Dr. Francis Merriman Barnes, Jr., a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University and prominently known as a neuropsychiatrist of St. Louis, was born in Middletown, New York, August 20, 1881, a son of Francis Merriman and Mary Drusilla (Reynolds) Barnes. The father, a native of Pennsylvania and a representative of one of the old families of that state of English lineage, is now a successful dentist. He was graduated from the Baltimore Dental College and is in active practice in Middletown, New York. His wife, a native of the Empire state, passed away in 1884. In their family were four sons. In the maternal line Dr. Barnes of this review can trace his ancestry back to 944 A. D., to Grethferth the Dane, king of Northumberland, who was driven from England and took refuge in Normandy. One of his descendants, Reynolds Fitz Reynolds, later returned with William the Conqueror in 1066 and there are records of the family in England and Scotland through a number of generations. In 1634 John Reynolds emigrated from Ipswich, England, to Boston, Massachusetts, and in 1635, in Watertown, was made a freeman. From this early record the family is traced down to the present time.
Dr. Francis M. Barnes, Jr., the youngest member of his father’s household, attended the public and high schools of his native city and also the Delaware Literary Academy at Franklin, New York, from which he was graduated in 1899. Later he entered Hamilton College at Clinton, New York, and was graduated therefrom in 1903 with the Bachelor of Arts degree, while in 1906 his alma mater conferred upon him the Master of Arts degree. When his more specifically literary course was completed he matriculated in the Johns Hopkins University as a medical student and, pursuing his studies in Baltimore, was there graduated with the M. D. degree in 1907. His professional career has been one of extreme activity. He was assistant physician and director of the clinical laboratory of Sheppard and Pratt Hospitals at Towson, Maryland, from 1907 until 1910 and then became clinical director of the Government Hospital for the Insane at Washington, D. C., filling that position until 1913. He became an instructor in neurology and psychiatry at the George Washington University in 1911 and so continued until 1913, when he came to St. Louis and through the succeeding year was assistant professor of nervous and mental diseases in the St. Louis University. In 1914 he was made associate professor in psychiatry at the Washington University Medical School, so continuing until September, 1920, when he returned to the St. Louis University. He is also neurologist to St. Mary’s Hospital, is visiting psychiatrist of the St. Louis City Sanitarium, was acting psychiatrist of Barnes Hospital, was contract surgeon, U. S. Army, is associate professor of nervous and mental diseases of the St. Louis University and in 1920 became neuropsychiatrist for the Federal Board for Vocational Education. His professional career has been a notably active one since he took up his abode here on the first Tuesday in September, 1913. His position is one of recognized prominence and his contributions to the work of the profession, to its educational fields and to its authorship are most valuable. He has written many articles for publication on nervous and mental diseases, these appearing in the leading medical journals of the country, and he is also the author of “Notes on Mental Diseases,” published in book form in 1919, with a second edition in 1920. His authorship also includes “Introduction to the Study of Mental Diseases,” published in 1919.
On the 17th of August, 1917, at Springfield, Illinois, Dr. Barnes was married to Miss Carlotta Kimlin, of Poughkeepsie, New York, daughter of John Hamilton and Susan (Anderson) Kimlin, of Poughkeepsie, New York. They have become parents of a son, Francis M. (III), born in St. Louis, July 19, 1918. Dr. Barnes belongs to the Old Orchard Club of Middletown, New York, and is a member of the University Club of St. Louis and of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Club of New York city. Politically he maintains an independent course. Along professional lines he is identified with the Southern Illinois Medical Association, the St. Louis Medical Society, the Missouri State Medical Association, the American Medical Associaton, the American MedicoPsychological Association and is a fellow of the American Medical Association. He also belongs to the Southern Society of Philosophy and Psychology, the St. Louis Neurological Society and to other scientific organizations having to do with his chosen field of labor. The breadth of his interests and activities is still further manifest through his connection with the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, the Missouri Society for Mental Hygiene and the Eugenics Research Society of New York. He belongs to the Catholic Hospital Association and is a member of the board of directors of the Missouri Welfare League. During the World war he was secretary of St. Louis Medical Advisory Board No. 4, so acting from America’s entrance to the close of hostilities. He was also a contract surgeon with the United States army from the 1st of October to the 31st of December, 1918, and was in charge of the Psychopathic Hospital at Jefferson Barracks. Along many lines of investigation and research he has carried forward his studies and has displayed eminent ability in all that he has undertaken in his professional activities.
