Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/294

 CLARK

many young doctors to pay the way, and in 1835 he took his M. D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York. London and Paris and again twice there before 1840, sent him back to New York keen on pathology and microscopic stud- ies, the microscope being then rarely used over here for professional pur- poses.

Some years spent in the wards and dead house of Bellevue Hospital gave him a power of diagnosis and a knowledge of morbid processes unequaled by any of his contemporaries, and his opinion gradually came to be valued by the physi- cians of the city and country. In the class- room his knowledge of his subject, his scholarly methods, commanded or rather were yielded, persistent attention. Aus- cultatory percussion, his management of typhus fever, and his treatment of peritonitis by opium may be mentioned as his valuable contribution to medicine. The idea of the first originated with Dr. Camman and he with Clark and Dr. C. T. Mitchell set to work to prove it by post- mortem experiments. Upon the dead body success was complete and in his papers Clark gives instances of the wonderful success in diagnosing rare cases of disease.

His management of typhus fever by removing the window sashes even in winter, heating the incoming air and strictest cleanliness in his ward at the Bellevue Hospital rapidly diminished the mortality. Then, as to peritonitis he dismissed venesection, leeches and mer- curials and came to the conclusion that "a kind of saturation of the system with opium would be inconsistent with the progress of the inflammation and would subdue it," a conclusion fully demon- strated in his article on "Peritonitis" in "Pepper's System of Practical Medicine," vol. ii.

Like many other doctors who possess a vigorous constitution, he did not take enough rest. The disease from which he finally died dated back several years, a degeneration of the cerebral circulatory system, and he did not leave his house for

3 CLARK

six months before his death on September 13, 1887. Two little incidents are record- ed of his decided turn of mind. When a student he was refused the daughter of a man who required more money with a son-in-law. When he became professor the father suggested the marriage. He wrote laconically: "Alonzo Clark, the student, couldn't; Alonzo Clark, pro- fessor, wouldn't."

Once when vertigo, a symptom of his last illness, seized him while lecturing, he dropped into a hastily fetched chair and held his head in his hands. Then, look- ing up, he said cheerfully "for many years I have held this chair and never until this moment occupied it literally."

Among his writings are found:

"A New Mode of ascertaining the Dimensions, Form and Condition of Internal Organs by Percussion." (Writ- ten with Dr. G. P. Camman, 1840.)

"On the Treatment of Puerperal Peritonitis by large Doses of Opium," 1S55.

Lectures on "Typhoid Fever," 1878; lectures on "Cholera," 1866-7;on "Local- ized Peritonitis," 187S; on "Eruptive Fevers," 1880; on "Diseases of the Heart," 1884.

He held the professorship of pathology at Woodstock, Vermont, thirteen years; the chair of physiology and pathology, College of Physicians and Surgeons of N. York; was visiting physician, Bellevue Hospital; president of New York State Medical Society; member of New York Pathological Society of New York, and of the New York Academy of Medicine. D. W.

Jour. Am. Med. Assoc, vol. ix, 1S87. Med. Rec, N. Y., vol. xxxii, 1887. Tr. N. York Med. Ass., Concord, N. Hamp., vol. vi, 1888.

Clark, Andrew Gibson (1809-1902).

This old doctor, who remained unmar- ried and continued in practice until the burden of ninety-three years weighed- too heavily upon him, was born in Win Chester, Virginia, on September 24, 1809 and died November S, 1902 at Parkers-