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man. He parted from his compeers with the benediction of
Horace, "Farewell, and be happy. If you know any precepts
better than these be so candid as to communicate them-- if
not, partake of these with me."
-------------"If
a better system's thine,
Impart it freely, or make use of mine." |
In truth, he seemed, above most others, to
have been gifted with the true genius of the medical art--an
instinctive, unerring sagacity in detecting the nature of
the Protean forms of disease, and applying the appropriate
remedy. Frank and gentle and unassuming in his manners and
deportment, he displayed the "power of the art without
the show, and at all times and on every occasion manifested
the calm energy and moral courage, and self-devotion, so
eminently characteristic of his noble profession."
Dr. Page was very communicative to his pupils,
to whom he was ever kind and instructive. Some of them have
become quite distinguished--and there are those who have
carried his treasured precepts to the South and to the West,
and to the West Indies ; and adopting his gentle manners,
his temperate habits and medical code of practice, have
invariably found friends and met with professional success.
Upon such a physician the Board of Bowdoin
College conferred the honorary degree of Doctor in Medicine.
The following comprises a list of his writings
and publications, as recollected from the writer of his
memoir. 1. An Account of the Malignant fevers at Hallowell,
in the summer and autumn of 1798-99. 2. Observations on
Epidemic Dysentery as it appeared in 1800. 3. Typhus Fever
in 1807. 4. Memoir upon the Spotted or Petechial Fever of
New England, 1816. 5. Case of Poison by Arsenic, successfully
treated, 1820. 6. Practical Observations on the Treatment
of Scarlatina, 1833.
Dr. Page was for many years a member and Counsellor of the
Massachusetts Medical Society. He regarded the institution
as of great consequence to the profession, and spoke of his
connection to with it with infinite satisfaction, and seemed
to have its interests and welfare continually at heart. He
was a regular subscriber, and occasionally a contributor,
to the New England and Boston Medical Journal, from its first
series, and regularly received and perused its interesting
members for upwards of 30 years. He had them carefully preserved
and bound, and they comprised a portion of his medical library
which he left to his eldest son in Louisiana, and are, perhaps,
the only complete and perfect copy in the State. He was early
initiated into the "ancient and honorable Fraternity of Masons,"
of which he was a zealous and faithful member, and with the
highest degrees of the order were conferred upon him, and
worn with characteristic modesty worthy of himself and the
charitable institution to which he belonged.
Throughout the whole period of his long, laborious and useful
life, he played the part of the "good Samaritan." He
was unostentatious in his habits and simple in his style of
living and dress, and so averse to no-
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