Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/363

 RIDGELY

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RILEY

Ridgely, Frederick (1757-1824).

He was born on Elk Ridge, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, May 25, 1757, receiving his academic training at the Academy of Newark, Delaware, and beginning to study medicine in his seven- teenth year under Dr. Philip Thomas, of Fredericktown.

His studies were interrupted by the Revolution. At the age of nineteen we find him surgeon to a Corps of Rifle- men raised in the upper counties of Vir- ginia and adjoining Maryland. With these he arrived before Boston a few days after the Battle of Bunker Hill, June, 1775. He steadfastly followed the Army of Washington through the trying times of 1776, and in 1777 Maryland honored him by the surgeoncy of the Fourth Mary- land Regulars. When the British Army evacuated Philadelphia, he resigned to attend a course of lectures under Drs. Shippen, Kuhn and Rush. His friend- ship with Dr. Rush, to whom he bore in appearance and manners a striking resem- blance, began prior to his matriculation and lasted for life. He was not permitted to remain long enough to obtain his degree for early in 1779 he was appointed surgeon to a vessel about to sail with letters of marque and reprisal from that port. The ship made a short cruise off the coast of Virginia when, falling in with an enemy of superior size, she was chased into the Chesapeake and after a severe engagement, captured. As his vessel struck her colors, he jumped overboard and made his escape by swimming two miles to shore. He re-entered the Army and continued as medical officer until the close of the war.

After cessation of hostilities he began the practice of medicine between Ann- apolis and Baltimore, but being of an adventurous turn he joined the tide of emigration westward, arriving in Lex- ington in 1790.

Soon after he began to practice he was appointed surgeon-general to the army commanded by Gen. Wayne and served in the decisive campaign of 1794; finally bidding farewell to military life he again

began practice in Lexington, where he remained more than thirty years.

He devoted much of his time to instruc- tion, and his "shop" was thronged with pupils, many of whom afterwards became the most distinguished medical men in the west, among them Benjamin Winslow Dudley, the most successful lithotomist in the State, and Walter Brashear, who did the first successful hip-joint amputa- tion in the world.

To Ridgely is due the honor of having been the first clinical and didactic instruc- tor west of the Allegheny Mountains. He, with Samuel Brown, was the first teacher of "physic" in the Transylvania University. In 1799 he was made pro- fessor of materia medica, midwifery and practice of "physic" in the University. Dr. Charles Wilkins Short refers to " His unwearied assiduities in the discharge of his professional duties."

He died while on a visit to his daughter at Dayton, Ohio, on November 21, 1824.

A. S.

Transylvania Journal of Medicine, Lexing- ton, Kentucky, vol. i, 1828, (Charles Wilkins Short).

f

Riley, John Campbell (1828-1879).

A son of Dr. Joshua Riley, of George- town, District of Columbia, he was born there on December 15, 1828, and gradu- ated A. B. (1848) and A. M. (1851) from Georgetown College, District of Columbia.

After receiving his medical degree from Columl)ian College, District of Columbia, in 1851, he immediately began to practice, and in 1859 succeeded his father in the chair of materia medica, therapeutics and pharmacy in the National Medical College, District of Columbia, continuing to lecture without interruption until within a short time of his death. His text-book on materia medica and thera- peutics, with deserved reputation for its conciseness and suitability to the needs of the students, was translated into Japa- nese (Tokio, 1872). He was popular as a lecturer, and his great familiarity with his subject made hit> lessons of value and interest to his hearers. For many years