Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/347

 REAMY 309

Virginia on July I, 1827 and, until fifteen had a scanty education, followed by farm work in Indiana and five years as a teacher. He afterwards studied medicine under Dr. W. P. Kitchen, and in 1855 graduated at the medical college of Ohio, although degreeless, he had previously practised for four years at Oxford, Ohio. He occupied the positions of demonstrator of anatomy in his alma mater; physician to the Commercial Hospital, Cincinnati; for sixteen years professor of anatomy. Rush Medical College, Chicago; the same in the Chicago Med. College, and in 1882, professor of surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of which he was a co-founder. During the war of the Rebellion he served as surgeon in the Federal ranks.

" Surgery was his choice in practice and his knowledge of anatomy made him a skillful and dexterous operator. He seized upon all the rapidly increasing innovations in surgery and adopted them."

He married Permelia Mellie, and at his death made provision for the endowment of the Rea professorship of anatomy in the North-western University and gave $5000 to the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

His death, from a complication of cerebral and kidney disorders, occurred on July 10, 1899.

Distinguished Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago, 1901, F. M. Sperry.

Reamy, Thaddeus Asbury (1829-1909).

Thaddeus Asbury Reamy was born in Frederick County, Virginia, April 23, 1829. His father, Jacob A., was of Hu- guenot extraction, his mother, Mary W. Bonifield Reamy, of Scotch and English. They were natives of Virginia but mi- grated to Muskingum County, Ohio, in 1832. Here Reamy, the first of eleven children, was brought up on a farm and received a rudimentary education at the district school. As soon as he became of age he taught scliool himself and, as opportunitj' afforded, completed his education. He commenced the study of

REAMY

medicine under Dr. D. L. Crist, and in 1854, after attendance upon two courses of lectures, obtained his M. D. from the Starling Medical College. He practised medicine at Zanesville until 1871, when he moved to Cincinnati.

The honors conferred upon him, and the work he did, indicates the character of the man. With no advantages other than those of nature's endowment, such as a powerful and versatile mentality, a rugged physical organism and a magnetic and winning address, he rose by his own efTorts, and often against active ojjpo- sition, to the highest honors of his pro- fession. He was one of our pioneers and did good work. A self-made man and posse.ssing the self-reliance and resource- ful qualities of such men, he held the first obstetric clinic ever held in a college amphitheater in this country. His ex- tensive knowledge, felicity of expression, quickness at repartee, and willingness to fight for his convictions caused him to be feared.

In his days there was no out-door obstetrical clinic and lying-in hospital connected with the Cincinnati Medical College, and Reamy had two or three rooms established in the rear of his amphitheater. He too, introduced into that city the study of pregnancy, labor and confinement in the living human female in an amjjhitheater.

He was invited to join the American Gynecological Society in 1877, the year after its foundation, and took an acti\'e and prominent part in its deliberations until prevented l^y advancing age and infirmity. He was vice-president in 1881, president in 1880, and was placed on the list of honorary members in 1907 at the age of seventy-eight years.

The degree of A. M. was awarded him by the Ohio Wesleyan University in 1870, that of LL. D. by Cornell College in 1890. He was j^rofessor of materia medica and therapeutics in Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery from 1858 to 18G0. He was surgeon to the Thirteenth Provost Marshal District of Ohio in 1863; pro- fessor of diseases of women and children