Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/326

 CUNNINGHAM

CURWEN

When the Civil War began he entered the confederate army and was commis- sioned surgeon July 19, 1S61, and was first assigned to duty with the thirtieth Virginia Infantry. During the course of the war he held several important posi- tions, and at its close was inspector of the hosiptals at Richmond, Virginia. In 186S he was elected professor of anatomy in the Medical College of Virginia, and for a number of years served as a member of the City Board of Health. He had the honor of election to the presidency of his local society, and in 1876, to that of the Medical Society of Virginia. He built up a large practice, devoting special at- tention to surgery and ophthalmology.

He married on September 21, 1864, Agnes Campbell Gordon, and of the two children born, one died in infancy, the other, a son, became a physician, Dr. R. H. Cunningham, in New York City.

Some three years before his death Dr. Cunningham contracted dysentery, which becoming chronic, gradually sapped his strength until it became exhausted, and he died in Richmond in September, 1885.

He was one of the co-editors of the " Vir- ginia Clinical Record" and contributed some valuable articles to that journal, as well as to other medical periodicals. Ap- pended will be found the titles of some.

"Case of Diffuse Aneurysm of the Thigh with Ligation of the Common Femoral." ("Virginia Clinical Record," vol. i.)

"Urethral Stricture." (Ibid., vol. i.)

"Excision of the Eyeball." (Ibid., vol. i.)

"Defective Vision, etc." ("Trans- actions of the Medical Society of Vir- ginia," 1S72.)

"Case of Wound Involving the Knee- joint with Complete Division of the Liga- mentum Patellae." (" Virginia Medical Monthly," vol. iv.)

"Sarcoma of the Iris." (Ibid. vol. iv.)

"Rupture of the Vagina." (Ibid, vol. v.)

"Presidential Address." ("Transac- tions of the Medical Society of Virginia," 1877.)

A good photograph of him is in posses- sion of his son. R. M. S.

Trans. Med. Soc. of Va., 1885.

Med. Reminiscences of Richmond, Dr. J. N.

Upshur.

Trans. Am. Surg. Assoc, 1886, vol. iv.

Curtis, Edward M. (1840-1874).

Edward M. Curtis was born in Warren, Vermont, February 16, 1840, but while engaged in his medical education the Civil War broke out and he joined the first Vermont Regiment. He soon re- turned to his studies and graduated at the University of Vermont in 1S62 and in 1863 was commissioned assistant surgeon in the sixth Vermont Infantry, in 1S64 surgeon to the fourth brigade and then division surgeon, serving until the close of the war. From the army he went to New York where he studied diseases of the eye and ear under Agnew, Noyes, and Knapp. He endeavored in 1S67 to en- gage in special practice in Oswego, New York, but was obliged to take up general medicine. In 1870, his health failing, he repaired to Colorado, where he recovered sufficiently to resume practice as a speci- alist in Sacramento. His health again suffering, he engaged as surgeon for a trip across the Pacific, but he died in Sacra- mento May 12, 1874.

His literary services to ophthalmology were well received. He was a member of the American Ophthalmological Soci- ety and generally respected as an ardent student and practitioner. H. F.

Trans. Am. Medical Asso., vol. xxix, 1878. Trans. Med. Soc. California, 1874-5.

Curwen, John (1821-1902).

John Curwen, alienist, who devoted his life to that uphill work, the care of those whose reason is only fitfully il- lumined by gleams of intelligence, was born in Lower Merion, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, on September 20, 1821. After a public school education and some time at the Rev. Samuel Phinney's Academy, Newburgh, New York, he went to and graduated from Yale College (1841), then studied medi-