Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/138

 ATLEE

in the "American Journal of Medical Sciences" for April, 1845. Being associ- ated with his brother in an ovariotomy in 1843, he became interested in the subject and in 1S44 he writes concerning his own first case:

" In travelling westward on the Penn- sylvania central railroad, soon after passing Landisville Station, a small stream is crossed on the opposite banks of which stands a one-story brick tenement. It was here after many days and nights of intense anxiety that I first essayed this operation. It is the text for many, many thoughts. No one can know the mental and moral conflicts of that hour and I can

not describe them Although this

effort was unfortunate I had weighed the matter well and my convictions were on the side of humanity and duty." The next operation was successful and the third, in Philadelphia, took place in 1849. Atlee says: " I found I had raised up a hornets' nest. Ovariotomy was everywhere de- scribed. It was denounced by the general profession. ... I was pointed at as a dangerous man, even as a murderer. ... A celebrated professor in his pub- lished lectures invoked the law to arrest me in the performance of this operation." The call to operate from many in the states who had faith in him alone gave him courage to face an amount of mis- representation and abuse that would have crushed an ordinary man. But appreciation was coming and so were patients. One came against the positive advice of her doctor and the doctor came too to be with her when she died on the operating-table! Yet she lived and the doctor's opposition was dead long before the patient.

Atlee in 1853 was stirring the medical world again by his methods of heroically attacking uterine fibroids with the knife. Dr. Marion Sims ("New York Medical Journal," April, 1874) writes: "The name of Atlee stands without a rival in connec- tion with uterine fibroids ... no man has yet dared to imitate him. A genera- tion has passed since he gave to the world his valuable essay on the subject,

• ATLEE

but it is only within the past five or six years that the profession has come to appreciate the great truths he labored to establish."

The importance of tapping as a means of diagnosing was clearly demonstrated by him and the true value of the removed fluids. "It is remarkable that with so little leisure he managed to carry on an extensive correspondence; to frequently contribute to medical journals and to write an octavo volume on ovarian tumors and many essays on all subjects connected with gynecology."

One of the founders of the American Gynecological Society, he also took an active part in the organization of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the State Medical Society of Pennsylvania and the American Medical Association. Of the two former he was one time presi- dent and of the latter vice-president, and in the last year of his life when very feeble he journeyed to meet the State Society at Pittsburg. When the final journey of all had to be undertaken he showed no fear but rather welcomed the end as a be- ginning of certain knowledge of things spiritual and physical.

His wife preceded him by eight years after a happy family life with their ten children.

Among his chief writings were numer- ous scientific articles to the "American Journal of Science and Arts," the "Ameri- can Journal of Medical Sciences," and the "Medical and Surgical Reporter"; in- cluding: "The Surgical Treatment of Certain Fibrous Tumors of the Uterus;" "A Retrospect of the Struggles and Triumphs of Ovariotomy in Philadel- phia;" "The Treatment of Fibroid Tum- ors of the Uterus, 1S76;" Sarcoma of the Ovaries, " 1877, and his large work, " General and Differential Diagnosis of Ovarian Tumors with Specific Reference to the Operation of Ovariotomy," Lip- pincott, Philadelphia, 1872. D. W.

Hist, of Med. in Phila. F. P. Henry, M. D., 1S97, Chicago.

Biog. of Epbraim McDowell. M. T. Valentine, New York.