History of Peru, (Oxford County) Maine United States of America

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Erastus Eugene Holt, physician, was born in Peru, Maine, June 1, 1840; son of Erastus and Lucinda (Packard) Holt; grandson of Abel and ?? (Pratt) Holt, and of Ephraim and Lydia (Stiles) Packard, and a descendant of Scotch and English ancestors. He attended the public schools, Hebron academy and Westbrook and Gorham seminaries; engaged in mercantile pursuits for five years, and then applied himself to study and teaching. He was graduated from Bowdoin, M.D. in 1874, and from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York city, with the same degree in 1875. He was demonstrator of anatomy at Bowdoin, 1875-77. He was married in October, 1876, to Mary Brooks Dyer. In 1881 he went to Europe to make a special study of ophthalmology and otology and while in London was a member of the Seventh International Medical congress, held in August. 1881. He founded, in 1886, the Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary in Portland, and was appointed executive surgeon of that institution. He obtained the passage of an act for the prevention of blindness, passed by the Maine legislature in 1891, and was instrumental in obtaining the act to regulate the practice of medicine and surgery in Maine, which went into effect in 1896. He founded the Portland Medical club in 1876; was the originator of the Maine Academy of Medicine and Science in 1894, and the founder and editor of the Journal of Medicine and Science. He was also one of the founders of the New England Ophthalmological society. He was elected a member of the Maine Medical association; the American Ophthalmological and Otological societies; the Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons; and the American Medical association. Colby university conferred upon him the honorary degree of A.M. in 1897. His published writings consist chiefly of medical and surgical treatises, reports and papers published in various scientific periodicals, principally on the subjects of ophthalmology and otology.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Peru, (Oxford County) Maine

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