Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/230

 BRITNS

Other travels in the Western Hemisphere were recorded later, in a work with the title: "Zwischen Alaska und dem Feuer- land" (From Alaska to Terra del Fuego). He, moreover, published papers on arche- ological and ethnological subjects in various German and American maga- zines devoted to these departments of science.

Accordingly, as his reputation among the cultured classes was that of a scientist and historian, Dr. Bruhl became widely known with the masses, not only as a public speaker, but as a poet. He is indeed ranked as one of the foremost German poets of America. His subjects were chiefly derived from the tales and myths of the Indians, as well as the achievements of the early German set- tlers. Besides numerous smaller poems he wrote "Charlotte," and "Die Heldin des Amazon." Other verses are collected in two volumes entitled, respectively, "Poesien des Urwalds" (Poems of the Primitive Forests) and "Abendglocken" (Evening Chimes), the latter containing the productions of "The Evening Tide of Life." A posthumous epic poem, "Skan- derbeg, " was published by his family after his death, which occurred suddenly on February 16, 1903, of paralysis of the heart. He was for many years a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was a member of the first board of trustees of the University of Cincinnati. He mar- ried Miss Magdalen Reis, of Cincinnati, Januar}' 31, 1849 and had four sons and one daughter. H. E. H.

Brans, John Dickson (1836-1883).

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, on February 24, 1836, he took his M. D. from the medical College of Charleston. During the Civil War he was surgeon to a general hospital of the confederacy and in 1866 was professor of physiology and pathology in the New Orleans School of Medicine.

He wrote "Life, its Relations, Animal and Mental" (1S57) and "Fever of the Lower Coast of the Mississippi River"

4 BRYNE

(18S0). As a poet and scholar he wrote many things showing considerable genius.

His death took place in New Orleans on May 20, 18S3.

In 185S he married Sarah, daughter of Dr. H. S. Dickson of Charleston. She died leaving two children, Henry Dickson and Margaret Graham. In 1870 he married Mary, daughter of Levi Pierce, who survived him with two sons, John Pierce and Robert Martin. J. G. R.

Bryne, John (1825-1902).

Destined for a British naval surgeon- ship, John Bryne, born in Kilkeel, October 13, 1S25, son of Stephen Bryne, ended as one of the thirty-nine original fellows of the American Gynecological Society. He was only sixteen when he began to study medicine at the Royal Institute in Belfast and took his M. D. there in 1842. A license to practise did not satisfy him so he went on studying at Dublin, Glasgow, and Edinburgh Univer- sities, graduating with honor from the latter and subsequently taking an ad eundem degree at the New York Medical College. After serving in a fever hospital during the Irish famine he came to Brooklyn and settled there, in 1857 being instrumental in founding a dispensary and hospital afterwards known as the Long Island College Hospital of which he was the first physician.

Most notable among his surgical achivements were varied applications of electrocautery in gynecic surgery. His results in hundreds of cases of high cervical amputation for cancer of the cervix doubtless exceeded those of hysterectomy in life-saving value. He was the first to substitute eleetrothermic hemostasis for the ligature in hysterec- tomy. His earliest complete ablation of the cancerous uterus by cautery was in 1895.

Twice married and the father of nine children, two only survived him. He was a man of sterling character and honorable in all his dealings, and the common-place that "he was beloved by all who knew him" exactly describes this uncommon