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MANSON

Manson, Otis Frederick (1822-1888).

A physician and surgeon in the Con- federate Army, he was born in Richmond, Virginia, October 10, 1822, and went as a lad to the schools of his native city; studying medicine and graduating from the medical department of Hampden- Sidney College in 1840, at the age of eigh- teen. He at once settled in Granville County, North Carolina, and soon ac- quired a large practice.

He was a charter member of the Med- ical Society of Virginia, member, and later an honorary member, of the Med- ical Society of North Carolina, and the societies of other Southern states.

At the beginning of the war he went to Richmond at the request of Gov. Vance of North Carolina to look after the health of the troops of the state, and when a hos- pital for these soldiers was established, he was selected by the governor as surgeon- in-chief. In 1862 he was commissioned surgeon in the Confederate Army and served as such through the war, acting at the same time as a medical adjutant with rank of major for the state of North Carolina.

At the close of the war he settled in Richmond, and in 1867 was elected pro- fessor of pathology in the medical college of Virginia, to which chair was added a year later that of physiology. He re- signed in 1882, and was made professor emeritus. In 1871-72 he was associate editor of the " Richmond Clinical Rec- ord," and for a number of years, presi- dent of the City Council.

Throughout his life he was a dihgent student, an ardent investigator and a voluminous writer. An able physician devoted to his work and one of marked administrative ability, his organization and conduct of the Moore Hospital won for him the highest praise.

While living in North Carolina he availed himself of the abundant opportu- nity for studying malarial fevers, and accumulated a very large library, which contained much literature, both Ameri- can and European, on that subject, and, in consequence, he acquired a remarkable Vol. 11-10

knowledge of the disease. He was the first American writer to describe " Puer- peral Malarial Fever," an honor eventu- ally gracefully accorded him by Dr. Fordyce Barker, who had claimed the prioritj^, and was among the first of the leaders who brought the use of quinine sulphate into prominence in the treatment of other diseases than intermittent fever, such as pneumonia, cholera infantum, puerperal fever, etc., in which diseases he advocated its use in large doses. Many of his doctrines and treatments received bitter opposition, but are now generally accepted and practised by Southern phy- sicians. He was an accomplished man in other fields than medicine; pure and refined in his tastes, winning in manners.

He married, in 1841, a daughter of Spottswood Burwell of Granville County, North Carolina, who died in 1871, and had six children. He married again in 1881, as his second wife, Mrs. Helen (Gray) Watson, of Richmond, by whom he had no children.

After some months of feeble health from nervous prostration due to over- work, he died at his home in Richmond from an apoplectic stroke. February 1, 1888.

He was an extensive contributor to medical journal literature, and the following are a few of his contributions:

"Quinine in the Febrile Paroxysm." ("Stethoscope," and "Virginia Medical Gazette," vol. i, No. 2.)

"Puncture of the Bladder Above the Pubes." (Ibid., vol. i, No. 6.)

" On Large Doses of Quinine in Fever and Inflammation." (Ibid., vol. ii, No. 3.)

"Endemic Diseases of the Roanoke Valley and North CaroHna." ("Virginia Medical Journal," vol. iv, No i.)

" Excision of the Superior Third of the Humerus." ("Confederate States Med- ical Journal," vol. i, No. 3, March, 1864.)

"Quinine in Remittent Fever." (" Vir- ginia CHnical Record," October, 1871.)

" Cholera Infantum " ("Virginia Med- ical Monthly," vol. ii.)