Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/141

 AUB

Amer. Gyn. Soc. Trans., 1878 (portrait). Amer. J. Obstet.. N. Y., 1S79. xii (port.). Tr. Am. M. Ass., Phila., 1S79 xxx (J. M. Toner).

Aub, Joseph (1S40-18S8).

Joseph Aub was born in Cincinnati and graduated from the Medical College of Ohio in 1S66, subsequently studying in Berlin, Vienna, and London, where he devoted himself specially to ophthal- mology. He then served as resident physician for three years at the New York Ophthalmic and Aural Institute and in 1870 was elected member of the American Ophthalmological Society. In 1S72 he returned to Cincinnati where he became professor of ophthalmology at the Cin- cinnati Medical College, and acquired a large practice in his specialty. He died at the age of forty-three, in May, 18S8, having risen to the highest rank in the profession. His writings are few.

H. F.

Trans. Am. Ophthalmological Soc, vol. v.

Awl, William Maclay (1799-1S76).

His parents were natives of Penn- sylvania, and both of English descent. He was born May 24, 1799, and began to study medicine in 1S17 in Harrisburg under Dr. Samuel Agnew and entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1819, but left there with- out obtaining a degree. In 1834 he re- ceived the honorary M. D. from Jefferson Medical College, and in 1837 a like honor from the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati.

During the first years of his practice his attention was directed especially to surgery, but, becoming interested in insanity, he abandoned surgery and de- voted the remainder of his life to the study of that ami allied conditions.

In 1835 Dr. Daniel Drake, Dr. Awl, and other prominent members of the profes- sion :i omlili'd in i 'olumbu and Founded in 1846 the Ohio State Medical Society under the name of the Ohio Medical Con- vention. He was also president of the Association of Superintendents of Asy-

AWL

lums for the Insane of the United States and Canada from 1838 to 1851.

In 1826 Dr. Awl came on foot, carrying necessaries in a knapsack, from Harris- burg, Pennsylvania, to Lancaster, Ohio. From Lancaster he removed toLithopolis, in the same county, thence to Somerset, Ohio, and finally, in 1S33, to Columbus, where he lived (with the exception of two years at Dayton, Ohio) until 1876.

Dr. Awl was tall and slender, well proportioned and vigorous, with a fair complexion, red or auburn hair, and blue eyes. Owing to an accident sustained in early life, he had persistent choreiform contractions of the sternomastoid mus- cle of the left side, which gave the appear- ance of restlessness which did not exist. He was rather fond of relating his adven- tures, but could never be induced to explain why he came on foot from Har- risburg to Lancaster. He admitted that while "the walking was mostly fair, it was in spots very poor, and the taverns bad " and that, on the whole, he would have preferred a coach and first class hotels! He often boasted that if he could get his eyes fixed on those of even the most violent lunatic, he would have no difficulty in controlling him. Fre- quently consulted in medico-legal cases and those concerning doubtful sanity; in every one he attempted his favorite maneuver. Some, who knew his in- firmity, said the subjects got so weary in trying to follow the movement of the doc- tor's head, that they became exhausted and resinned to anything that might happen, and that they didn't know how the doctor could expect to fix the eyes of another, when he couldn't fix his own! The performance was certainly amusing to the "looker-on;" but the doctor had wonderful skill in the management of the insane.

He was a line anatomist, and in the early part of his Career inclined to surgery.

Iii 1827, as preliminary (forsafety) to the removal of a "tumor, bard and Em tlai

in form, cartilaginous in structure, from the neck of a little girl, he tied the left Common Carotid artery; the fir.^t time the