Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/236

 MURDOCH

208

MURDOCH

member of the New York State Medical Society. A member of the Allegheny County (Pennsylvania) Medical Society and its president in 1S85, and a member of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, of which he was president in 188S. After serving as resident phy- sician in Bellevue Hospital, New York, in 1885, he was surgeon on the steam- ship "North Star," a vessel sailing between New York City and Havre. After a year so spent he practised in Oswego, New York, where he remained until 1872, with the exception of the four years from 1861 to 1865, during which he served in the army, being present at the battles of Bull Run, Falmouth, etc. In 1872, Dr. Murdoch moved to Pittsburg, the scene of his greatest professional activity. From 1872 until his death Dr. Murdoch was attending surgeon to the Western Penn- sylvania Hospital. On the organization of the Western Pennsylvania Medical College in 1887, he became clinical pro- fessor of surgery and also dean of the college, which positions he held until shortly before his death. In 1861 he married Jane Pettibone, of Oswego, who died four years later leaving him one son. In 1868 he married Jennie Moorhead, youngest daughter of the late Gen. James K. Moorhead, of Pittsburg, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. The only member of the family who followed the profession of medicine was Dr. J. M. Murdoch, of Polk, Pennsylvania. He was a frequent contributor to the medical journals of the country on surgical sub- jects. Dr. Murdoch was an ardent advo- cate of the "torsion of arteries" for the arrest of hemorrhage in surgical opera- tions. He died October 29, 1886, at Pittsburg, the cause of death being diabetes.

A. K.

Stone's Biographies of Eminent American

Physicians and Surgeons. A portrait of Dr. Murdoch ia in the Western Pennsylvania Medical College and in the rooms of the Allegheny County Medical Society, in Pittsburg.

Murdoch, Russell (1839-1905).

Russell Murdoch was born in Balti- more, February 12, 1839, but much of his early life was spent in Scotland, and his collegiate education received at Edin- l)urgh I'niversity (I85(>-.59), yet he returned to this country' to study medicine at the University of Virginia, where he graduated in 1861. Soon after, he i)ecame resident physician at the BaUimore Almshouse, and later (1862) attending physician to the Baltimore General Dispensary. In 1862 he was appointed surgeon in the Confederate Army and served in the engineer corps until the close of the war. He was with (jen. Lee at the surrender at Appomatox.

After the war he took up the study of ophthalmology in America and abroad, and, returning to Baltimore, became lecturer on diseases of the eye and ear at the University of Maryland (1868-69). About this time Dr. Agnew invited him to come to New York as his associate, but he decUned.

He was one of the founders of the Baltimore Eye, Ear and Throat Charity Hospital in 1862, and an attending phy- sician until his death, for several years professor of ophthalmology and otology at the Woman's Medical College of Bal- timore (1884-87), and was elected a member of the American Ophthalmolog- ical Society, July 21, 1868.

He was married in 1873 and had four daughters, all of whom became medical missionaries to China.

He was in active ophthalmic practice until the time of his death. On March 18, 1905, he performed a cataract opera- tion. After its completion, while speak- ing to a colleague, he suffered an attack of apoplexy, at first very shght, it increased in severity, and he died in a few hours.

This is a meagre outline of the life of a man who in many ways was remarkable. He was many sided. Well trained in the natural sciences, especially in zoology and botany, he took an active and continued interest in the Maryland Academy of Sciences until his death. His special