Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/57

 JENKINS

41

JENKS

was born in 1796 and graduated at Har- vard in arts in 1815, and in medicine in 1819. Together with Dr. Edward Reynolds he founded the Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1824, and for eighteen years was one of its surgeons. He had a large general practice, but ophthalmic surgery was his speciality.

He was one of the first honorary members of the American Ophthalmo- logical Society.

On July 16, 1876 he died in the eighty-first year of his age.

H. F.

Trans. Am. Ophth, Soc, vol. ii,

Hubbell's " Development of Ophthalmolog.\ ,

Boston Med. and Surg. Journal, 1876, .xov,

Jenkins, John Foster (1826-1882).

In Falmouth, Massachusetts, livecl the Hon. John Jenkins with his wife Harriet and on the fifteenth of April, 1826, came the first of their nine sons, John Foster, who as a boy went to the Roxbury High School, the Union Col- lege of Schenectady and the Universitj- of Pennsylvania, taking his M. D. there in 1848. From May, 1849 to 1856 he practised in New York City then went to and remained in Yonkers, marrying in 1854 Miss Elizabeth Siccard David, and having two children, John Foster and Mary Siccard. Among other ap- pointments he held was the presidencj^ of the Medical Society of the State of New York and the vice-presidency of the New York Obstetrical Society.

He spent two long holidays in Europe visiting clinics, attending Society meet- ings and ransacking old bookshops for his beloved library. When at home the demands of a large obstetric and general practice did not leave much time for reading or writing, but three good papers were given to the medical world: "Puerperal Mania; has it any Connection with Toxemia?" 1875; "Relations of War to Medical Science," 1863, and an exhaustive monograph giving 178 cases of "Spontaneous Umbilical Hemorrhage," its frequency.

pathology and treatment being well considered. His "Tent Hospitals," too, written when general secretary of the United States Sanitary Commission, was a valuable aid in military sanitation.

A "break-down" seems almost an in- evitable sequence in a doctor's life, especially from renal or cardiac dis- ease. Jenkins was no exception, and four years before his death in October, 1882, his health from the former cause necessitated frequent rest.

Of Dr. Jenkins as a book lover one of his biographers writes: He spent many an hour wading through cata- logues in search of new treasures, though sorely perplexed for space for his ponderous tomes of classic medical literature. Five days were occupied by Bangs & Company in 1883 selling the 1,800 lots of his library. It brought scholars and librarians from all over the country. The owner had probably spent not less than .^10,000, but the books only fetched $3,940.

D. W.

Memorial Sketch, hy Dr. G. J. Fisher, in Tr. Med. Soe. of th(> State of N. York, 1884.

Jenks, Edward Watrous (1833-1903).

Edward Watrous Jenks, gynecolo- gist and obstetrician, was born at Victor, New York, where his father had long kept a general store, but in 1843 the family removed to LaGrange County, Indiana, where Jenks, Senior, had large tracts of land. Here he laid out the town of Ontario and establish- ed the LaGrange Collegiate Institute, in which E. W. Jenks received his gen- eral education and in 1853 began his medical training at the University of New York, continuing it at Castleton Medical College, Castleton, Vermont. He began practice at Ontario, Indiana, continuing there till his removal to Detroit in 1864, excepting two years spent at Warsaw, New York, and one winter at Bellevue Hospital, Medical College of New York, where he received his ad eundern, M. D.

When Dr. Jenks settled in Detroit,