Born: March 27, 1874, Roselle, NJ
Died: July 29, 1948
Married: Marion Clifton, June 4, 1902
Children: Constance [Miller] Douglas, Marion Miller [Lindley]
James Alexander Miller was a physician who served as the president of the Board of Trustees of Trudeau Sanatorium, the National Tuberculosis Association (1920-1922), and the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association (1920-1929). He practiced medicine in New York City after graduating from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, but also had a summer practice at Paul Smiths for 8 years, beginning in 1901. He met and became lasting friends with Dr. Edward L. Trudeau during those summers; this inspired him to focus his professional activity in the field of tuberculosis. He published many articles and papers on tuberculosis in the course of his career.
Obituary: James Alexander Miller, 1874-1948
American Review of Tuberculosis, Volume 49, Issue 4
Dr. James Alexander Miller, a former president of the National Tuberculosis Association and the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association, died on the 29th of July, 1948, at the age of seventy-four.
After completing his preliminary education in Princeton University and receiving his medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in 1899, he entered upon the practice of medicine in New York City, continuing until the time of his death. Starting in 1901, he also practiced for eight summers at Paul Smith's in the Adirondacks, and it was here that he cultivated a long lasting friendship with Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau and acquired the inspiration to concentrate much of his later professional activity in the field of tuberculosis. During the subsequent years he extended his interest into other sides of medicine and public health, but always with particular focus on the unique problems of this specific disease. His growing experience and the time tested attributes of his personality, intellect, and character qualified him as an able leader and marked him for succession to many posts of responsibility and importance. His merits included a love of the truth, high ideals, devotion to study, patience, perseverence, self-discipline, generous consideration of his associates, and easy adaptability.
Doctor Miller's interest and accomplishments in the campaign against tuberculosis were not defined by any narrow limits, since he was a man of versatility and naturally endowed with broad vision. Early in his career he became interested in the Tuberculosis Service, now the Chest Service, of Bellevue Hospital, which at the time hardly deserved the name of a clinical service. Through the ensuing years he succeeded in creating a competent organization which raised the standard of medical work to its present level. Recognizing the numerous back-grounds of tuberculosis, he interested philanthropic laymen in the social problem, leading to the organization of an Auxiliary which raised funds from private sources and looked after many of the needs of the impoverished patients. He became Professor of Clinical Medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and developed a course of instruction for medical students and for the house staff of the hospital which continues to claim the interest of many young physicians at the start of their careers. In the 1920's Doctor Miller obtained funds to initiate research as a feature of the Service; this too has grown and continues to the present date. This connection with Bellevue brought him into contact with many governmental officials who respected his judgment and advice, and it was largely through his personal efforts and influence that the present building housing the Bellevue Chest Service was planned and constructed.
The public health aspects of tuberculosis also commanded his interest and energy. Aside from his work in the national and local tuberculosis associations, he was an officer or adviser in many organizations, including the Community... [continued]
James Alexander Miller
MILLER, James Alexander, physician, was born at Roselle, N.J., Mar. 27, 1874, son of Charles Dexter and Julia Muirhead (Hope) Miller and grandson of James Miller, who came from Ulster, Ireland, about 1830. His father was president of the New York cotton exchange in 1886-88 and his mother was a daughter of Aaron D. Hope, founder of the Hope Express Co., one of the first express services in the country (between Easton, Pa., and New York city), later merged with the Adams Express Co. He was graduated A.B. at Princeton university in 1893 (A.M., 1894) and took his medical degree at Columbia university in 1899. Since the latter year he has practiced medicine in New York city, specializing since 1909 in diseases of the lungs, on which he is regarded as one of the country's leading authorities. During the same period he has had numerous hospital appointments and has been on the teaching staff of Columbia university in positions of increasing responsibility, being at present professor of clinical medicine there. He is visiting physician and physician in charge of the tuberculosis service at Bellevue hospital and consultant to the Presbyterian and Post-Graduate hospitals in New York city, Trudeau sanatorium in Saranac Lake, N.Y., Sprain Ridge hospital at Yonkers, N.Y., and Methodist Episcopal hospital in Brooklyn. One of the early leaders of the modern crusade against tuberculosis, and continuously active therein, he was one of the organizers of the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association (president, 1920-29) and the National Tuberculosis Association (president, 1921-22). He is also interested in social work and is honorary vice-president of the Charity Organization Society and a director of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. During the World war he spent eighteen months in France as major in the American Red Cross and medical director for the Rockefeller commission for the prevention of tuberculosis. Dr. Miller is the author of the article on chronic pulmonary disease in Musser's "Textbook of Medicine" and that on pulmonary tuberculosis in Nelson's "System of Medicine" and has contributed various papers to medical publications, among the more important of which are: "Subacute and Chronic Non-Tuberculous Pulmonary Infections" (Amer. Jour. Med. Sci., December 1917), "Tuberculosis Among European Nations at War" (N.Y. Med. Jour., August 1919), "Some Problems in the Differential Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis" (Amer. Rev. Tuber., September 1920), "The Treatment of Abscess of the Lung" (Amer. Jour. Med. Sci., January 1926), "Primary Carcinoma, of the Lung" (ibid., January 1930), "The Etiology of Lung Abscess" (Trans. Assn. Amer. Phy., 1930), "Pathogenesis of Bronchiectasis" (Jour. Thoracic Surg., February 1934), "Ilematogenous Pulmonary Tuberculosis" (Amer. Rev. Tuber., May 1934) and "Pulmonary Fibrosis and Emphysema" (Ann. Int. Med., September 1935). He was made chevalier of the French Legion of Honor in 1918. The honorary degree of Sc.D. was conferred on him by Columbia university in 1930 and Princeton university in 1936 and that of D.P.H. was awarded him by New York university in 1937. He is president of the board of trustees of the Trudeau sanatorium, and a member of the American Medical Association, Association of American Physicians, American Climatological and Clinical Association (president, 1914), American College of Physicians (president, 1935), American Association for Thoracic Surgery, New York Academy of Medicine (president, 1937-38), the University and Century clubs of New York city, and Yeamans Hall, Charleston, S.C. In politics Dr. Miller is a Republican. He was married in New York city, June 4, 1902, to Marion Clifton, daughter of Josiah Hunt, of Roselle, N.J., and has two daughters: Constance, wife of Archibald Douglas, Jr., and Marion Miller, wife of Daniel Allen Lindley.
