Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/460

 STEPHENSON

40G

STEVENS

her preparation for the struggle with the mother-country, Virginia raised nine reg- iments of infantry, the first six of which were placed on the continental establish- ment and their officers commissioned by Congress. The third and fourth of these were commanded respectively by Hugh Mercer, also a physician and a native of Scotland, and Adam Stephen. Ste- phen took an active part in the war, and became a general in the Continental Army, also filling the position of peace commissioner to the Indians. The town of Martinsburg in Berkeley County (now West Virginia) was founded and laid out by Stephen.

The following quaint mention of two operations done by him are from a curious old manuscript endorsed in the hand-writing of Dr. Rush in 1775, and read: "Stephen made himself known by making an incision into the liver of Mrs. Mercer of Stafford Covmty, cleansing and healing the ulcers there, contrary to the opinion of all the faculty employed to cure the lady." It would seem probable that this was a case of abscess of the liver which was cured by operation. He also did an operation on one Abraham Hill for aneurysm, "restoring him the use of his arm and hand."

Dr. Stephen was noted for his talents, energy, learning, and skill in his profes- sional work. He died at an advanced age, at his home in Martinsburg, Novem- ber, 1791. R. M. S.

Stephenson, John (1797-1842).

John Stephenson was born in Montreal, in 1797, and received his early education from the Sulpicians although he was not a Catholic. He was apprenticed to William Robertson as a medical pupil in 1815, for which privilege he paid fifty pounds and in 1817 went to Edinburgh and took his degree in 1820. He also became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and studied under Roux in Paris. He returned to Montreal in 1821, where he obtained the distinction of being the first to organize medical educa- tion in Canada. He married Isabella

Torrance in 1826 and died in 1842, and was survived by a son who was at one time professor of astronomy in Calcutta, and a member of the English bar.

The first official announcement of medical education in Canada is contained in the minutes of the Montreal General Hospital under date August 6, 1822. The entry reads: "That Dr. Stephenson be allowed to put in advertisements for lectures next winter that they will be given at this hospital." Out of these lectures arose McGill Medical faculty, and Stephenson was the first registrar. He was first occupant of the chairs of surgery, anatomy, and physiology, and he occupied all three at the same time.

A.M.

Stevens, Alexander Hodgdon (1789-1869). The Stevens family came originally from Cornwall, England, Alexander being the third of the six sons born to Ebenezer and Lucretia Ledyard Stevens. He came into the world in New York City on September 4, 1789. Private teaching, and in 1803 Yale College com- pleted his early education which was afterwards followed by medical study under Dr. Edward Miller and the taking of his M. D. in 1811. The next year he voyaged to Europe as a despatch bearer but was captured by an English cruiser and detained prisoner at Plymouth, England. When freed, he went up to London and attended the lectures of leading surgeons, especially Abernethy and Astley Cooper. Then followed Paris and an interne service under Boyer whose clinical lectures he translated into English on returning to New York. Again made prisoner after embarkation, he was soon liberated and on reaching America took an appointment as army surgeon while the war lasted. In 1813 he lectured as professor of surgery in Rutger's College, New Jersey, and mar- ried that same year Miss Ledyard of New Jersey. While surgeon to the New York Hospital he introduced the practice of bedside instruction. 1825 saw him again in London and Edinburgh, correct-