Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/87

 KIRKBRIDE

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KIRKPATRICK

New Jersey, a clear year of farm work and then he settled down to read medicine with one Nicholas de Belleville, M. D. He graduated M. D., 1832, from the University of Pennsylvania and was immediately appointed resident physician to the Friends Asylum for the Insane at Frankford, and his next appointment of the kind was physician- in-chief for the new department for the insane in connection with Pennsyl- vania Hospital, in 1840. At that time there were only ten such special asylums in the States and the public conscience had not been aroused to the evils existing. It was a responsi- ble post for young Kirkbride, but he consecrated his whole life to the duty of raising and defending the helpless patients under his care and thousands owed recovered reason to his humane and studious consideration of their woe. The terms "keeper" and "asylum" were changed to " hospital" and " nurse " ; restraint was avoided wherever pos- sible and the surroundings made at- tractive. "Kirkbride's Hospital," as it came to be called, was known as a model institution, one worth visiting by foreign alienists. Dr. S. D. Gross says Kirkbride had a fine physique, a well shaped head, a benevolent face and a gentle voice, which, coupled with determination and promptness, made him beloved and obeyed. So gener- ally were his views adopted that his book on " The Construction and Manage- ment of Hospitals" governed largely in the erection of about thirty other institutions.

During his forty- three years of un- wearying service 4638 of the 8852 patients were discharged cured or improved — an unprecedented record for that time. One patient, however, nearly cut short Kirk- bride's existence by hiding up in a tree and shooting him, the bullet fortunately not penetrating the skull.

The American Medico-psychological Association, then knovsm by the bulky title of "The Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions

for the Insane, " numbers him among its thirteen originators, also as vice-presi- dent, and for eight years, president.

He married, in 1839, Ann West, daughter of Joseph R. Jenks, merchant, but she died in 1862 leaving him a son and a daughter. In 1866 Eliza, daughter of Benjamin F. Butler of New York, attorney-general, became his wife and had four children.

In March, 1883, he was seriously ill for nine months with typhoid pneu- monia and died peacefully on Decem- ber 16.

He did not do much writing in a way that would awaken public interest except on his own specialty and a few medical biographies by request of the College of Physicians, Phila- delphia. A good oil painting of him by Howard R. Butler is in that College,

He was a member of the College of Physicians, the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the American Phil- osophical Society; honorary member of the British Medico-Psychological Association, etc., and an LL. D. of Lafayette College Pennsylvania.

The Hist, of the Pena. Hosp. by Morton and

Woodbury, Phila., 1895. A portrait of him

ia in this biography.

Autobiography, S. D. Gross.

Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, J. B. Chapin,

1898.

Kirkpatrick, Robert C. (1863-1897).

Ptobert C. Kirkpatrick at the time of his death was only thirty-four years old. He was surgeon to the Montreal General Hospital, lecturer in clinical surgery and demonstrator of surgery in McGill University, graduating from McGill University in the faculty of arts in 1882, and from the faculty of medicine in 1886. He acted as house surgeon to the Montreal General Hos- pital, and after a period of study in Edinburgh was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. In 1888 he became superintendent of the Montreal General Hospital in suc- cession to Dr. McClure who had enter- ed the Chinese Medical Mission Service;