Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/353

 DETWILLER

DEWEES

in 1S59. He then served a term of eighteen months in Bellevue Hospital, but at the beginning of the Civil War returned to his home and was soon after appointed assistant surgeon in the Confederate Army, and inspector of hospitals at Richmond, serving with great distinction. At the close of the war he settled in Baltimore, devoting himself chiefly to diseases of the eye and ear. In 1S78 he went to New York where he was making a great profes- sional reputation when death came. He was, for a time, editor of the " North Carolina Medical Journal."

He died May 1, 1SS1, in Wilmington, North Carolina, at his father's home. H. F.

Medical Record of New York, 1SS1, vol. xix. North Carolina Medical Journal. 1SS1, vol.

Detwiller, Henry (1795-1887).

Henry Detwiller, a convert to home- opathy after twenty years in practice, was also a natural scientist and born in Langenbruch, County Basel, Lanschaft, on December 13, 1795, beginning to study medicine when only fifteen under Dr. Laurentius Senor and matriculating at the University of Freiburg. Being very fond of natural science he was seized with a desire to explore the regions of America, so left Basel in 1817 and acted as ship's doctor to several hundred emigrants who went as far as Amsterdam. Passing an examination at the medical board there he obtained the same post on the John of Baltimore, taking over some four hundred emigrants to Boston. A prolongation of the voyage round Bermuda in July heat brought on sick- ness and when Philadelphia was reached Detwiller was left there in charge of the quarantined vessel and of another in like plight. While in Philadelphia he became acquainted with a French physician Dr. Monges, and was often called in consultation for the family of General Vaudame and other French refugees, and on his advice, added to that of Joseph Bonaparte, settled in

Pennsylvania, choosing Allentown, then moving to Hellertown, Pennsylvania, beginning seven years later to practise homeopathy. In 1836 he revisited his alma mater and took the degree which his youth had prevented his tak- ing before going to America. During his long residence at Hellertown he found time for natural history and collected his "Flora Sauconensis" chiefly from the upper and lower Saucon. His ornithological specimens, the mammals, reptilise, chelonise, etc., represent nearly the whole fauna of Pennsylvania. The greater part was donated to public in- stitutions and museums in Europe, especially the University of Basel. He was one of the organizers of the American Institute of Homeopathy and assisted in forming the Pennsylvania State Homeopathic Society.

He died at Easton, Pennsylvania, where he had practised over thirty years, quite an old man, being ninety- two. His wife, whom he married in 1818, was Elizabeth Appel, of the neigh- borhood, who died seventeen years later, leaving three sons and four daughters.

From a sketch by Dr. T. L. Bradford in the History of Homeopathy, l'JOo, vol. i, in which there is a portrait.

Dewees, William Potts (1767-1S11).

This Philadelphian obstetrician was so famous that no lady considered her- self safe in other hands, and patients, it was said, postponed their confinements until he was at leisure.

His great grandparents were among the early Swedish emigrants at Delaware Bay. His mother was the daughter of an Englishman, Thomas Potts, who bought much land here and founded Pottstown on the Schuylkill, where William was born on the fifth of May, 17(17.

Early left fatherless he had only an ordinary school education and after attending medical lectures in the Uni- versity of Philadelphia began practice witl fc a diploma when only twenty- one, gaining patients by his talent I