This community has so long looked up to Dr. JOHN WARE as one of the leading members of the medical profession, that the announcement of his sudden death, which took place on Friday, the 29th ult., brings to all the sense of a great public loss. As a consulting physician in cases of great responsibility or difficulty, his professional brethren have so long enjoyed his wise counsel that they hardly knew how to spare him. He was endeared to all by the gentleness and kindliness of his manner, by his hearty interest in the welfare of the sick, and by his ever fresh and ready intelligence. The profession in this city has never lost one of its number who has filled up a larger measure of honorable devotion to the highest interests of humanity. He was a man of a very complete life. Attaining to a position among the first in purely professional standing, his reputation as a philanthropist was in no degree less. He was a man of most untiring industry. Looking beyond the pecuniary reward of professional success, he always showed an ardent desire to contribute his share to the progress of medical science; and the various well-matured results of his thoughtful professional life which he has published, will take a permanent place in standard medical literature. We feel, as every one must who knew him, that in his death we have lost a personal friend. The great reaper has made sad havoc of late among the respected elders of our profession here, and a heavier burden of responsibility rests upon those who are left behind to live up to the high standard of personal and professional character which they have set up. .

At the regular meeting of the Suffolk District Medical Society, held April 30th, 1864, the President, Dr. J. Mason Warren, announced to the Society the death of their distinguished Fellow, and proposed that the regular business be suspended to pay a fitting tribute to his memory ; whereupon Dr. Jacob Bigelow rose, and said :—

“ I rise, Mr. President, to interrupt the accustomed order of proceeding, by announcing an event already brought home but too surely to the knowledge of most of us, the death of our honored and beloved associate, Dr. John Ware. Within the last few months we have had occasion more than once to pay to distinguished members of our Society suddenly taken from our midst, the solemn tribute of our last regard. But never has a more general sense pervaded our professional community, of affection and regret, than that which now follows with sad and grateful recollections the memory of a wise, faithful, friendly and blameless physician.

“ Dr. Ware are was a surviving representative of a family long honored among us, and of whose pervading and influential reputation, his own character formed no inferior part. Commencing life as an obscure professional student and practitioner in a somewhat humble part of the city, struggling for many years against difficulties, silently building the solid platform which was to sustain his future eminence, he at length became a man whom society needed, and whose claims and services it was not slow to recognize. He became a writer, a teacher, and for many years an extensive and laborious practitioner, and when at length his impaired health compelled him to forego a large part of his ordinary duties, he found in country retirement, in philosophic studies, in theological inquiries, and in the intercourse of his many friends, a solace congenial to his placid, unaspiring, rational and truth loving character.

“ During a lifetime which considerably exceeded the average duration of human existence, he followed with unwavering devotion the path of conscientious duty. His kindly nature forbade him to speak ill even of those who crossed his path, and I do not now know that he had an enemy. The benignity of his temper, the impartiality of his reasoning, the clearness of his perception, the justice of his inferences, and the attractive language in which he conveyed his thoughts, caused his presence to be welcomed by the sick and his counsel to be sought and respected by his professional brethren.

“ His opinions on medical subjects are well known. Vindicating the power of his science for good, but deprecating its too frequent perversion for evil, he pursued the independent path of professional rectitude, and guarding alike against unsound influences, and impulsive and hasty generalizations, he subordinated to the welfare of the patient the self-love of the practitioner. He did not claim infallibility for his art, nor impute to his own exaggerated skill the inevitable processes of nature. With the frankness and humility which indicate a strong and self-reliant mind, he watched and guided, but never recklessly thwarted, the restorative influences inherent in the unmolested constitution.

“ Dr. Ware, knowing the hereditary tendency of his family to cerebral disease, had looked forward with some apprehension to the possible occurrence of chronic, perhaps of paralytic infirmity. May we not say that he was most happy in consummating a beautiful life by what the ancients have fitly termed a beautiful death. His race was run, his peace was made, the mission of his life worthily, nobly fulfilled. There were ties that still bound him to earth, but these were lessening and loosening, and the time of their inevitable disruption was but too obviously at hand.

“ ‘ Then, with no fiery, throbbing pain,
No cold gradations of decay,

Death broke at once the vital chain.
And freed his soul the nearest way.’

“ Let us preserve and cherish in our hearts the image of his recollected virtues. Let us strive like him to uphold the just, the honest, the truthful standard of our science and profession—so that when we shall approach the termination, to some of us already not far remote. we may feel; like him, the sustaining consciousness that we have not lived in vain.

“ Mr. President, I do not rise to add to the just and comprehensive remarks just made by Dr. Bigelow on the character of Dr. Ware after his arrival at manhood, but to say a few words regarding his youthful habits, and to offer two short resolutions signifying our appreciation of the character and worth of our deceased brother. Dr. Ware entered college in the year 1809, when I first became acquainted with him from his brother, Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., who was in the class above and my classmate. This circumstance brought me into a somewhat intimate acquaintance with the subject of this notice. His industry, his modest demeanor and his truthfulness attracted the observation and secured the esteem of all his associates. Having graduated in 1813, he entered on the study of medicine with the late Dr. John Gorham, with whom I was a student. Here the same moral qualities were conspicuous in him as in college. He evinced a remarkable zeal in the acquisition of medical knowledge, and had a happy faculty of communicating his ideas to others. His exemplary conduct in college is noteworthy on account of the early age at which he entered—a few months over 13 years. I submit the following resolutions for your consideration :—

“Resolved, That in the death of Dr. John Ware, the Society has lost a learned and beloved member, who for more than forty years assiduously and successfully devoted himself to the practice of his profession, and by public teaching to the advancement of medical science.

_ “ Resolved, That his modest and urbane manners, his purity of life and his unflinching integrity have won the esteem and love of all who knew him, and have engraved on our hearts the model of a Christian gentleman.

“ Resolved, That a copy of the above be published by the Secretary and presented to his afflicted family.”

The above resolutions were unanimously adopted.

From a biographical sketch of Dr. Ware, in the Daily Advertiser, we learn that his age at the time of his decease was 68 years. He was son of Rev. Henry and Mary (Clarke) Ware, and was born in Hingham, Mass, 19th December, 1795. His father was for several years minister in Hingham, and was afterwards Hollis Professor of Theology in Cambridge. His mother was daughter of Rev. Jonas Clarke, of Lexington, and granddaughter of Rev. Thomas Hancock, who was grandfather of the celebrated John Hancock. The subject of this notice graduated with high honors at Harvard College in 1813. Immediately after leaving college he began the study of medicine, and received his degree of MD. in 1816, when he began the practice of his profession in Duxbury, but in 1817 he removed to Boston, where he resided the remainder of his life. He soon acquired an extensive practice, and attained to the highest rank in professional skill. In 1832 he was appointed Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Medical Department of Harvard College, and held this office until 1858. He published various medical lectures and discourses ; essays on “ Group,” on “ Delirium Tremens,” and on ” Haemoptysis ; ” a Volume on the “ Philosophy of Natural History,” and a “ Memoir of Henry Ware, Jr.” (Boston, 1846.) He was for several years President of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He Was also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. During the year 1828 he Was one of the Editors of this JOURNAL.

Reference:  The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 70, No. 1, 1864, pages 284-287