Lawrence Francis Flick was born 10 August 1856 in Cambria County, near present day Carrolltown, Pennsylvania, to German immigrants John Flick and Elizabeth Sharbaugh. He was educated at St. Vincent's College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and at Jefferson Medical College, in Philadelphia, graduating in 1879. He became a physician, pathologist, and specialist in tuberculosis and its prevention and treatment. Suffering himself from pulmonary tuberculosis, his studies prompted him to argue that the disease was contagious and not hereditary. His efforts to isolate consumptives in special hospitals and to register tuberculosis cases was controversial and opposed by many within the medical profession. He was the author of many articles and book reviews that were published in journals such as The Ecclesiastical review and the Catholic historical review as well as several books including Consumption, A Curable and preventable disease (1903) and Tuberculosis, A Book of practical knowledge to guide the general practitioner of medicine (1937). He was also a founder of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, where he was President from 1893 to 1896 and again from 1913 to 1914, and he a founder and first president of the American Catholic Historical Association in 1919. He died in Philadelphia on 7 July 1938.
From the description of The Lawrence Francis Flick papers. 1875-1938. (Catholic University of America). WorldCat record id: 123905088
