Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/259

 CABELL

CABELL

Cabell, James Lawrence (1813-1889).

Dr. William Cabell, founder of the Cabell family in Virginia, and a surgeon and citizen of the eighteenth century, had for grandson one Dr. George Cabell, Jr., who married Miss Susanna Wyatt, to them being born August 26, 1813, James Lawrence Cabell. He went as a boy to private schools in Richmond, and to the University of Virginia, where he matriculated in 1829. An earnest and diligent student, he obtained his M. A. in 1833. The following year he continued the study of medicine in the University of Maryland, and took his M. D., having taken his first course of lectures at the University of Virginia. In 1873 Hampden-Sydney College con- ferred upon him her LL. D. To further his studies, he went to Paris, and con- tinued to study there until 1837, when he was called to the chair of anatomy, physiology and surgery in the University of Virginia, which he filled with eminent ability until 1856, when a chair of anat- omy and materia medica was created, he continuing to teach physiology and Burgery, and for a time comparative anatomy, until hi3 retirement from active work at the end of the session of 18S8-89, after over fifty years of active service. He was a member of the Medical Society of Virginia, and in 1876 elected president.

During the war between the states, Dr. Cabell was in charge of the Confederate States Military Hospital at Charlottes- ville, Virginia from July, 1861 to May, 1862, and again from September, 1862 to the end of the war.

Dr. Cabell was a man of zeal and learning, both of a professional and gen- eral nature, and wonderfully well rounded in his acquirements. For half a century the greater part of his energies were devoted to teaching and it was as a

teacher that he stood preeminent. An able diagnostician and possessing a vast fund of knowledge, his services as a con- sultant were much sought. During the Civil War, when in charge of the military hospital at Charlottesville, his skill and his remarkable executive abilities were exhibited in a high degree.

He married in 1839 Margaret Gibbons, but had no children, and he adopted two nieces who grew up to comfort his declining years. After some months of failing health, he passed away on the thirteenth of August, 1889, at the house of Major Edward B. Smith, in Albe- marle County, Virginia.

While by no means a voluminous writer, he was the author of a book and some valuable papers. His most notable work, entitled "Testimony of Modern Science to the Unity of Mankind," published in 1S57, was called forth by Gliddon and Notts' "Types of Mankind," and in it he skillfully combats the views of Gliddon and Notts as tending to un- belief, and shows that the Bible and science are not antagonistic. Every- thing that he wrote is characterized by excellence of style, force of reasoning, and the importance of the subjects discussed.

The following are some of his con- tributions to medical literature:

"Syllabus of Lectures on Physiology and Surgery," 1857.

"Gunshot Wounds of the Head." ("Richmond Medical Journal," vol. i.)

" On the Treatment of Acute Pneu- monia." (Ibid., vol. iii.)

"Oxygen as a Remedy in Disease." (" Virginia Medical Monthly," vol. i.)

"Sanitary Conditions in Relation to Surgical Operations." (" Virginia Med- ical Monthly," vol. ix.)

"Defective Drainage as a cause of Disease within the Limits of Virginia."