Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/259

 OTIS

231

OUCHTERLONY

States Volunteers, to date from June 30, 1864.

At this time he renewed his acquaint- ance with Surg. Crane, then on duty in the surgeon-general's office, and in 1864 Otis was assigned as assistant to Surg. John H. Brinton, curator of the Army- Medical Museum, and engaged in the duty of collecting materials for the "Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion." The first half of the volume was occupied by the "Surgical Report" prepared by Otis. It was a thoughtfully prepared document, which excited the universal admiration of military surgeons in Europe as well as in America. The first was "A Report on Amputations at the Hip-joint in Military Surgery," pubHshed as "Circular No. 7," surgeon- general's office, July 1, 1867. An exami- nation of this monograph shows that he had already pretty well begun to emanci- pate himself from the leading-strings of the French school, and had fully acquired the desire so manifest in his subsequent work to compare and weigh all accessible human knowledge on each branch of his subject before arriving at his own con- clusions. The second of the studies was : "A Report on Excisions of the Head of the Femur for Gunshot Injury," pub- lished as "Circular No. 2," surgeon- general's office, January 2, 1869. Dur- ing the interval between the appear- ance of these two volumes, and subse- quently, Otis found time to prepare and publish several valuable reports on subjects connected with miUtary surgery, one of which was: "A Report of Surgical Cases Treated in the Army of the United States from 1865 to 1871," issued as "Circular No. 3," from the surgeon-general's office, August 17, 1871. He was engaged at the time of his death on the third surgical volume, which he left in an unfinished condition; a colossal fragment. Otis received the appoint- ments of captain, major, and Ueutenant- colonel by brevet, to date from September 29, 1866, "for faithful and meritorious services during the war." He was pro- moted to be surgeon in the army, with

the rank of major, March 17, 1880. He was elected a foreign member of the Medical Society of Norway, October 26, 1870; a foreign corresponding member of the Surgical Society of Paris, August 11, 1875, and an honorary life member of the Massachusetts Medical Society in Febru- ary, 1877. Until his last illness Otis retained much of the fondness for litera- ture which characterized him in early life. Hesitating, often embarrassed, in his manner in ordinary conversation, especially with strangers, he became eloquent when warmed by the dis- cussion of any topic in which he took interest.

J. J. W.

Am. Jour. Med. Sc, 1881, vol. Ixxxii (J.

J. Woodward).

Brit. M. Jour., Lond., 1881, vol. ii.

Tid.^kr. i. mil. Helsov., Stockholm, 1882,

vol. vii.

Tr. Am. M. Ass., Phila., 1881, vol. xxxii.

Ouchterlony, John Ardid (1838-1908).

He was born in Gothenborg, Smalend, Sweden, June 24, 1838, his father, a captain in the army. He received bis early education in Sweden. He came to America alone in 1857, and settled in New York City where he studied medi- cine with Dr. T. GaiUard Thomas, and completed his medical studies in the medical department of the University of the City of New York, whence he graduated in 1860. During 1861 he entered the United States Army as surgeon, and achieved notable success in his chosen work. In 1862 he was assigned to hospital work in and near Louisville. During his hospital service his skill and learning attracted much attention, and in 1864 he was elected lecturer on clinical medicine in the University of Louisville. He continued his army service in conjunction with his lectureship until the latter part of 1865, when he resigned from the government service and began private practice. He was one of the founders of the Louisville Medical College in which he was professor of materia medica, therapeutics and clinical medicine. He resigned from the