Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/304

 PETER

Survey mado him known as a delicate and exact analyst and lie aeiiuired a local reputation as a toxicologist. When on a summer tour in I'^nj^land in 1839, with his friend, Dr. O. J. M. Bush, he energetically collected books and appa- ratus for his class teaching and came home the proud owner of a Daguerre photographic outfit — the first in the West. Doubtless his wife, Frances Paca, daughter of Maj. William Dallam, whom he had nuxrried four years previously ami his children Johanna and Alfred had their " likenesses" taken in every possible position.

After his return he also experimented with the then novel guncotton and with pyroxyline; electricity gaining his deliglit- ed attention. He had an ear always alert for new ideas, a trait strikingly displayed even in old age, and would sweep cheerfully aside his most cherished theories wlien they were shaded by dawning scientific facts. This energetic doctor, along with one Dr. Short, made also some good botanical researches, welcoming anj'thing fresh in zoology or mineralogy which they came across in their travels and cultivating such a fine herbarium at home as to enable them to exchange specimens with European botanists. 1846 saw his memorial in connection with his " Report on the Relation of Forms of Disease to the Geological Formation of a Region,'" with a map of his own designing.

Peter's whole life was one of self- effacement and advancement of science, thinking only for the students in the energy he sliowed in all that concerned the Kentucky School of Medicine. When the end came this even-tempered, genial old doctor had his great desire fulfilled — to wear rather than rust out; to preserve his intellect to the last. He had .seen eighty-nine years when, at Minton, near Lexington, he died on April 26, 1894.

Among his appointments was that of: lecturer on natural science at the Rens- selaer Scientific School, Troy, New York; chemical lecturer in the Western

?6S

PETERS

I'niversity of Pennsylvania; professor of chemistry, Morrison College, Transyl- vania Univer.sity; dean of the faculty, Transylvania University medical depart- ment; professor of chemistry, Kentucky School of Medicine.

His writings were chiefly in the way of pamphlets of a scientific turn. Among them should be noted "The Chemical Examination of the Urinary Calculi in the Museum of Transylvania University," Lexington, 1846; "On the Application of Galvanic Electricity to Medicine," Lex- ington, 1836; also "A Brief Sketch of the Hi.story of Lexington, Kentucky and Transylvania Universities," 1854.

V. R.

The Hist, of the Transylvaniii T'niv. con- tains a biog. of Dr. Peters, also a portrait.

Peters, John C. (1819-1893).

John C. Peters, born in New York City in 1819, was educated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons there and the Universities of Berlin and Vienna. He was one of the founders and once president of the New York Pathological Society and for many years edited their proceedings.

He made a special study of Asiatic cholera and his literature on the subject was the most complete in this country. With Dr. Edmund C. Wendt he wrote a "Treatise on Cholera" and in 1866, "Notes on A.siatic Cholera," a standard work. In 1873 he travelled throughout the southern states studying the disease and his "Report" was published by Congress. He also wrote treatises on diseases of the brain and nervous system and helped Dr. Alexander S. Wotherspoon to translate Rokitansky's "Pathological Anatomy" and was a collaborator on "Materia Medica" (1856-60). The "Surgeon-general's Catalogue," Wash- ington, District of Columbia, gives a list of nearly thirty treatises by him.

In 1890 he was stricken with paralysis and died at his Long Island home in 1893.

Med. Ree., N. Y., 189.i, vol. xliv.