William Henry Doughty

Background

William Henry Doughty was born on February 5, 1836 in Augusta, Georgia, United States. He was the son of Ebenezcr Wesley and Margaret (Crowell) Doughty, his father was a successful business man.

Education

Doughty received his preliminary education at the Richmond County Academy, a typical school of the ante bellum South, and began the study of medicine with Doctors Dugas, Ford, Eve, and Campbell. He was graduated at the Medical College of Georgia (now Medical Department of the University of Georgia) in 1855.

Career

Doughty began practise of his profession in Augusta where, with the exception of the Civil War period, he lived until his death. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was commissioned surgeon in the Confederate army, serving as operating surgeon successively at the Macon Hospital, the Walker Division Hospital at Lauderdale Springs, Miss. , and finally at the Second Georgia Hospital at Augusta. After the close of the war he was appointed instructor at the University of Georgia, becoming professor of materia medica and therapeutics in 1868, which position he held until 1875. Thereafter he devoted himself to his practise until his death.

He devoted much of his time to his cherished hobby, climatology, and was a pioneer in this country in the study of climate in its relation to medical science. He early pointed out that Arizona and neighboring regions afford a favorable climate for tubercular patients. Though he never saw the Pacific Ocean or took a sea voyage, he was one of the first to understand the role played by the Japan Current in the maintenance of the equable climate of California, and by reasoning and correlating the data obtained by others, he determined what he thought must be the course of the northern and North-American portions of the current, opinions which were later proved correct, as was also his estimation of the northernmost course of the Gulf Stream.

He wrote a number of medical articles, mainly in the fields of obstetrics and gynecology.

Achievements

• Doughty was one of the highly efficient general practitioners of an earlier generation. He was instrumental in forming the board of health of his state and drafted the act of the legislature calling it into being.

Works

• book

  • The physical geography of the north Pacific ocean;: The peculiarities of its circulation, and their relations to the climate of the Pacific coast of the United States

Personality

Resourceful, conscientious, and a deep thinker, Doughty was beloved for personal as well as professional reasons, and, as so often happened with his type, he disiegarded his own health and continued to work even when suffering from a lingering illness.

Connections

In October 1855 Doughty married Julia Sarah, daughter of Dr. William L. Felder of Sumter, South Carolina. His son, William Plenry Jr. , became a physician of note and was dean and professor of surgery at the University of Georgia.

Spouse:

Julia Sarah Felder

Son:

William Plenry Jr.

physician