Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/384

 DUNLAP 2

obtained from the Cincinnati Medical College in 1839.

He began practice in Greenfield, Ohio, with his brother Milton, with whom he had read medicine, and upon the dissolution of this partnership (1846) he moved to Ripley, Ohio, and later Springfield, where he practised until his death, February 16, 1S94.

Dr. Dunlap was president of the Ohio State Medical Society in 1868; vice-president of the American Medical Association in 1877, and an active member of the American Gynecological Society.

From 1S75 to 1885 he was professor of surgical diseases of women in Starling Medical College.

During his career he made four hun- dred and twenty-eight laparotomies, of which sixteen or eighteen were hysterectomies, with eighty-three per cent, of recoveries.

Dr. Dunlap's claim for honorable men- tion is not based upon the number of sections nor upon the percentage of recoveries, both of which would com- pare badly with the statistics of modern operators, but upon the fact that he was one of the pioneer ovariotomists of the world.

It is difficult for one living in the present surgical environment to con- ceive of the bitter opposition which prevailed against the operation of ovariotomy in many who held high places in the profession in the early forties. The written report of Dr. Dun- lap's first operation was sent to the " Western Lancet " of which Dr. John P. Harrison (one of his former teachers) was editor, but was returned with the significant comment that "its publica- tion would encourage an unjustifiable and murderous operation, which had already been tried and condemned by the profession both in this country and Europe." The elder Mussey, who then dominated the surgery of this region, took early occasion to rebuke the young man "for doing such things." This first operation, which was done

S DUNLAP

on the seventeenth of September, 1843, without an anesthetic resulted fatally on the twentieth day.

In the face of such discouragements, without hospital facilities, trained nurses or assistants, without anesthetics or antiseptics, and with limited operative experience, Dr. Dunlap boldly and successfully operated on his second case in 1849.

Preceding his first operation, there is the record of eighteen completed ovariot- omies, thirteen of which were by Mc- Dowell, and one of which (Atlee's) antedated Dunlap's case less than three months; there were also reported a few abandoned operations, but of all these he certainly knew nothing, ex- cept the bald fact that McDowell had successfully removed ovarian tumors.

It was the privilege of the writer to assist Dr. Dunlap on several occasions. There was nothing spectacular about his methods. He (Dunlap) was always a slow, methodical operator, using few in- struments and with a technic which was simplicity itself.

Undoubtedly his success was due largely to the postoperative care given his patients. Dr. Dunlap did his own nursing, and he did it well. It was not unusual for him to constantly attend the bedside of a patient for a week or more after operating, until the result, for good or bad, was assured.

The latter years of his life were full of suffering. Twice he underwent litho- tripsy. His son, Dr. C. W. Dunlap, who was associated with him in practice, died before him.

We have from his pen a paper on "Ovariotomy" ("Transactions of the Ohio State Medical Society," 186S) and an "Address" before the same society in 1869. W. J. C.

" Buffalo Med. and Surg. Journal," 1894. In Memoriam, N. Y. Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 1894.

Trans, of the American Gynecological Soc, 1894.

Trans. American Association of Obstetric- ians and Gynecologists, 1894.