Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/27

 HORR

11

HOSACK

Hospital." Written out, but not pub- lished.

15 "A Sternum Dilator for Aiding in Injecting Subjects." ("American Jour- nal of Medical Sciences," vol. iii, 1828.)

16 "A Bandage Machine or Roller." (Ibid., vol. i, 1827.)

17 " Instruments for Dilating Stricture through the Perineum."

C. R. B.

William E. Homer, M. D., a discourse de- livered before the faculty and students of the University of Pennsylvania, Oct. 3, 1853, by Samuel Jackson, M. D., Philadelphia; T. K. and P. G. Collins, Printers, 1853. Gross, Lives of Eminent Amer. Phys., Phila., 1861.

Boston M. and S. Jour., 1849-50, xli. N. Jersey M. Reporter., Burlington, 1S54, vol. vii.

Horr, Oren Alonzo (1834-1893).

Here was a remarkable man, an ex- cessively earnest worker in medicine, one born a physician. He first saw the light in Waterford, Maine, October, 1834, was educated at three academies, and gradu- ated from Bates College in the class of 1858.

He studied medicine at the Medical School of Maine, then in New York, and returned to the Medical School of Maine, from which he graduated in 1861. He first practised in Norway, Maine, married Elizabeth Kingman, and in 1863 moved to Minot. In September of that year he was appointed assistant surgeon of the one hundred and fourteenth United States Negro Regiment, and went with it to Texas, remaining there through the war.

While with his regiment he made great advances as a surgeon, and be- came an adept in autopsies. Hard work brought on poor health, but by 1870 he was practically well and be- gan again practising at Lewiston, Maine, where he stayed for the rest of his life. Doctor Horr was long an active member of the Maine Medical Associa- tion, an earnest supporter of the Cen- tral Maine Hospital.

In 1886 he made a prolonged stay in Europe, investigating recent ad-

vances in medicine. In a short biog- raphy it is difficult to characterize so popular a physician. He was a constant attendant at medical meet- ings, a keen debator, and a first rate clinician. His medical papers were instructive, well built, well thought out and well written. Few men could write better than Dr. Horr upon "Croup," "Extirpation of the Ovaries," and "Plaster of Paris in Surgery" ("Transactions Maine Medical Associa- tion," 1879.) In the midst of his career he was cut short. May 28, 1893, by septicemia, contracted from an autopsy in a criminal case.

J. A. S. Trans. Maine Med. Assoc, 1893.

Hosack, Alexander Eddy (1805-1871).

The elder Hosack seems to have been so anxious for his little son Alex- ander Eddy to become a student that it is said he "neglected no opportunities that could afford facilities to enlighten his mind." Unfortunately the boy Alexander, born in New York City in April, 1805, was at nineteen "so en- feebled in constitution by close appli- cation to books" that his attention for some time had to be turned to the restor- ation of health. Dr. Aydlott and a Mr. McFarlan "watched over the early mental growth" of Alexander, and by 1823 he had recovered health and graduated M. D. at the University of Pennsylvania with a thesis on "Se- nile Catarrh." For the following three years he stayed in Paris, working un- der Dupuytren, returning to New York with a keen interest in his work and a mind well calculated to weigh fairly all new theories. One fact is worthy of record: He was the first in the city of New York to anesthetize with ether, his first experiments being an amputation, stone, and removal of two breasts. He also introduced Syme's operation for exsection of the elbow into the States. In 18 2 3 he in- vented an instrument for the purpose of rendering the operation for staphyl-