Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1100

NAME SMITH 1078 SMITH He was among the first to perform sub- cutaneous section of tlie tendo Acliillis for club-foot (1836); Strohmeyer introduced it in Germany in 1831. Smith's reputation must rest chiefly on his hthotome and anterior splint. The former was first made known in the "Medical and Surgical Memoirs," 1831. By 1834 he had operated with this instru- hient with complete success in every instance, twenty-three times. By 1860 he had oper- ated with it over one hundred times. In all, he performed the operation about 250 times, all except the first three or four being done with it, and w-ith a relatively small mor- tality. A picture of this instrument is given in the "Memoirs" and also in the "Transac- tions of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty," 1878. But the invention which he regarded as his chief contribution to surgery was his an- terior splint. He was engaged in perfect- ing this instrument for over thirty years and it was not completed until 1860. In 1867 he published his work on "Treatment of Frac- tures of the Lower Extremity by the Use of the Anterior Suspensory Apparatus." In this he claimed that his invention was applicable to all fractures of the thigh and leg. He was a pioneer in extirpation of the thyroid gland, publishing a case in North American Archives of Medicine and Surgery, Baltimore, 1835, vol. ii, p. 309. Smith was the founder of the Medical De- partment of the University of Vermont; President of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland. A. B. and M. D., Yale, and LL. D., Princeton. Alan Penniman Smith (1840-98) was the son of Nathan Ryno and the third of four consecutive generations of medical men in this family. He was connected as a teacher with several chairs of the University of Mary- land, and was a trustee of Johns Hopkins Hos- pital and University. He had a reputation as a lithotomist, operating fifty-five times without a death and one hundred and twelve times with two deaths. Eugene F. Cordell. Med. .^nn. of Maryland, E. F. Cordell, 1903. An Address Commemorative of Nathan Ryno Smith, S. C. Chew, 1878. Maryland Med. Jour., Bait.. 1877, vol. i. Trans. Amer. Med. Assoc, Phila., 1878, vol xxix. Autobiography, S. D. Gross. 1887, vol. ii. Smith, Peter (1753-1816) Peter Smith, who wrote a "Dispensatory," the first of its kind in the West, was a son of Dr. Hezekiah Smith, of the "Jerseys," "a home old man, or Indian doctor." Peter was born in Wales, February 6, 1753, from whence this branch of the Smith family came. He was also a relative of Hezekiah Smith, D. D., of Haverhill, Massachusetts. Educated at Princeton, he was married in New Jersey to Catherine Stout, December 23, 1776. He seems to have early given some attention to medicine under his father, and became familiar with the works of Dr. Rush, Dr. Brown, and other writers of his day on "physic," as well as with the works of Cul- pepper, and acquired much information from physicians whom he met in New Jersey, Penn- sylvania, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Ohio. He called him- self an "Indian doctor," because, as he said, he relied in his practice much on herbs, roots, and other remedies known to the Indians, though he did not confine himself to botanical remedies. He seems to have been an orig- inal investigator, availing himself of all oppor- tunities within his reach for acquiring knowl- edge, especially acquainting himself with domestic and tried Indian remedies, roots, and herbs. Starting from New Jersey about the year 1780, he commenced his wandering, emigrat- ing life with his wife and "some" small chil- dren. He lingered for a time in Virginia, then in the Carolinas, and "settled" in Georgia. He sought out people from whom he could gather knowledge of "the theory and practice of medicine," and preached the gospel, possibly in an itinerant way. He was a devout Baptist of the old school. A strong anti-slavery man, even in that early day, he could not be content with his Georgia home, as he put it, "with its many scorpions and slaves." Accordingly, he took his family on horseback^ittle children, twin babies among them, carried in baskets suitable for the pur- pose, hung to the horns of the saddle ridden by his wife — and thus, without roads to travel, crossed mountains, rivers, and creeks. The wilderness was not free from danger from Indians, but he traversed the woods from Georgia through Tennessee to Ken- tucky, intending there to abide. But, finding that Kentucky had also become a slave State, the determined old man and his family bid good-bye to Kentucky. He left that State with a parting shot to the effect that it was the home of "headticks and slavery," and emigrat- ed to Ohio, settling on Duck Creek, near the Columbia Old Baptist Church, now adjacent to Norwood village, and near the limits of Cincinnati, reaching there about 1794. He became, with his family, a member of the Duck Creek congregation, and frequently