Excerpt from The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1918, Vol. 72

After the War Dr. Parker entered upon the practice of medicine at Lowell, but m 1873 closed his office for two years, in order that he might carry on special studies in medicine in London, Paris, and Vienna. After his return he became one of the most successful practitioners in Lowell, specializing as an oculist and aurist and showing a marked talent for research and a true appreciation of the value of progressive methods 1n medicine. He was physician to St. John's Hosp1tal, Lowell, for thirty years, and, in addition to his work with his private patients, opened a free dispensary and gave his services to the poor of the city. His inventive genius bore fruit 111 a thermo-cautery and m a device, for which he secured a patent, for producing and maintaining a very high degree of heat by hydro carbonization. His incandescent cautery gained for him a diploma from the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association, and he made several notable contributions towards the development of scientific photography. He was the first to photograph the tuber cular bacillus from Cushing's microscopical specimens, and he was also the first to show by photography, in 1886, the rotary motion in the flame of the lightning flashes.

In 1876 Dr. Parker became interested in the telephone, as a result of lectures and demonstrations given in Lowell by Alexander Graham Bell, and soon built and experimented with a private line between his house and his office. By reason of these experiments Dr. Parker early realized the possibilities of the new invention, and was one of the first to give financial assistance to the Lowell District Exchange, established in 1879. Within a brief period his efforts were directed to the establishment of other telephone exchanges, to be connected with each other by toll lines, which by natural development led to the successful efi'ortsof himself and his associates to bring about a union of numerous small and unconnected companies under a single man agement. This in turn resulted in the organization of the New Eng land Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1883, and of the latter company he was continually a director for more than thirty-two years prior to his death and a member of its Executive Committee for all but one year of this period. These and his many other busi ness interests made such demands upon his time that he ultimately withdrew from the active practice of his profession.

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