Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/393

 EDEBOHLS

EDEBOHLS

Xavier's College — he was graduated, in 1871, from St. John's College, Ford- ham, which institution, in 18S6, conferred upon him the degree of A. M., and in 1906 that of LL. D.

Immediately after graduation from St. John's he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, and on receipt of his medical degree, four years later, became a mem- ber of the house staff of St. Francis Hospital, where, in the various divisions, he spent nearly half a decade. In 1SS0 he went to Europe, intending to pre- pare himself as a specialist in diseases of the eye and ear, but on his return to America resumed the general practice he had begun while connected with the hospital. As a general practitioner, however, he was only moderately suc- cessful.

His appointment as gynecologist to St. Francis Hospital, in 1SS7, was the real beginning of his career, as it gave opportunity for the development of his talents along the lines to which he was most inclined and best adapted. His success soon became marked, and it was not long until he had established for himself a deserved national reputa- tion, through the excellence of his op- erative work and the high quality of his literature.

As an operator Edebohls was unsur- passed. Rarely in one surgeon do we find combined the talents of a skillful operator, an engaging author, a success- ful teacher, and an ingenious in- ventor. That way genius lies. Ede- bohls possessed all of these accomplish- ments. His works on "Renal Decap- sulation for Chronic Bright's Disease" and "Renal Decapsulation for Puer- peral Eclampsia" have won for him an international repute. Frequently now the latter operation is being per- formed in Europe with varying re- sults, and the studies on the subject are far from closed. The con en us of opinion, however, is favorable. The radical boldness of the idea of surgical intervention in Bright's Disease sub-

jected him to no little criticism and some abuse.

To medical and surgical literature he was a frequent contributor, possess- ing a clear, concise style well fitted to the expression of his original concep- tions and sturdy convictions. A tolerably full list of his writings is in the Cat. of the Surg.-gen. Lib., Wash., D. C.

As professor of diseases of women at the New York Post-graduate Med- ical School and Hospital, Edebohls attracted a large class. His lectures were attended by interested matric- ulates in great numbers. He was ready, fluent, entertaining, and instructive, and many of the younger practitioners of to-day owe to him much of their most valuable surgical equipment.

In the field of invention Edebohls was constantly active. A number of operations now generally performed had their origin at his brain and hands, and an operating-table, a vaginal specu- lum, leg holders, needle holders, kidney pads, and some lesser surgical para- phernalia were the inventive outcome of exigencies met within his experience.

He was a member of the Medical Society of the State of New York and the German Medical Society; a fellow of the American Gynecological Society and of the .New York Academy of Med- icine; honorary fellow of the Soei£t6 de Chirurgie de Bucharest; attending gynecologist to St. Francis and the Post-graduate Hospitals, and consult- ing gynecologist to St. John's Hospital, Yonkers, and Nyack Hospital, Xyack.

The illness which caused his death is thought to have been contracted during the summer of 1907, when he and his wife, who was Barbara Leyen- decker, accompanied by theii two sons paid a visit to their married daughter and son-in-law in Mexico. The entire family were stricken with typhus fever while there, and the eldest son died of it. This loss, added to anxiety ap- pears to have undermined his hitherto robust constitution. Gradually the in- sidious disease developed, and though