Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/345

 DAWSON

DAWSON

to him in Birmingham by the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Society, in whose transactions (vol. xvi, 1904) is a biography by Dr. Richard Douglas, and a portrait. D. W.

Dawson, Benjamin F. (1 847-1 S8S).

Benjamin F. Dawson, obstetrician, was born in New York City on June 28, 1847, and graduated from the college of Physicians and Surgeons in 1SG6. While a student during the last year of the Civil War he served as acting assistant surgeon in the Federal Army and after graduation established himself in practice in New York, paying special attention to surgery, gynecology, obstetrics and diseases of children. In 1868 he founded the "American Journal of Obstetrics," and was editor of the same until 1S74; con- tributing largely to this and other similar publications for many years. In 1876 he invented a galvanic battery for galvano-caustic surgery. About ten years after he gave up the practice of his pro- fession on account of ill health. He was for a number of years professor of gyne- cology in the New York Post-graduate Medical School, assistant surgeon of the Woman's Hospital, attending physician of the New York Foundling Asylum, and a member of the New York Obstetric Society and other medical associations, and later he devoted more attention to gyne- cology, the practice of which he enriched with many ingenious instruments — an ovariotomy clamp, a spreading sinus speculum, and a galvano-cautery battery.

He died on April 3, 1S88, at his home, No. 8 East Fifteenth Street, New York, of diabetes, from which he had suffered for years.

Med. Reg. State of N. Y., Albany, 1SS8. Am. Jour, of Obstet., N. Y., 1888, vol. xxi. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 18S8, vol. cxviii. N. York Med. Jour., 1888, vol. xlvii.

Dawson, John (1810-1866).

John Dawson was born at Sharpsburg, Maryland, May 11, 1810, the oldest son of John and Nancy Hays Dawson.

The Dawson family moved from

Sharpsburg to Berkeley County, Virginia, where they lived until 1830, when they emigrated to Green County, Ohio, and settled in the village of Jamestown. Shortly after his arrival in Jamestown, young Dawson made the acquaintance of Dr. Matthias Winans, the physician and leading citizen ■ of the place. On Dr. Winans' advice, the younger man took up the study of medicine, and practically became a member of the doctor's family. He eagerly took advantage of the well- stocked library of his friend and patron, and made up to a great extent for the lack of a liberal education which oppor- tunity had denied him, and was soon not only a well read man, but proficient in Latin and Greek.

In 1835 the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery was organized, with Drs. Daniel Drake, Samuel D. Gross, Joshua Martin, J. W. McDowell, Landon C. Rives and Horatio G. Jameson as the faculty. To this school young Dawson went for his first course in medicine. In 1S38, Drs. Drake and Gross, having gone to Louisville to join the faculty of the University of Louisville, young Dawson followed them, and there took his second course.

He contributed his first article to the "Western Journal of Medicine and Sur- gery" under the title "An Epidemic of Typhus Fever in Ohio." This article at- tracted the attention of the profession, and stamped the author as a vigorous writer and a rising member of the medical faculty. The University conferred on him the honorary M. D. for this first paper.

Returning to his home, he entered into partnership with his friend and patron. He continued also to be a student and writer and a series of articles followed, among them: "Thoughts on the Tongue as an Element of Diagno- sis," "Epidemic Erysipelas," and "On Cold Baths in Typhoid Fever," the last something like half a century too soon to be appreciated.

While practising at Jamestown, hi- had one of those clinical experiences