Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

the Guard Lafayette, Fifty-fifth New
York Regiment (French Zouaves), and
went out under General LaGall, and was
later with General De Trobriand. He
was mustered out at Plattsburg, New
York, where he settled and practiced surgery
until 1875. He was unusually suc-
cessful, and built up a large and lucrative
practice. He was highly regarded by
members of his profession, and he enjoyed
the unlimited confidence and esteem of
his fellow citizens. While at Plattsburg
he was closely allied with Smith M.Weed,
the famous political leader, and performed
considerable political work, although
never a seeker for political office.
He was for several years, however, medical
officer of the State prisons of New
York. In 1875 Dr. Wolff removed to
Brazos Santiago, Texas, where he served
as health officer of the city, and practiced
his profession until his decease. He was
a member of the Masonic lodge in Platts-
burg, from which he demitted to the
lodge in Brownsville, Texas, in which he
filled the office of worshipful master for
a term. He was also a member of the
Grand Army of the Republic.
Dr. Wolff married Sarah Ansell, daugh-
ter of Jacob Ansell, a prominent barrister
in London. He was a native of Ipswich.
Dr. and Mrs. Wolff were the parents of
eleven children, four of whom are living
at the present time (1917), namely: Mrs.
Caroline Zander, of Brooklyn, New York;
Arthur J., of whom further; Mrs. Blanche
Loew, of Brownsville, Texas; Mrs. Leah
Cain, of Brownsville, Texas. The father
of Dr. Arthur S. Wolff was an engineer in
the army of the first Napoleon.
Dr. Arthur J. Wolff graduated from the
Plattsburg High School, but did not pursue
classical studies further. He was
reared in a home of culture and refine-
ment, surrounded with the best of litera-
ture, his father's library containing the
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
67
choicest creations of the writers of many
languages and covering well the fields of
literature, art, history and biography. The
elder Dr. W'olff was a master of eight
languages, and his son, Dr. Wolff, of this
review, speaks French, German and Span-
ish fluently, having received considerable
instruction from his father, not only in
the languages but in other branches of
learning. He began to read medicine
under the preceptorship of his father, and
pursued the course in the Texas Medical
College and Hospital at Galveston, from
which he was graduated in 1876. The
following six years were spent in the
medical corps of the United States army
on the southwestern frontier, where he
not only obtained wide experience in the
practice of his profession under circumstances
that threw him largely on his own
resources, but his experience also in-
cluded those of the then primitive social
conditions of the pioneer settlement, etc.
After leaving the army, Dr. Wolff pur-
sued a post-graduate course in Bellevue
Hospital Medical College, from which he
was graduated in 1883. He then came to
Hartford, Connecticut, and has practiced
in that city ever since, except during the
intervals when he was in Europe. He
went abroad in 1889 and studied in the
Paris hospitals, and again in 1896, and in
1901 studied in London and Edinburgh.
At first, his practice in Hartford was gen-
eral in character, but after a number of
years more and more of his time became
taken up with surgery and bacteriology
until these specialties have occupied his
attention exclusively, this being the case
for several years. He also performed a
vast amount of medico-legal work, as an
expert in murder cases, making chemical
analyses, etc. He has written many
papers on medical, surgical and bacteriological
topics for medical journals and
journals devoted to public sanitation. He