Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/393

 SCHMIDT


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SCHMIDT

He married the daughter of Dr. D. H. Miller, of Mifflinhurg, a physician of Central Pennsylvania. He died at St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul, May 29, 1908, of cerebral thrombosis followed by general paralysis, after an illness of several weeks' duration.

St. Paul's .Med. .lour., .July, IIIOS.

Schmidt, H. D. (1823-1888).

II. D. Schmidt was born at Marlmrg, Prussia, receiving the usual education of a German boy, then was apprenticed to an instrument-maker at the age of fif- teen, which training in after-life enabled liim to conceive and construct various pieces of apparatus for the benefit of his scientific investigations (his microtome and injector, employed in his researches into the histology of the liver). During his apprenticeship he visited tlie large cities of Europe and came to Philadelphia in 1848, where he began the study of anatomy and constructed jiapier mache models of such correctness and beauty that several are still preserved in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. Attracting the attention of Leidy and Jackson, he became pro- sector to Dr. Jackson and assisted Prof. Leidy in many of his physiological inves- tigations. After studying five years, he graduated in medicine in 1858 (Univer- sity of Pennsylvania) and devoted him- self to histology. By his own contriv- ance of an injecting apparatus, he was able to solve the (juestion of the termi- nation of the l>ile ducts of the liver and to demonstrate their origin in the inter- cellular capillaries. In 1860 Dr. Schmidt went south, first to the Medical College of Alabama, in Mobile, and thence to New Orleans, succeeding Penniston as demon- strator of anatomy in the New Orleans School of Medicine. During the Civil War he .served the South as a military surgeon. At the close of the struggle he returned to New Orleans and was installed as pathologist to the Charity Hospital, a position which he occupied for twenty years. He was known as a man of strong convictions, honest and

earnest; never cynical nor prejudiced in regard to the opinions of others. (See article in "New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal," December, 1888, vol. xvi, n. s.) He contributed to literature:

"On the Minute Structure of the He- patic Lobules." ("American Journal of Medical Sciences," January, 1859.)

" Researches into Pathology and Cause of the Present Epidemic . . . Yellow Fever." ("Southern Journal of Medical Sciences," Novemljer, 18G7.)

" Microscopical Anatomy of the Human Liver." ("New Orleans Journal of Med- icine," October, 1869, and January and April, 1870.)

" Origin and Development of the Colored Blood Corpuscles in Man," read before Royal Microscopical Society of London. (" Monthly Microscopical Jour- nal," 1874.)

"Construction of the Dark or Doul^le Bordered Nerve Fib>^r," read before Royal Microscopical Society of London. (Ibid., July, 1874.)

" Development of the Smaller Blood- ve.ssels in the Human Embryo," read before the Royal Microscopical Society of London. (" Ibid.," January, 1875.)

"Principal Facts elicited from a Series of Microscopical Researches upon the Nervous Tissues," read before Royal Microscopical Society of London. ("Ibid.," July, 1874.)

" Structure of the Nervous Tissues and Their Mode of Action." (" Tran.sactions, American Neurological Society," vol. i, 1875.)

"Development of the Nervous Tissues of the Human Embryo." ("Journal, Nervous and Mental Diseases," July, 1887.)

"Structure of the Colored Blood cor- puscles of the Amphiuma Tridactylum, the Frog and Man," read before Royal Microscopical Society of London, pub- lished May and July, 1878.

"Repeated Attacks of Apoplexy with Aphaisia." ("Journal, Nervous and Men- tal Diseases, 1878.)

"Structure and Function of the Gan- glionic Bodies of the Cerebro-spinal