Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1111

NAME STAMM 1089 STAMM capable of containing sixty beds to be occu- pied by female patients. In 1873-76 two addi- tional wings were erected to separate noisy and violent cases from convalescents. In his declining years, Dr. Stabb enjoyed robust health up to the last; always abstemi- ous, a non-smoker, a good pedestrian, he remained in possession of his faculties up to seventy-three years of age, when his memory slowly began to fail. Retiring from his work in 1889, his physical health remained good for two years, when signs of cerebral soft- ening showed themselves in slight attacks of aphasia and right paralysis ; these recurring at intervals of three or four months, until he had a cerebral hemorrhage, he became comatose and slowly passed away without suffering on May 17, 1892, eight days after the beginning of the seizure. Institutional Care of the Insane in the U. S. and Canada, Henry M. Hurd. 1917. Stamm, Martin (1847-1918). Martin Stamm was born November 14, 1847, in Thoygan, Canton Schaffhausen, Switzer- land. He graduated from the University of Berne, Switzerland, March 12, 1872. In the same year he began the practice of medicine in Fremont, Ohio ; in this locality he prac- tised until his death. In the history of American surgery we have many examples of brilliant physicians who have risen to national fame in spite of the handicap of liv- ing in a small community away from the large medical centers. Dr. Stamm was an example of this type of pioneer surgeon, who by sheer pluck, ability, and hard work attained a fame which would have been a credit to one surrounded by the facilities and con- veniences of a large city. An ardent student by nature, thoroughly acquainted with Ger- man and French medical literature, he was able always to keep abreast of the times and to quickly put into practice any impor- tant advancements made in his chosen pro- fession. For this reason to Dr. Stamm belongs the credit of having first performed many of the major abdominal operations in northwestern Ohio. Dr. Stamm contributed frequently to sur- gical literature; a partial list of his publica- tions, thirty titles, may be found in volume xxxi of the Transactions of the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecolo- gists. In 1894 Dr. Stamm published his well- known method of gastrostomy. The opera- tion consists of a series of purse-string su- tures superimposed in the anterior wall of the stomach, by which a fistulous tract into the stomach is formed and through which a catheter can be introduced. By the use of the Stamm method regurgitation of food fol- lowing gastrostomy is prevented. This oper- ation has stood the test of time, and although to Dr. Stamm belongs the credit of priority in its publication, it is known in the surgical textbooks as the Stamm-Kader gastrostomy. It was Dr. Stamm who first suggested to the writer the idea of ligation of the upper pole of the thyroid gland as a substitute for the operation of arterial ligation in severe cases of Basedow's disease. This idea was later elaborated and published, and is now known as the Stamm-Jacobson operation, a method which has entirely supplanted the older methods of ligation of the thyroid ves- sels. It was Dr. Stamm who introduced Kocher's herniotomy into this country, and who did much to popularize Diihrrsen's vaginal Cesarean section for eclampsia; he was one of the first to do thyroidectomy. As a surgeon Dr. Stamm was well trained, his foundation work was thorough ; he pos- sessed an accurate knowledge of embryology, anatomy, physiology, and pathology. For this reason he was quick to recognize new meth- ods and equally quick to reject those which were not based on accurate scientific prin- ciples. As a diagnostician, he possessed re- markable ability, the result of long years of study, close clinical observation, and experi- ence. There was scarcely an operation in the whole range of surgery which he had not performed many times. Dr. Stamm made frequent visits abroad, and was well known in many of the large clinics, especially in those of his native country. In one of his last visits in 1914, he was made temporary chief of the surgical division of the Insel- spital Clinic in Switzerland. He was for many years a professor of operative and clin- ical surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Cleveland ; he organized, and for many years was president of the Sandusky County Medical Society ; he was a member of the local, state and national medical asso- ciations, as well as a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He was for seventeen years a fellow of the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Through- out his career he lacked the advantage of doing his surgical work in a modernly equipped hospital. He established his own hospital, but discontinued it on account of ill health. It is to be regretted that he did not live to see finished the present new Fremont Hospital, which was nearing comple- tion in 1918. It was not only in the field of medicine and