Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/279

 PARKES

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PARKHILL

The first to advocate uniting severed in- testines; he in this antedated Drs. Senn and Murphy. For the purpose of gaining a better knowledge of both the conse- quences and treatment of gunshot wounds of the intestine he made a series of experi- ments on forty dogs. The number of re- coveries astounded the medical profession and lead to further experiments in all parts of the world. He made his first re- port at a meeting of the American Medi- cal Association in Washington, 1884. He took with him three specimens of intes- tine and a living dog from which he re- moved five feet of intestine perforated by bullet wounds. His work in the surgery of the gall-bladder, which was then in its infancy, was no less conspicuous in influ- encing new lines of treatment. Preced- ing Parkes' there were not twenty-five ideal cholecystotomies. He recognized the practical place of surgery in the re- lief of common maladies.

Always a student, he read much, loved old books and also kept in touch with the continental medical schools. For several years before his death he had been accu- mulating material for works on general and abdominal surgery but his sudden death stopped the vsriting. The writings he left were published under "Clinical Lectures," but there were some fifty or more besides what appeared in the current medical journals and of which a partial list can be seen in " Distinguished Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago," F. M. Speery, 1894.

He married, in 1868, Isabella J. Gonter- man and had two children, Charles Herbert and Irene Edna. The son became, like his father, a surgeon. Dr. Parkes was described as a handsome man of splendid physique, over six feet, with a gentle kindly face and a devotion to little children and out-door sports.

Among his appointments he was: attending surgeon to the Presbyterian Hospital; surgeon-in-charge of St. Joseph's Hospital; surgeon-in-chief to the Augustana Hospital; consulting sur- geon to the Hospital for Women and Children, and professor of surgery in the

Chicago Polyclinic. He held also the presidency of the Chicago Medical Society and of the Chicago Gynecological Society, In 1887 he was elected professor of sur- gery — successor to Prof. Moses Gunn — and in this position he was gaining wide renown at the time of his death, which occurred after a short illness from pneu- monia, March 28, 1891.

There is a portrait in the Chicago publication referred to. D. W.

Trans., The Illinois State Med. Soc, 1891. Distinguished Phys. and Surgeons of Chicago, F. M. Speery, Chicago, 1904. Appreciations by various surgeons.

Parkhill, Clayton (1860-1902).

He was born on a farm in Vanderbilt, Pennsylvania, on April 18, 1860, and in 1881 entered Jefferson Medical College (Philadelphia) and graduated in 1883. He was then appointed physician to the Philadelphia Hospital and served one year. In the meantime, he completed a course at the Pennsylvania School of Anatomy and Surgery under Dr. George McClellan, and subsequently became his assistant. Leaving Philadelphia, he set- tled in Denver in 1885.

He was demonstrator of anatomy in the University of Denver and, the Gross Medical School being organized, was apjDointed to the same position and also that of professor of clinical surgery, and left here for the chair of surgery in the University of Colorado at Boulder, and was also dean of this school.

About this time he devised his appa- ratus for cleft palate and jurymast for fractures of the maxilla and clamp for the treatment of fractures of long bones ("Annals of Surgery," May, 1898). By the latter, a valuable apparatus, he is best known to the profession.

In 1898 he was appointed surgeon- general of the National Guard by Gov. Mclntire and was re-appointed by his successor, Gov. Adams. During the latter's administration, war broke out between the United States and Spain and Dr. Parkhill became surgeon to the First Colorado Regiment with rank of major.