"Dr. Dixi Crosby, for thirty-two years professor of Surgery in Dartmouth College, died at his residence in Hanover, N. H., September 26, 1873. Dr. Crosby was born February 7, 1800, at Sandwich, N. H., of pure New England stock,--strong in the best Puritan element, where self-reliance, love of justice, and unbending will, formed the basis of character and the mainspring of action. His father's father was a captain in the Revolutionary army, and served with two of his sons at the battle of Bunker Hill. His maternal grandfather (Hoit) was one of Washington's body-guard, and later in life a judge of some distinction. His father, Dr. Asa Crosby, who married Betsey Hoit, was a surgeon of eminence in eastern New Hampshire. At the age of twenty, he entered upon the study of Medicine in the office of his father. "The practice of a country doctor in New Hampshire of course embraced every department and variety of professional work. But Surgery offered to young Crosby a special charm, and the ardor with which he threw himself into this branch of the profession showed early fruits. From the day when he commenced his Anatomy, his practice and his study went hand in hand. Fearless and original, ready in expedients and ingenious in their use, he observed, he resolved, and he acted. "In the first year of his study he accompanied his father to a consultation in the case of a man whose leg had been frozen, and whose condition was most critical. It was agreed by the older physicians that amputation at an earlier stage might have saved the patient's life, but that it was now too late to attempt it. Young Crosby urged that the operation be performed, but the elders shook their heads. He even proposed to attempt it himself; but this was received with a storm of disapproval, in which even his father joined, and the thing was pronounced impossible. The doctors then departed, leaving the student to watch with the patient during the few hours which apparently remained of life. During the night young Crosby succeeded in reviving the courage of the man to make a last effort for life. The limb was removed, and the man recovered. "His second year of study developed still further the growing resources of the young surgeon. Upon one occasion both father and son, while visiting a patient at night, in a distant village, were suddenly called to a case of extensive laceration of the leg, with profuse hemorrhage. The case was urgent, and the patient was sinking. No instruments were at hand. He called for a carving-knife, which he sharpened on a grindstone and finished on a razor-strap, filed a hand-saw, amputated the limb, dressed the stump, left the patient in safety, and drove home with his father to breakfast. The man recovered.