Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/95

 KUHN

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KUHN

June. His thesis, on "Do Lavatione Frigida," was dedicated to his friend Linneus. He visited France, Holland and Germany but whether before or after Edinburgh is not very clear. In 1768, after his return to Philadelphia, he be- came professor of materia medica and botany in the University of Pennsyl- vania and helped in 1774 in vaccinating a population considerably decimated by small-pox. As a lecturer, in his five or six professorships held, "he was faithful and clear in the description of diseases and in the mode of applying their appro- priate remedies, avoiding theoretical dis- cussions." It would be pleasant to know more of Kuhn, but the short-length long- adjectived pompous biographies in old medical journals do not give much. A discreet young physician, "not remark- able for powers of imagination but his talent for observation profound; a lover of music, abstemious in diet, neat in per- son," says one biographer.

He did not marry until he was thirty- nine, after which it is gratifying to learn "he had two sons, respectable characters," by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Isaac Hartman of St. Croix.

When seventy-three he "grieved" his patients by giving up practice, and in June, 1817, began to feel conscious that

life was ending. After a short confine- ment of three weeks to the house, but suffering no pain, Adam Kuhn passed away on July 5, in full serenity of mind and heart.

His other appointments included: Phy- sician to the Pennsylvania Hospital, con- sulting physician, Philadelphia Dis- pensary, 1786; one of the founders and in 1808 president of the College of Phy- sicians of Philadelphia; professor of the theory and practice of medicine. Univer- sity of Pennsylvania, 1789, and on the junction of the two medical schools of the College and University, was chosen professor of the practice of physic, 1792-1797.

Of his writings, with the exception of the thesis mentioned, nothing can he traced save a short letter addressed to Dr. Lettsom on "Diseases Succeeding Transplantation of Teeth." He op- posed Rush's "Treatment of Yellow Fever" by publishing his own, over initials, in the "General Advertizer" of September 11, 1793.(?) D. W.

Eclectic Repertory, Phila., ISIS, Dr. S.

Powell Griffiths.

Stoever'a Life of Linneua.

Autobiography of Charles Caldwell, Phila.,

1S55.

The Botanists of Philadelphia, Harshberger,

Phila., 1S99.