Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/468

 GODMAN

GOFORTH

meant much labor outside his usual duties. But to it he went and produced in 1826 three volumes of " American Natural His- tory, " a valuable addition to the scientific literature of the country, and did all this, added to reviews for the "Quarterly" and Latin, French and German transla- tions, also his annoted edition of Sir Ast- ley Cooper's "Dislocations and Frac- tures." He also co-edited the "American Journal of the Medical Sciences," begin- ning in 182-1, and contributing to it until his death.

During this time of constant toil which brought in little pecuniarily he was offered the chair of anatomy in Rutgers College, New York. It was a post of honor and he accepted and lectured with almost un- paralleled popularity the ensuing winter. But by the next winter his health began to give away. It was evidently advanced tuberculosis. A spring at Santa Cruz failed to relieve him and he began to labor with his pen to support his family, continuing to work for the "Encyclo- pedia Americana," the natural history section being entirely held by him.

On the seventeenth of April, 1S30, this comparatively young leader in the pro- fession departed this world cheerfully trusting in God, after a life in which he had sought no relaxation save change of occupation.

He married, in October, 1821, a daugh- ter of Peale, the artist.

From "Liberty Hall and Gazette" of June 22, 1822 1 copy the following "card."

" A Caed.

" Dr. John D. Godman respectly in- forms the public that the apparatus for sulphurous fumigations will shortly be ready for use at his office. The success with which diseases of the skin have been treated by this method is such as to as- tonish and gratify all who have witnessed its application. In Philadelphia, Balti- more, and other cities it is daily becoming more known and justly esteemed. A printed description of the origin and im- portance of the remedy, with numerous cases of disease cured by it, will in a few

days be ready for delivery." Two weeks later a further announcement appeared as follows: "The apparatus is now estab- lished at the office of Dr. J. D. Godman, and will be ready for the reception of patients after the fourth of July (1822). Poor persons afflicted with diseases of the skin, chronic rheumatism, palsy, etc., who are recommended as proper objects of charity by a clergyman, physician, or respectable citizen, will be operated on free of charge." "August 17, 1822, a number of patients have been benefited and many cured. Charges fifty cents an application."

S. D. Gross, in his "Autobiography" says: "I had heard so much of Godman and saw before me a thin, frail sickly man with a pallid face, black hair and eyes and a clear sonorous voice. God- man was poor all his life. Poverty literally pursued him from the cradle to the grave. Gifted beyond most of his professional contemporaries he failed in almost everything. With great powers as an anatomical teacher he attracted large but unremunerative classes. For eighteen months after he took to literary pursuits he daily performed an astonish- ing amount of work, breathing as he did, with only one lung. His was a life of true heroism. His 'Rambles of a Natural- ist,' 1883, has had many admirers on ac- count of the beauty and fascination of its style."

A. G. D.

Lives of Eminent Am. Phys. and Surgs. S. D. Gross.

The Medical Annals of Maryland. E. F. Cordell.

A Narrative of Med. in Amer. J. G. Mum- ford.

Goforth, William (1766-1817).

William Goforth, born in the city of New York, was the son of Judge Goforth, one of the earliest and most distinguished pioneers of Ohio.

Equipped with a good preparatory education he had for medical professor Dr. Joseph Young, a physician of some eminence, who in 1800 published a small volume on "The Universal Dif-