Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/94

 KUHN

ably o]icratinc; more than any other sur- geon in Ohio, outside of Cincinnati.

Of physicians, Dr. M. Z. Kreider stood at the head, and in sin-gery was head and shoulders above all the others. Far and near he was called upon to perform all the capital operations. He was a self- made man, who by indomitable persever- ance and energy attained to his com- manding position. He was a very large, broad shouldered man, well proportioned, with a large nose, bright eyes, and a gen- erally keen and alert expression, with strong and rapid movements. Not only a noted physician, but a successful preacher and politician.

He married, first, Sydney Ann Rees, daughter of Gen. David Rees, and had one son, Edmund Cicero, and four daugh- ters. His second wife was Mary Ann Carpenter, his cousin, by whom he had two children. He contributed frequent- ly to the "Ohio Medical Journal" of Columbus and Cincinnati.

In 1S53 he suffered a sun stroke while traveling in Michigan and this brought on diabetes which caused his death, July 20, 1855, at the early age of fifty- two.

G. N. K.

History of the Carpenter Family, S. D. Car- penter, M. D., 1907.

History of Huntingdon County, Pennsyl- vania, 1S82.

History of Fairfield County, Ohio, Scott, 1871.

History of Fairfield and Perry Counties, Ohio, 1900.

Kuhn, Adam (1741-1817).

Concerning this young botanist, on the twenty-fourth of February, 1763, the great Linneus sat down to write to Adam Kuhn pere, and in fine Latin thus commends his pupil:

"He is unwearied in his studies and daily and faithfully studies materia medica with me. He has learnt the symptomatic history of diseases in an accurate and solid manner. In natural history and botany he has made remark- able progress. He has studied anatomy and physiology with other professors." This was high praise from such a master.

S KUHN

"The boj'- was born at Gcrmantown near Philadelphia on November 17, 1741. His grandfather, John Christopher Kuhn and his father. Dr. Adam Simon Kuhn, came from Ileilbronn, Swabia, to Phila- delphia in September, 1733.

" Adam first studied medicine with his father then sailed for Europe in 17G1 and arrived atUpsal, by way of London.

" Of Adam Kuhn Dr. Charles Caldwell, cold, cautious, and sarcastic, says: "He was by far the most highly and minutely furnished specimen of old-school medical production I have ever beheld. He wore a fashionable curled and powdered wig; his breeches were black, a long skirted buff or white waistcoat, his coat snuff colored. He carried a gold headed cane and a gold snuff-box; his knee and shoe buckles of the same metal. His footsteps were sternly and stubbornly regular; he entered the sick-room at a given minute and stayed a given time and never suffer- ed deviation from his directions.

" ' Doctor, if the patient should desire toast, water or lemonade he may have it? ' asked the nurse sometimes. He would turn and reply with oracular solemnity, 'I have directed weak sage tea. Good morning madam.' His lectures, not in- structive, were mere commonplace. So far from containing an original thought, no portion of it appeared to be the pro- fessor's own."

This was pretty strong, yet he adds, vdthout commendation, that Kuhn came to see him (Caldwell) three times a day when he was ill.

Linneus, following a pretty fancy, named an American plant Kuhnia (Kuh- nia Eupatorioides) after Adam and when the latter returned to Philadelphia wrote very intimate and graceful letters to him in fine Latin. One has this injunction in it. " I pray and entreat thee send some seeds and plants among which I ardently desire the seeds of the Kuhnia, which perished in our garden."

Kuhn went to London in 1764 and studied there a while, and in 1767 was in Edinburgh where he took his M. D. that same year on the twelfth of