance with the venerable authors of the past, 
and consequently could not comprehend the accumulation of facts, 
new and old, which make up the sum of recorded knowledge. 
Intense application to one topic gave the impression to some that 
Dr. Manson was an unsymmetrical student, but this opinion did 
not gain ground with friends who had the privilege of knowing 
Lim more intimately. His powers of thought were deeply cultivated, 
and his versatility of learning was great. His independence of 
thought brought much opposition to his medical teaching, but in 
spite of lengthy controversies his theories, and especially his prac- 
tice, have stood the test of time, and fairly rank him with Dr. S. H» 
Dickson, of Charleston, Dr. George B. Wood, of Philadelphia, and* 
Dr. Daniel Drake, of Ohio. What he has done for the literature of 
medicine may not now appear, but in time to come the studies to 
which he devoted the best powers of his trained intellect will serve 
to shorten the labors of students, in furnishing a well digested view 
of the mass of learning which lies buried in volumes antique and 
little accessible except to the veteran book-hunter. 
No attempt will here be made to complete a bibliography of his 
writings, but we trust that the large material which he so skilfully 
and laboriously collected towards "A History of Fevers from the 
Earliest Times" may be kept together until some student of equal 
ability may be found to complete the great undertaking. 
North Carolina is proud of his distinguished abilities, which have 
left their impress upon her medical profession, and with the medical 
profession of our sister State we unite in placing this tribute of 
respect upon his fresh-made grave. Thomas F. Wood,