Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/506

 HAMILTON

HAMILTON

to Buffalo to resume practice as a sur- geon. In 1S43 and 1844 a visit to Great Britain and the Continent, extending over a period of seven months, supplied mate- rials for a diary, which soon after appeared in the "Buffalo Medical Journal."

In Buffalo Hamilton met Dr. Austin Flint, Sr., and the two became great friends. In 1S46 they, associated with Dr. James Piatt White, also of Buffalo, added to the University of Buffalo a medical department, which rapidly became one of the features of the insti- tution. Dr. Hamilton became its pro- fessor of surgery. For twelve years, from 1846 to November 28, 1858, he retained his position in the University, and then moved to Brooklyn. Hardly had he got fairly settled in his new home, and become the first professor of sur- gery that the Long Island Hospital ever had, when he entered the army as a volunteer regimental surgeon, be- ing assigned to the thirty-first New York Infantry. On February 9, 1S63, he was appointed by the president and senate, medical inspector of the United States Army, with the rank of lieuten- ant-colonel. After two years and four months of active service he resigned his commission and returned to New York on September 10, 1863.

In April, 1S61, he became professor of military surgery, fractures and dioslcations, and professor of clinical surgery in the Bellevue Hospital Med- ical College. He remained in these positions until May, 1S6S, when, upon the resignation of the late Dr. James R. Wood, he was made professor of the prin- ciples and practice of surgery with op- erations, and continued in this capacity until March 15, 1875, when he resigned.

His writings include:

A prize essay on the "Fevers of the Western Country." ("Drake's Medical Journal," Cincinnati, Ohio, 1835.)

Article on "Congenital Encephalocele." (" Boston Medical and Surgical Journal," vol. xxiii, 1S40.)

" New Views on Provisional Callus," 1853.

"New Treatment for Non-union of Fractured Humeri," 1854.

Report to "American Medical Jour- nal" on "Deformities after Fractures." Transactions, 1855-6-7.

" Life and Character of Dr. T. Rom- eyn Beck." Published by order of the Senate of New York State, 1856.

"Compound Fractures of Long Bones," 1857.

"Treatise on Fractures and Disloca- tions," 1860. Second edition, 1862.

"Treatise on Military Surgery and Hygiene." First edition, 1S62. Second edition, 1865.

Many articles of his also appeared, at various times, in the "Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal."

"A Treatise on the Principles and Practice of Surgery" was first publish- ed in 1S72, a third edition of which was issued a few weeks before his death. "Surgical Memoirs of the War of the Rebellion," edited by him, was pub- lished in 1871 under the direction of the United States Sanitary Commission.

Skin-grafting was probably first sug- gested by Hamilton, then of Buffalo, in 1S47. In 1854 he reported a case in which he had successfully grafted a large raw surface caused by a heavy stone falling on a man's leg.

As an inventor and contributor to the armamentum chirurgicum, he dis- pensed with the useless and clumsy for the practical and elegant. He rendered more precise the methods of amputation through the joints by a resort to so-called "keys" and "guides."

In 1855 he was chosen president of the New York State Medical Society; in 1857 was president of the Erie County Med- ical Society; in 1866 of the New York Pathological Society; in 1S75 and 1S76 of the New York Medico-Legal Society; in 187S of the American Academy of Medi- cine; in 1878 and 1SS5 of the New York Society of Medical Jurisprudence; from 18S0 to 1SS4 he was vice-president of the New York Academy of Medicine. In 1868 he was made Honorary Associate Member of the College of Physicians and