Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/333

 DA COSTA :

which he knew would prove of use in his preparation of class-room sketches and diagrams. Not yet twenty-one, he was determined to fit himself for a teacher; he was not only eager to know things but how to teach them, and he worked under all that was brilliant in Paris, thence going to Prague and Vienna to study more particularly pathology and diseases of the heart and lungs, then back to Paris for a while before settling in Philadelphia, where the first work he was invited to take was at the Sumner Association for Medical Instruction, long famous for extramural teaching, and he also organ- ized classes in physical diagnosis and clinical teaching which were popular. When in 1S64 the chair of the theory and practice of medicine became vacant in Jefferson College he was elected and in 1S72 succeeded Prof. Dickson in the chair of practice. His bedside methods, his diagnostic accuracy, his skill in the use of remedies, his wide and well ordered knowledge of medicine, and his still greater knowledge of men made his influence felt upon the physicians who worked with him and those who were to follow.

He was not a great writer, but when he had something to say, said it well and lucidly. Of his one treatise, "Medical Diagnosis," nine editions appeared during his lifetime, and it was translated into several languages. His literary ability and professional skill were recognised by Jefferson College, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University who all gave him their LL. D. Someone has called him "the physicians' physi- cian," a title which means much. In 1S92 there was a meeting at Dr. Weir Mitchell's house to arrange for two portraits of Da Costa, for the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the Jefferson Medical College, and so great was the number of subscribers that money had to be returned.

In 1892 he withdrew from active teaching except for a short clinical course at the Pennsylvania Hospital, but his interest was maintained until his death from heart disease which happened on

1 DALTON

September 11, 1900 at his country house, Ashwood, near Villa Nova.

In April, 1860, he married Sarah Frederica Brinton and had two sons. His wife died many years before he did. One of his bequests was a fund to the University to found a retiring fund for professors of long service.

His writings occupy over two columns of the "Surgeon-general's Catalogue," Washington, District of Columbia, which, besides articles on diseases of the res- piratory tract and some on Bright's disease, gives his "The Physicians of the Last Century," Philadelphia, 1S57. and his "Medical Diagnosis," Philadel- phia, 1864.

Among his many appointments was that of lecturer at Jefferson College, 1864; professor of medicine and clinical medicine, 1872; emeritus professor, 1891; president of the Association of American Physicians; twice president of the Col- lege of Physicians, Philadelphia; honorary member of the Medical Society of New York and that of London; president of the Pathological Society of Philadelphia.

Autobiography of S. D. Gross.

Atkinson's Phys. and Surgs. of the U. States.

Dalton, John Call (1825-1889).

John Call Dalton was born at Chelms- ford, Massachusetts on February 2, 1825, educated at Harvard University, where he received his B. A. in 1844 and M. D. in 1847, and earl)' devoted himself to the study of physiology. In 1851 his essay on the "Corpus Luteum of Preg- nancy," which obtained the prize offered by the American Medical Association, at once established his reputation as an able investigator in physiology. Shortly afterwards he was appointed professor of physiology in the University of Buffalo, and, it is said, was the first in this country to use vivisection in class teaching. He resigned this chair in 1854 to accept a similar one in the Vermont Medical College, and three years later he accepted the chair of physiology in the Long Island College Hospital, and in 1855 held the same chair in the College of Physicians