CLASS OF 1886
Dr. Charles Fourgeaud McGahan, one of the most distinguished of the younger graduates of the Medical School, died at his winter home at Aiken, S. C., February IS, of pneumonia, after an illness of only twentyfour hours. Dr. McGahan was born in Charleston, S. C., July 25, 1861, being the son of Thomas R. and Emma (Fourgeaud) McGahan, and graduated from Georgetown College with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1881. After graduation from Dartmouth he spent several years in Europe, availing himself of the advantages of the hospitals of Paris, Vienna, and London. He practiced for a time at Chattanooga, Tenn., where he was professor of anatomy in the U. S. Grant University from 1889 to 1892, but failure of health compelled his removal. He was a member of the American Medical Association, the American Climatological Association, the American Laryngological, Rhinological, and Otological Association, the Mississippi Valley Medical Association, and various state and local bodies; director of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis; medical director of the Aiken Cottage Sanatorium. The following appreciation is from one who knew its subject well:
"With the death of Dr. Charles F. McGahan there passed away a remarkable personality. Born in South Carolina, and brought up in Charleston at a time when the influences of the Civil War pressed heavily upon the feelings of the community,' he made himself a citizen of the United States of that high order which knows no bounds for love and service, North or South,, among rich or poor.
"The ability that Dr. McGahan developed as a physician entitled him to the first rank in great cities, but he was handicapped early in his career by a delicacy of the lungs. This meant for his indomitable energy no diminution in usefulness, only choosing for his work the climates that suited his constitution, Aiken for the winter, and Bethlehem, N. H., for the summer months.
"His practice grew so large that he was too often overworked, but his cheerfulness seemed to pull him through as well as his patients. There was no professed mindcure in his treatment, it was spontaneous brightness like sunshine when he entered a sick-room. To the stranger there might almost seem a superficiality in the sparkling of this cheerful cordiality, but he would find that it never wore out. He was physician and tonic combined.
"His favorite charge was the cottage sanatorium at Aiken, where he treated the men as gentlemen in their own home, but without money and without price. He won their love and lasting gratitude, which they often expressed after they left his care, enabled to take up their life work again.
"With all- his unbounded geniality the doctor was unflinching when it came to a question of principle with regard to upholding the rights of the poor against the prejudices of the influential rich.
"He was working until the day preceding his death. His example must live, but his loss is irreparable for a large community."
