Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/229

 BRUHL 1

1S81 in London and of 1SS4 in Copen- hagen. He was appointed surgeon-gen- eral of the Navy in 1S88 and reappointed in 1892, but retired in 1S93 and died in Washington December 7 of the following year. A. A.

J. Am. M. Ass., Chicago, 1S95.

Gihon. Proc. Ass. Mil. Surg., 1S95, Cincin.,

1896.

Bruhl, Gustav (1826-1903).

Gustav Bruhl, one of the oldest and most prominent physicians in Cincinnati, Ohio, was born on May 31, 1S26, in Herdorf, a small village in RhenishPrussia. His father was a proprietor of a mine in this mining district and lost his wife while Gustav was still a child, so he was therefore sent first to a boarding school and afterwards to a college in Treves. For medical education he visited the universities of Halle, Munich and Berlin. After finishing his studies in Europe, he resolved to emigrate to the United States of America, with the avowed intention of locating in Missouri, where an uncle of his was living at the time On his journey thither, in 1848, he visited an aunt in Cincinnati, who prevailed upon him to abandon his further trip, and induced him to stay in that city. Owing to an outbreak of an epidemic of cholera he soon obtained a large practice, especially among the German population, in the western por- tion of the city, where he was the first, and, for a time, the only German physi- cian, but he was soon known over the entire city. Besides his skill as a physi- cian, his eminent literary qualifications, and particularly his oratory, enabled him to acquire a leading part in the intellec- tual life of the "Queen of the where he delivered lectures on the his- torical and political topics of the day, chiefly under the auspices of various German societies.

As a medical man he was interested in ■ .'.inization of the first German Hospital of Cincinnati, which was found- ed by the Sisters of thePoor of St. Francis, a religious order from Aix-la-Chapelle,

1 BRUHL

Germany, who established their first charitable institution in that city in 1S58. With his financial and moral aid St. Mary's Hospital was erected, and in it he served as first physician for many years. During this time he again visited Europe and studied the newly formed specialties of laryngology and rhinology under Czermak at Prague, and Tuerck at Vienna, being the first to introduce these specialties in Cincinnati, but after a few years again abandoned them to devote himself more particularly to the practice of obstetrics and general medicine. He became one of the organizers of the Cincinnati Medical Society, an offshoot of the Academy of Medicine in the early '70's. He there read an interesting paper on "Precolumbian Syphilis," in which he contended that this disease had been acquired by the Spaniards in the New World under Columbus and his followers, and then carried over by them to Europe. This theory caused considerable comment at that time, being bitterly opposed by many European and American authori- ties, but was as stoutly maintained by the author, who based his opinion on the result of his archeological studies. For he was a diligent student of archeology, anthropology, and ethnology, to which he devoted all of his leisure time when not professionally engaged. In these branch- es he became a prolific writer. Under the auspices of the German Pionier-Verein he founded a monthly periodical, "Der Deutsche Pionier," to which he contrib- uted largely as editor, besides securingeon- tributions from almost all the prominent German writers on the history of the German settlements in the United States. As a result of these studies he soon extend- ed his researches to American antiquities in general, more particularly of the old Spanish possessions, making extensive trips through Central and South America for the purpose of visiting the places and searching the archives in these old settle- ments. These archeological and histor- ical studies he brought forth in a work called "Die Culturvoclker von Alt-Am- erika" (Primitive Peoples of America).