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Buller, Frank

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Buller, Frank, M.D., Professor of Ophthalmology and Otology in McGill University, Montreal, was born near Cobourg, Ontario, on the 4th May, 1844. He is the fourth son of Charles G. Buller, of Campbellford, Ontario, who was educated for the Church of England ministry, but, declining holy orders, came to Canada in 1831, and settled near the town of Cobourg, preferring agricultural life to any other means of earning a livelihood. His mother, Frances Elizabeth Boucher, is the second daughter of the late R. P. Boucher, of Campbellford; both his parents are still living, and have attained an advanced age. We may say that the Buller family has for centuries occupied a prominent position in the south of England, and it is a well-known fact that many of its members have distinguished themselves by their energy and ability in the service of their country. Dr. Buller received the foundation of a liberal education under the paternal roof, and subsequently continued his studies in the High School at Peterborough. Having chosen medicine as a profession, he entered the Victoria School of Medicine, of Toronto, and graduated from that institution in 1869. Shortly afterwards he went to England to perfect himself in his profession, where he soon won the diploma of membership of the Royal College of Surgeons. While in London he spent considerable time in the further study of general medicine and surgery in St. Thomas’s Hospital, and satisfied himself that there was no such thing possible as the attainment of perfection in all the branches of a science so far-reaching as that of medicine. He resolved to devote himself to the study of a specialty, having reason to believe that the medical profession in Canada would be willing to sustain any specialist who could bring evidence of having received a sufficiently thorough training to merit public confidence. Keeping this idea steadily in view, he spared no pains to become thoroughly proficient in the specialty he had chosen. At that time the renowned Von Gräfe was still living, and shedding the lustre of his great fame over the University of Berlin; Helmholtze, too, the discoverer of the ophthalmoscope, honoured the chair of physical science in the same place of learning. To receive instruction from two such men was to drink from the very source of the fountain of knowledge; and to Berlin Dr. Buller went in 1870; nor was he disappointed in his anticipations of the benefit to be derived from the instructions of these illustrious preceptors. About this time the Franco-German war broke out, and the services of every available medical man having been called for, Dr. Buller, like many other foreigners, volunteered his services; and during eight months he acted as assistant-surgeon in the military hospitals of North Germany. After the termination of the war he continued his studies in Berlin, and served for one year as assistant in the Gräfe-Ewers Ophthalmic Hospital of that city. Early in 1872 he returned to England, and was appointed clinical assistant to the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, from which position he was promoted to the office of junior, and soon afterwards to that of senior house surgeon, a situation which he held with credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the governors and staff of that institution for nearly three years. Having thus acquired, in a few years, an amount of special knowledge and experience that under less favourable circumstances could not have been gained in a lifetime, he was prepared to take advantage of the first opportunity that offered for establishing himself in the practice of his profession. He then returned to Canada, and chose the city of Montreal as the field of his future operations. Early in 1876 he commenced practice there, and, owing to the cordial goodwill of his professional confrères, obtained a lucrative practice from the very outset. In the month of May of the same year he was appointed ophthalmic and aural surgeon to the Montreal General Hospital, and lecturer on diseases of the eye and ear in McGill University—positions which he still holds; and, judging from the past, we anticipate for him a long career of honour and great usefulness to suffering humanity. To his credit it should be said, that Dr. Buller has been the arbitrator of his own fortune, he having in a great degree bore his own expenses while securing his education. He is a good example to our Canadian youth, and shews plainly what a young man can accomplish though starting with a capital consisting only of determination and pluck. Dr. Buller, in religious matters, is an adherent of the Episcopal church, and in politics may be classed among the liberals. He married Lillie Langlois, daughter of the late Peter Langlois, of Quebec, and has a family of two children.

A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography

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