Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1019

NAME ROGERS 997 ROHfi Seneca Falls Academy, paying his board by keeping the village store. He taught school and was able to take a one year course at the Lyons Union School and studied medi- cine under a Doctor Pierce of that town and at the Columbus Medical College, where he received a medical degree. He was appointed chief surgeon to the Panama Railroad Com- pany, and was on the Isthmus until the rail- road was finished, losing his health and going to Havana, Cuba, to recuperate. His in- dustry and savings enabled him to pay all the money he had borrowed for his education and to discharge the debt on his father's farm. He had a most active mind and while con- valescing perfected himself in the Spanish language, so that when he was appoint- ed chief surgeon to the corps of engi- neers who were constructing the Southern Railroad of Chili he was able to pass an ex- amination with honor at the University of Chili, Santiago. There he married a daugh- ter of Honorable Samuel F. Haveland in 1857. Returning shortly afterwards to New York City, he practised until 1875. In 1867 he pub- lished his most important work, "Extra Uter- ine Foetation and Gestation and the Early Signs Which Characterize It." 61 pages, Philadelphia, Collins. From his work and that of his associates in the coroner's office in New York, he reached the conclusion that death from ruptured extrauterine pregnancy was not infrequent, contrary to the views on the subject that were held at that time; a sur- vey of the literature showed the reports of many cases and these were detailed ; he thought that extrauterine foetation previous to the third month was always fatal. The symptoms and signs were carefully described and the proposition established that when the diagnosis has been made there is no choice of methods of treatment; the peritoneal cavity must be opened and the bleeding vessels tied. Rogers deserved well of the profession for laying down at this early date the ri:les for life sav- ing that are in force today, but it was left for the advent of asepsis before his advice was generally adopted. In addition to the work mentioned, he wrote several papers on medico-legal subjects that were read be- fore the Medico-Legal Society of New York, notably on "Hereditary Diseases of the Nerv- ous System" and "Can Chloroform Be Used to Facilitate Robbery," and "The Influence of Methomania (Dipsomania) upon Business and Criminal Responsibility." His health failing, Doctor Rogers was obliged to seek a change of climate and re- turned to Chili in 1875, as United States Com- missioner to the International Exhibition of Chili, settling in Santiago, but visiting New York with his wife in 1876 to report upon his commission and to attend the Centennial Ex- hibition at Philadelphia. He had a large prac- tice in Santaigo when he died while on a trip to Valparaiso, May 23, 1878. Doctor Rogers was president of the Medico- Legal Society of New York for two years, a member of the New York Academy of Medicine and of the New York County Med- ical Society and an honorary fellovir of the Obstetrical society of Berlin. In Memoriam. Wm. Shrady, LL.B. Bull. Medico- Legal Soc, New York, 1878-1879, vol. i, pp. 17-22. Trans. Amer. Med. Assoc, Philadelphia, 1869, vol. xviii, pp. 85-136. Rohe, George Henry (1851-1899). His parents, John and Mary Fuchs Rohe, were natives of Bohemia of humble origin. Their son was born in Baltimore on the twenty-sixth bf January, 1851, and educated in the public schools, afterwards studying medicine with Doctor F. Erich and taking his M. D. at the University of Maryland in 1873. For some years after he was connected with the United States Signal Service, but while in Boston studied dermatology under Doctor E. Wigglesworth (q. v.), and after leaving the Signal Service became assistant to Doctor Erich, professor of gynecology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons and was also ap- pointed lecturer on dermatology. Appoint- ments followed quickly: the professorship of obstetrics ; of therapeutics and mental dis- ease ; superintendent of Springrove Hospital for the Insane; and the same of an asylum which he organized at Sykesville, Maryland. For a year prior to his death he had symp- toms of cardiac trouble and his death came very suddenly on February 6, 1899, while he was attending the National Prison Congress at New Orleans. He contributed largely to dermatology, but his work culminated in the field of psychiatry, and he began the great work of planning a hospital for mental diseases upon the most advanced ideas. Doctor Rohe's contributions to medical lit- erature were numerous and useful : The most important were his "Textbook on Hygiene," first edition, 1885, third edition, 1894; "Practi- cal Manual of Skin Diseases," 1885-86, and (with Lord) 1892; "Electricity in Practical Medicine and Surgery" (joint author with Liebig), 1890; in addition to those, he was as-