Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/131

 ASHHURST

ASH HURST

joyed a more than provincial reputation. Patients from the neighboring states came to consult him, as he was in those days considered a skillful and successful operator.

He died of apoplexy on March 17, 1886, in his sixty-third year.

O. M. J.

Ashhurst, John, Jr. (1839-1900).

John Ashhurst, Jr., surgeon, son of John Ashhurst, merchant and banker; was born in Philadelphia, August 23, 1839. Educated by private tutors, he entered the college department of the University of Pennsylvania at the age of fourteen and made an average the highest ever attained in the University. In 1857 he graduated A. B., and at once entered the medical department of the university, receiving his M. D. in 1860. In the same year the university conferred upon him her A. M. He received the honorary LL. D. from Lafayette University in 1895.

Dr. Ashhurst's studious and industri- ous habits were formed early. He had been taught to read before he was four years old, and by the time he was sixteen had accumulated a library of some three thousand volumes, which subsequently was more than tripled in size. Through- out life he found his greatest relaxation in solving mathematical problems and in reading his favorite Greek and Latin authors, but was wonderfully proficient as a pianist.

First lessons in practical surgery were learned from Dr. George W. Norris while resident in the Pennsylvania Hospital (1861-62), where he also came under the influence of Joseph Pancoast, whom in after years he still regarded as the most brilliant operator he had ever seen. Abandoning a projected course of Euro- pean study, on account of threatening rumors of Civil War at home, he was ap- pointed contract surgeon, with the title of acting assistant surgeon, United States Army, and was ordered (August 13, 1862) to the Chester (Pennsylvania) United States American General Hospital, under

the command of Surgeon John L. Le- Conte, United States Volunteer. The board of examiners before whom Dr. Ashhurst appeared on this occasion was composed of his intimate friend Dr. James H. Hutchinson (1S34-1889), Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, and Dr. S. D. Gross. Dr. Hutch- inson of course declined to ask him any questions. Nor would Dr. Mitchell at- tempt to examine him. Finally old Dr. Gross said, in his usual deliberate manner, "Doctor, I should be afraid to ask you any questions, for fear you might stump me!" In December, 1862, he was trans- ferred to the Cuyler United States American Hospital, at Germantown, Pennsylvania, where he remained as ex- ecutive officer until the close of the war in 1865. It was narrated by his colleagues at the army hospitals that Ashhurst always got all the good cases, as at a glance he would detect rare and serious injuries and these always re- mained under his personal care.

His chief reputation was made as sur- geon to the Episcopal Hospital (1863— 1SS0), and he resigned only when increas- ing duties as professor of clinical surgery in the University of Pennsylvania (1877— 1900) necessitated it. There and at the Children's Hospital (1870-1900) he made his studies of bone surgery, and did those early and renowned excisions of the lar- ger joints, for which he was so widely known. He was ranked by Otis, with Billroth, Volkmann, Gurlt, and Legouest. His friendship for Oilier and Esmarch, and the reciprocal admiration of Adams, Gant, Estlander, Barwell, Sayre, and other great bone surgeons of that day are well known. Later he was noted for his special skill in plastic surgery and in the surgery of the larger blood-vessels. His early recognition of the pathology of concussion of the spinal cord and brain has long been acknowledged and accepted.

He had been called the most learned of American surgeons (Brinton), and the highest authority in the world on medical and surgical bibliography. Practically all the surgical reviews in the "American