Joseph Medill (b. April 6, 1823; d. March 16, 1899) rose to the high rank of editor-in-chief and principal owner of “The Chicago Tribune,” through the schooling afforded by connection with several minor papers. No man of the century was more thoroughly imbued with the true editorial instinct. Of dignified and prudent expression, broad and keen thought, ever alive to the privileges and power of the press, he made his journal a model of excellence in all its varied departments as well as a colossal property.
Joseph Pulitzer (b. 1847) was founder and editor of “The St. Louis Post-Dispatch,” and afterwards became owner and editor of “The New York World.” Like the elder Bennett he ranks as one of the dashing, daring editors of the century, whose aim is to gain notoriety and extraordinary circulation for his journal by strong, and often vituperative, attack upon public men and things, and by tireless efforts to secure general news of a unique and sensational character, at whatever cost.
Murat Halstead (b. 1829) rose to editorial distinction, and became a strong factor in the life of the middle West, through his connection with the “Cincinnati Commercial,” which he raised to a flourishing financial condition, with immense power in municipal, state, and national politics. In 1890 he became editor of “The Standard-Union,” Brooklyn, N. Y.
Whitelaw Reid (b. October 27, 1837) is a type of the highest class of American political editors, and represents the best in that kind of American journalism which aims to be both alert and catholic in its efforts, without the sensationalism of personality, exaggeration, or the horrible. Next to Mr. Greeley, whom he succeeded as editor, he will best be remembered in connection with “The New York Tribune,” and has made his journal a great power along nearly all lines, particularly those political.
Scientists.—Sir Charles Bell, of Scotland (b. November 17, 1774; d. April 29, 1842), is a shining example of patience and genius for investigation, discovery, and deduction in medical science. The nervous system was his particular forte; and he discovered the most important principle that the brain is divided into two parts, each having its corresponding division in the spinal marrow, and that one set of nerves conveys sensations from the body to the brain, another carrying back to the body and its muscles the command of the brain, and finally that nerves conveying different sensations are connected with different parts of the brain. He was a remarkable surgeon, a brilliant lecturer, and a medical author of universal fame.
Samuel D. Gross (b. July 8, 1805; d. May 6, 1884) ranked as one of the epoch-makers in his profession. As physician, surgeon, and medical author he showed a lofty aim, strict devotion, marked originality, and powerful intellect. His numerous works commanded world-wide attention and became accepted standards. Two of them, at least, were the first of their kind ever published in America.
George C. L. F. D. Cuvier, of France (b. August 23, 1769; d. May 13, 1832), exhibited in his career the immense reformation and advance in natural history during the first three decades of the nineteenth century. He expanded the system of comparative anatomy as the only true basis of natural history, and from an utterly chaotic and unintelligible heap of dry facts concerning animal structures he finally deduced the underlying, natural principles of unity, in their classification and division. He also established many positive laws of geology and paleontology and, by his vast discoveries and daring conceptions therein, developed the comparatively new science of fossil animal-life to an extent hitherto undreamed of.
Charles Robert Darwin, of England (b. February 13, 1809; d. April 18, 1893), was one of those well-equipped and persistent scientists whose investigations led to the modern doctrine of the origin and evolution of species by means of natural selection and preservation of favored races in the struggle for life. His conclusions were at first bitterly rejected, especially by religious scientists, but ere the end of the century came they met with wide acceptance. Only such a genius and patience as his could have collected, arranged, and interpreted the gigantic mass of facts out of which he slowly deduced his conclusions.
Louis J. R. Agassiz (b. May 28, 1807; d. December 14, 1873), was the premier of his day as a scientist and naturalist. Of wonderful physical and mental power, vast enthusiasm, untiring industry, and exceptional propensity for research and orderly arrangement, he developed the modern science of ichthyology, propounded new and accepted theories of geology and of glacial systems, and established the magnificent Museum of Natural History at Cambridge, Mass. Astonishingly prolific as a writer, he remains a constant source of inspiration to naturalists and scientists.
Samuel C. F. Hahnemann, of Germany (b. April 11, 1755; d. July 2, 1843), was an epoch-maker in the field of medicine. By 1820 his theories and publications had awakened universal interest, and the homœopathic system had become an established school. Despite the long and bitter war between allopathy and homœopathy, it is certain that the latter has contributed largely to render medicine free from many old-time methods of an indefensible, if not actually harmful or dangerous kind.