EDWIN J. FRASER, M. D. 

Edwin J. Fraser, M. D., of San Francisco, has been a resident of California for the past twenty-one years, during all of which time he has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession as a physician and surgeon. He was born in Haldimand, Canada, of American parents, in 1830. His early education was received in the schools of his native town, later attending school in Berea, Ohio, and at the Oberlin College, at Oberlin, Ohio. He afterward took a commercial course at Cleveland, Ohio. He had for a number of years been privately engaged in medical studies, but did not enter regularly on a course until 1860, when he entered the Hahnemann Medical College, of Chicago, Illinois, where he graduated, after the regular course of three years, in 1864. He immediately engaged in practice in Chicago, where he remained until January, 1865, when he removed to Erie, Pennsylvania, and engaged in the practice of his profession. In the spring of 1870 he came to California, where he has since been actively engaged in the practice of medicine. He has, in addition to his extensive medical practice, been a devoted student of science, and has devoted much of his leisure time to scientific studies. He has successfully applied electro-magnetism to the maturing or aging of our native wines. This discovery has attracted the attention of our wine-growers and the scientific world, in the interest of which Dr. Fraser has lately made a visit to Europe. Professor Siemens, the great electrician, and Professor Hoffman, the world-renowned chemist, of Berlin, have strongly approved of this method, and are applying the method successfully to German wines. In California, Dr. Fraser, and some parties interested with him, are now manufacturing machines for this purpose, which will be placed on exhibition at the wineries throughout the State. In its operation it seems to imitate the processes of nature perfectly, reducing the time from three years to thirty days. It has been tested satisfactorily by Professor Hilgard and by the Viticultural Commission, and will doubtless be of great value to the viticultural interests of California and the United States. The business management of this enterprise is in the hands of good business men, while the Doctor attends as usual to the active duties of his profession. 

Transcribed by Donna L. Becker 

Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 1, page 515, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.