Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/340

 DAVIDGE

DAVIDSON

pumps to keep the vessel from sinking. From motives of economy, like many students of the time, he took his degree (April 22, 1793) at Glasgow rather than Edinburgh. About this time he married Wilhelmina Stuart, of the Firth of Solway, a lady several years his senior. After practising for a short time in Birmingham, England, he returned to Maryland, and finally selected Baltimore as his permanent home. In 1797 a severe epidemic of yellow fever raged in the city and there was a public dis- cussion of the disease by the physicians in the newspapers. Davidge bore a prominent part, and early in the follow- ing year republished his views in a vol- ume which was freely quoted in later works upon the subject.*

He was one of the first attending physicians to the Baltimore General Dispensary on its foundation in 1S01. In 1802 we first note his advertisement of private courses of medical lectures, and these courses were continued annually until 1807, when, being joined by Drs. James Cocke and John Shaw, his school was chartered as the College of Medicine of Maryland. In 1813 a charter for a University was obtained, and this in- stitution became the department of medicine, Dr. Davidge holding the chair of anatomy or surgery from 1S07 to his death in 1829, and for a number of years he was also dean. .

In person, Prof. Davidge is represented as being short and stout, with blue eyes, florid complexion and homely, rugged features, small hands and feet and a graceful carriage. He walked with a slight limp after ISIS, in consequence of a fracture of the thigh bone. His lectures were described by Prof. Lunsford P. Yandell as being "models of simple elegance," but "he seemed to forget the English idiom the moment he took pen in hand." His style of writing was stiff, affected and obscure, and marked by obsolete modes of spelling and expression. He had very positive views on medical subjects and believed menstruation to be
 * Trans. Internat. Med. Congress, 1S76.

a secretion of the uterus excited by ovarian irritation. He opposed the sup- port of the perineum on the ground that nature is sufficient for her own processes. He also declared himself against the spec- ulum uteri because it smacked of immoral curiosity.

His first wife dying, Dr. Davidge married Mrs. Rebecca Troup Polk, widow of Josiah Polk, of Harford County, Maryland, who survived him with four of his children, a son by his first wife and three daughters by his second.

He died at his house in Lexington street on August 23, 1S29, of malignant disease of the antrum of Highmore.

His most important writings were: "Treatise on Yellow Fever," 1798; "Nosologia Methodica" (in Latin), two editions, 1812 and 1813; "Physical Sketches," two volumes, 1814 and 1816; "Treatise on Amputation," 1818. He edited "Bancroft on Fevers," 1S21, and a quarterly journal entitled "Baltimore Philosophical Journal and Review," 1S23, of which only one number appeared. His important operations were amputation at shoulder-joint soon after 1792 (Reese); ligation of the gluteal artery for aneu- rysm; ligation of the carotid artery for fungus of the antrum; total extripation of the parotid gland, 1823. He in- vented a new method of amputation which he called the "American."

E.F. C.

His great-great-grandson, Walter D. Dav- idge, an attorney of Washington City, has an oil painting of him.

Cordell, Historical Sketch of University of Maryland, 1891; Cordell, Medical Annals of Maryland, 1903.

Davidson, John Pintard (1812-1890).

John Pintard Davidson was born in Pinckneyville, Mississippi, December 8, 1812, the son of Dr. Richard Davidson, of Virginia, a surgeon in the United States army, who came to New Orleans in 1S04. John Pintard took his M. D. at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania in 1832 and re- turned immediately to New Orleans and entered the Charity Hosptial.