AMONG the professional men of Chicago, who have achieved that success in their respective callings, which attracts to them the attention of the general public, are to be found representatives of nearly all the nationalities of the civilized world. The city itself has been expanded to its present magnificent proportions, largely as a result of the influx of foreign capital, labor, and industry, leavened by American enterprise and energy, and moulded into a homeogeneous mass, under our own beneficent form of government. Ever since the swelling tide of immigration, rolling from the Atlantic coast toward the setting sun, struck the broad prairies of the middle western States, the fertile lands which stretched away in every direction, until they seemed to have no other boundary than the horizon, have had an almost irresistable attraction for the land-hungry husbandmen of the over-crowded countries of Europe. They have come to

America and to the "west" by thousands, by hundreds of thousands, in fact, to find breathing space, and elbow-room, and opportunities. for the acquisition of homes and fortunes, which they could only have dreamed of in the lands of their nativity.

Along with the husbandmen and farmers who were to till the soil, came the artisans and the tradesmen, who located in the towns and cities, to supply the peculiar wants and needs of their countrymen, and these in turn were followed by those who had been educated for the learned professions, or who saw the necessity of preparing themselves for these callings after reaching the country, in order that the physical, spiritual, and material interest of the people transplanted from European countries into the United States, might be looked after by men understanding the languages, customs and laws of both their native and adopted coun

tries. And so it happens that in a city like Chicago, we have lawyers, doctors and ministers, representing the various nationalities which go to make up the city's population, and newspapers which convey to them the news of the day in the language with which they are most familiar, and which in many cases is the only language of which they have a comprehensive knowledge.

In no one of these professions, is the man who is thoroughly well educated and informed, able to render such important services, not only to those immediately interested, but to the general public, as in the medical profession.

Sufferers from disease can hardly be successfully treated by the practitioner who knows nothing of the language which they speak, and who can understand none of the answers to important questions he may propound. On the other hand, the capable practitioner who can converse with the patient in his own language, can easily obtain a thorough knowledge of the case and treat it accordingly.

One of the foreign-born physicians of Chicago, who has won renown among his countrymen, and no small amount of professional patronage from other sources, is Dr. Niles T. Quales, a Norwegian by birth, and an accomplished, intelligent, and patriotic American by adoption. He was born at Hardanger, Norway, on the 17th of January, 1831, and was next

to the youngest of a family of six children. His father, Targiles J. Quales, was a farmer in moderate circumstances, and gave the son as good advantages for securing an education as his circumstances would admit of. While he was compelled to put in a good portion of his time doing farm work up to the time he was eighteen years old, Niles Quales managed to attend the public schools with reasonable regularity, and to secure what would be termed in this country "a good common school education." When he was eighteen years old he left the farm and entered the Agricultural Institute of Hardanger, with a view to obtaining an education which would fit him for intelligent and successful farming operations. At the end of a two years' course in this institution, he graduated in 1851, and then took charge of a large farm, which he managed successfully for one year. At the end of that time he went to Copenhagen, in Denmark, where he entered the Royal Veterinary College of that city. There he pursued a course of study which lasted three years and a half.

In 1856 he graduated from the Veterinary College, and returning to Norway, he accepted a government position which he held until 1859. Tiring of this position, he concluded to come to the United States, but he first made it a point to spend some time traveling in Germany and England. He arrived in this country

safely, and reached Chicago on the 6th of July, 1859, when he was twenty-eight years old. The first thing he did when he reached the famous western city, which he expected to make his home, was to set about familiarizing himself with the English language. He attended school at the same time that he was laboring diligently for one of the city railway companies, to obtain the means necessary to defray expenses, until 1861, when the war cloud which was then hanging over the country, attracted his attention. Notwithstanding the fact that he had been in this country but a single year, he had clearly defined views of the causes bringing about the conflict, and his sympathies were at once enlisted with those who declared for the perpetuity of the Union and the abolition of slavery.

In August of 1861, he enlisted in Company B, of the First Illinois artillery, commanded by Captain Ezra Taylor, and followed the fortunes of that company until 1863, when he was detached from the battery for service at General W. T. Sherman's headquarters. At Nashville, Tenn., he was placed in charge of the extensive veterinary hospital, and was also an assistant in the post hospital at that place, where he continued the study of medicine, which he had previously commenced under the preceptorship of one of the regimental surgeons.

In 1864 his term of enlistment having expired, he was mustered out of

the military service and returned to Chicago. In the fall of that year he was matriculated at Rush Medical College, from which institution he graduated in 1867. During the year 1866 he filled the position of inspector at the Chicago custom house, with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his superior officer. He was also after a competitive examiation of aspirants for the position, appointed "house physician and surgeon" of the Cook County Hospital, by the medical board of that institution. This position he held one year, when he severed his connection with the hospital to go into the general practice of medicine. His practice built up rapidly, not only among people of his own nationality-of whom there are a large number in Chicago -but among people of all classes and nationalities.

He became connected with the North Side Free Dispensary of Chicago, and in 1868, he was appointed city physician, which position he held for three years. In 1868-69 while Dr. Quales was acting as city physician, there was a serious outbreak of smallpox in the city, and in his management of the hospitals, as well as in the methods adopted for keeping the disease under control generally, he displayed both executive and professional ability of a high order.

As physician to the Scandinavian Immigrant Aid Society-an organization which for some years made it a point to look after and care for the

immigrants of that nationality arriv ing in Chicago-he rendered valuable. services, which were mostly gratuitous, as long as the organization remained in existence.

In 1870 he was appointed surgeon to the United States Marine Hospital, then located on Michigan Avenue, and retained that position until the hospital was destroyed by the fire of 1871.

After the fire, he was one of the physicians appointed by the Chicago Relief and Aid Society to look after those left destitute by the calamity, and took charge of a portion of the city, in which he labored indefatigably to relieve the general suffering.

He has been a member of the Chicago Medical Society since 1867, and is recognized as one of the leading practioners among the foreign-born physicians of the city, and as a cultured, intelligent man who has the respect and good will of his professional brethren generally.

He was married in 1870 to Miss Carrie Lorrson, of Chicago, and has three children, two daughters and

one son.

Dr. Quales was one of the founders of the Vickers Park Evanglist Lutheran Church of this city, and has been a trustee and treasurer of that church since its organization. HOWARD LOUIS CONARD.

JOHN CAMPBELL SPRAY came to Chicago from Indiana, his native. state, in 1868, as a medical student. He subsequently graduated from two of the medical colleges of the city, and after engaging for a time in general practice, he became connected with one of the noted eleemosynary institutions of the city and Cook County, to which he devoted his entire time and attention during ten years of his profesional life. In this institution he had a rich and varied experience, and proved himself at the same time a faithful and valuable servant of the public.

Dr. Spray was born at Bridgeport, Indiana, one of the suburbs of Indiaanapolis, September 21st, 1845. The family to which he belongs is of English origin, his great-grandfather having immigrated to this country, and become one of the earliest settlers of Ohio, where both his grand-. father and father were born. His mother's family name was Owen, and her ancestry traced back through several generations of the family in America, finds its parent stock in Wales. With English and Welsh, a strain of Scotch blood has also been handed down to Dr. Spray on the

gland.

The Spray family were Quakers, and the Chicago physician was educated in that faith. His father was a merchant in comfortable circumstances, who was engaged in business at Bridgeport, Indiana, several years. For the purpose of purchasing a stock of merchandise, he visited Cincinnati during the cholera epidemic of 1854, and soon after his return to Bridgeport, he was attacked by the disease and died, leaving his son John C., a half orphan at nine years of age. His education, which had just then begun was looked after from that time by his mother who gave him the best advantages her means would allow. For a time he attended the common schools, in which he acquired a fair rudimentary education, after which he was sent to what was known as the Quaker high school at Beech Grove, in the immediate vicinity of Bridgeport.

After leaving the high school he went to Richmond, Indiana, where he entered the noted Quaker educational institution known as Earlham College, so called in honor of Joseph John Gurney, the distinguished Quaker philantropist, who was born at

He studied two or three years at Earlham, but left the college before he had completed his course, for the purpose of begining the study of medicine in the office of Doctors L. and C. H. Abbott, of Indianapolis, then prominent medical practioners of that city. At the end of a thorough and systematic course of reading under this preceptorship, he came to Chicago and entered the Bennett Medical College, from which he graduated in 1870.

He at once began the practice of medicine in this city, and had just established himself in practice, when the fire of 1871 destroyed his carefully selected and valuable library, together with all his office furniture and almost everything he had in the way of professional capital, other than the good will of a limited number of patients. The following year he was married to Miss Mary A. Gunn, a sister of Dr. R. A. Gunn of New York city, and temporarily retired from practice, in order to devote himself to further study and hospital work. With this object in view he entered Chicago Medical College, from which institution he received his diploma in 1873. The five years immediately following 1873, he devoted to private practice, giving a large share of his attention to the treatment of diseases of the nervous system.