Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/214

 BRASHEAB

BRICKKLL

1799 sailed to China as surgeon to the ship Jane and while in China amputated a woman's breast, which was probably the first operation of the kind among the Celestials. Having learned the Chinese method of clarifying ginseng, he then, abandoning the profession for a time, de- voted himself to mercantile pursuits, and proving ultimately unfortunate, in 1813 moved from Bardstown to Lexington where his career as a professional man may be said to commence.

It was previous to this period, however, while merchant and surgeon, he ampu- tated the hip-joint in August, 1806, eight- een years prior to the much eulogized case of Dr. Mott of New York. The sub- ject was a mulatto boy, seventeen years of age, belonging to the monks of St. Jo- seph of Bardstown. He had fracture of the thigh complicated with severe injury of the soft parts, but completely recov- ered, living in good health many years after. Dr. Brashear had no precedent to guide him in his hazardous undertaking, for the cases of Larrey and other army surgeons of Europe had occurred only a short time before and were then entirely unknown to the bold and adventurous backwoodsman. The operation was per- formed upon a very novel plan compris- ing two distinct stages: first the thigh was removed about its middle in the or- dinary manner; then the remainder of the bone was separated from its muscular connection by a long incision on the out- side of the limb and disarticulated at the socket.

The operation was done in the presence of Dr. Burr Harrison and Dr. John Good- tell, the boy's doctor. Brashear seemed to possess peculiar tact in treatment of diseases of the bones and joints, especi- ally in cases of scrofulous enlargement, vulgarly called " white swelling." He was also very successful in the management of fractures of the skull, and had a set of trephining instruments constructed un- der his immediate direction in Phila- delphia, which he regarded as much su- perior to those in ordinary use.

He practised medicine and surgery in

Lexington from 1813 to 1817 with great success, and was the first in the West to change from the depleting to the stim- ulating plan of treatment in the so-called "cold plague," prevalent and very fatal during a portion of that period.

Being seized anew with the ginseng fever, Dr. Brashear left Kentucky, and in 1S82 removed his family to the Parish of St. Mary, where he had previously held property.

Dr. Brashear had a mind of great origi- nality and of infinite resources. Nature had evidently disigncd him for a great man, and it is much to be regretted that he allowed himself to be drawn aside from his professional pursuits. He was successively doctor, merchant, legis- lator, lawyer, and naturalist.

Facts given by R. B. Brashear of St.

Mary, Louisiana.

Am. Pract. and News, Louisville, 1S94,

Louisville Med. Monthly. 1894-5, part i. Pioneer Surgery of Kentucky. Yandell.

Brickell, Daniel Warren (1824-1881). D. W. Brickell, gynecologist, was born in Columbia, South Carolina, October, 1824, of Huguenot, German and Irish extraction. In 1S44 he prepared to enter Yale but determining to study medicine, matriculated at the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania under the private tutorship of Gerhard and received his diploma in 1847. He made a special study of gynecology, but applied for admission to the United States Navy, passing second among forty applicants. There being no vacancy for foreign ser- vice and having been assigned to duty at Pensacola, he resigned his commission as assistant surgeon and began to prac- tice medicine in New Orleans in 1848. Teaching private classes in the Charity Hospital, he soon became known and was offered the professorial chair which he so long adorned. With Fenner, Choppin, Peniston, Picton, Axson and others he organized the New Orleans School of Medicine. He was editor of the "New Orleans Medical News and Hospital Gazette," "Southern Journal