Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1005

NAME RIGGS 983 RILEY Hartford, with the idea of becoming an Epis- copal clergyman. Dr. Riggs was a man of positive views, and had an opinion of his own, which he never hesitated to express on all occasions. When he graduated from Trinity College in 1837 the bishop who preached the baccalaureate sermon chose for his subject "The Trinity." At the close of his discourse Dr. Riggs advanced and greeted the bishop by saying: "I believe in one God, and one God only; I do not believe in three, and I'll be • • if I will preach it." The bishop, much astonished, informed him he would hardly answer to preach the Episcopal faith. Upon receiving the A. B. degree young Riggs began teaching school. He was principal of the Brown School, formerly known as the Stone School of Hartford. This position he filled most acceptably for two years, when, still desiring to better his condition, he took a partial course at the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, and then turned his attention to dentistry, which he studied with Dr. Horace Wells (q. v.) at Hartford, where he began practice about 1840 and continued until his death. He was awarded especial honors by the Baltimore College of Dental Sur- gery, which conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery upon him in 1879. He was also a clinical lecturer at Harvard University dental department. In 1849 he discovered or originated a method (entirely surgical) of treatment of the disease known to the profession as pyorrhoea alveolaris, and his treatment attracted such attention that his name was given to it, and for years it has been and is still called Riggs' disease. His treatment required the use of small instruments, worked in his case with remarkable skill and deftness of touch, some- times down to the extreme points of the roots of the teeth. Dr. L. C. Taylor says: "Dr. Riggs was so enthusiastic in the general hygiene of the mouth that he made the claim to me in 1876 that if we would clean the teeth well enough and as often as circumstances required, we would have no decay. Dr. Riggs may well be called the 'original father of hygienic care of the mouth.' " He was a member of the Connecticut State Dental Association and its president in 1867, and a member of the American Dental Asso- ciation, before which, in 1865, he gave his views and a clinic, and of the Connecticut Valley Dental Association, which he joined in 1865, and of which he was president in 1871-72. Dr. Riggs was a participant at the first demonstration of the application of anesthesia to dental surgery at the office of Dr. Horace Wells, December 11, 1844, when Wells inhaled the nitrous oxid gas prepared by G. Q. Colton, and Dr. Riggs extracted the tirst tooth ever extracted under an anesthetic. Dr. Riggs was never married. He was strictly a professional man and possessed little business ability, and was very careless in keep- ing his accounts. On October 25, 1885, he took to his bed with a severe cold. His disease developed rapidly into acute bronchitis and pneumonia, which caused his death November 11, 1885. Hist, of Dentai Surg. B. L. Thorpe, vol. ii. Portrait. Riley, John Campbell (1828-1879). A son of Dr. Joshua Riley, of Georgetown, District of Columbia, he was born there on December IS, 1828, and graduated A. B. (1848) and A. M. (1851) from Georgetown College, District of Columbia. After receiving his medical degree from Co- lumbian College, District of Columbia, in 1851, he immediately began to practise, and in 1859 succeeded his father in the chair of materia medica, therapeutics and pharmacy in the Na- tional Medical College, District of Columbia, continuing to lecture without interruption until within a short time of his death. His text- book of materia medica and therapeutics, with deserved reputation for its conciseness and suitability to the needs of the students, was translated into Japanese (Tokio, 1872). He was popular as a lecturer, and his great fa- miliarity with his subject made his lessons of value and interest to his hearers. For many years he was dean of the faculty ; he was a member of the Medical Society and Medical Association of the District of Columbia, and on the Committee to revise the Pharmacopoeia of the United States, of which latter he was secretary. He was consulting physician to Providence Hospital, to the Central Free Dis- pensary and the Washington Eye and Ear Infirmary. His "Compendium of Materia Medica and Therapeutics," Philadelphia, 1869, was translated into Japanese at Tokio in 1872. Assiduous devotion to duty may no doubt be accepted as one of the causes of his death. Uremic coma and convulsions from Bright's Disease were the final symptoms. He was much esteemed as a useful citizen and had many personal friends when he died on February 22, 1879. Daniel Smith Lamb. Minutes of Med. Soc, D. C. February 24, 1879. Nat. Met!. Rev., February, 1879, Trans. Amer. Med. Assoc, 1879.