Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1080

SKENE fell straight back from off the massive forehead, for the ever-active brain and the deep-seated, searching eyes of brown, asked always for the light! The brows were arched and unusually heavy and prominent; the nose beautifully proportioned and of Grecian type; the mouth well shaped, lips usually compressed, which, with the prominent chin, bespoke courage and firmness of purpose. His face was oval, clean-shaven and smooth, and the usual expression was of almost womanly sweetness, yet it was quick to vary in harmony with whatever emotion was predominant. Away from excitement and in the home-life, his expression and actions were almost boyish. He never seemed to have forgotten that he was once a boy, and he would throw himself into a household frolic with all the abandon of his early days. He was courageous to a degree, and, although he rarely lost control of his temper, yet he was at times imperious and aggressive. When occasion demanded he was a good fighter, and fought his enemies with right good will; but he was quick to forgive, and just before his death he said one day, "I have forgiven all who ever did me wrong, with one exception." As said of him by a gifted orator, he possessed qualities ideal in the make-up of a truly great surgeon, "the brain of an Apollo, the heart of a lion, the eye of an eagle, and the hand of a woman."

A full list of his writings may be seen at the end of "The Story of My Life," New York, 1884; they include: "On the Treatment of Vesico-vaginal Fistula," Philadelphia, 1853; "Silver Sutures in Surgery," New York, 1858; "Clinical Notes on Uterine Surgery," New York, 1866.



Skene, Alexander Johnson Chalmers (1837–1900)

In the death of Dr. Skene, on July 4, 1900, at the age of sixty-two, American gynecology lost one of the last of its famous pioneers. He was born in Fyvie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, June 17, 1837, of a family that had made its name known in Scotch history for nine centuries. His schooling was in Aberdeen and Kings College. He came to America at the age of nineteen, began the study of medicine three years later at Toronto, matriculated at the University of Michigan in 1861, and was graduated from the Long Island College Hospital in 1863. In that year and the following he served as acting assistant surgeon in the United States Volunteers at Port Royal, Charleston Harbor, and David's Island, prominent in plans for army ambulance work. He kept up his interest in military matters in the National Guard of the State as surgeon to the Twelfth Regiment and First Division, and as lieutenant-colonel on the staff of General Molineux (1884–1885).

In 1864 Dr. Skene entered practice in Brooklyn, and within a year had begun his college and hospital work in obstetrics. Professor of both branches of gynecology at thirty-one, he gave his best strength to the Long Island College Hospital, as teacher, as operator, and as dean and president (1886– 1893), until the last year of his life. It was he who was most active in securing practical and beautiful plans giving adequate expression to the great Polhemus gift of a college and clinic building. The college owes its most famous alumnus a debt it can never repay.

Dr. Skene was professor of gynecology in the New York Post-Graduate Medical School, 1883–86, and consultant to various hospitals and dispensaries. He was one of the founders of the American Gynecological Society and its tenth president (1886), and founder and honorary president of the International Congress of Gynecology and Obstetrics. He had been president of the Medical Society of Kings County, of the New York Obstetrical and of the Brooklyn Gynecological Society, and was a corresponding or honorary member of many foreign societies, such as those of Paris, Leipzig, Brussels, Edinburgh, London, etc. Aberdeen University conferred on him the degree of LL. D. in 1897.

He was the author of "Diseases of the Bladder and Urethra in Women," 1878 and 1887; "Treatise on Diseases of Women," 1888, 1892 and 1898; "Education and Culture as related to the Health and Diseases of Women," 1889; "Medical Gynecology," 1895, and "Electro-hemostasis in Operative Surgery," 1899, and he wrote from a large experience and with great diligence. He wrote in the hours before breakfast to avoid interruption, and in writing, as in teaching, his method was clinical, detailed, practical. His huge capacity for work was due to a magnificent physique—his chest girth was forty-four inches. His eyes always twinkled with