Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1142

NAME SWIFT 1120 SWINBURNE from the Rev. Ebenezer Kinnersley, who was professor of oratory and EngUsh literature in the College and Academy of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania) from 1753 to 1773. He was a friend of Dr. Frank- lin and to him is given the distinction of teaching the new science of electricity to the first class in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. Joseph Swift was a pupil of Dr. John S. Dorsey (q. v.) and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Pennsylvania in 1816 and soon settled in Eas- ton. He remained in active practice only about twenty years because he was attacked with lupus of the face (epithelial cancer, according to Dr. S. D. Gross), so disfiguring him that he lived in retirement, which is the reason that his name is not as familiar to us as it would have been had he remained in the active pursuit of his profession for a longer period. He married Miss Elizabeth Shewell Lorrain of Germantown, Pennsylvania, and she died in 1872. He had great mechanical skill which fitted him for surgical practice and, had he been inclined to write, doubtless many valuable hints could have been obtained from his pub- lications. Dr. Samuel D. Gross (q. v.), a pupil of Dr. Swift, secured for him the credit of in- venting the application of adhesive strips in making extension in the treatment of frac- ture. This discovery was claimed for Dr. Di.xi Crosby (q. v.), of New Hampshire, but as Dr. Crosby does not claim to have used it before 1849 and Dr. Gross mentions having learned its use in his treatise on "The Dis- eases of Bones and Joints," published in 1830, the priority must be awarded to Dr. Swift. He also was the first to employ the fine gold pin in the application of the twisted suture to the treatment of hair lip. Dr. Swift was a man of literary attainment and general culture, having great conversa- tional powers and was of a warm social na- ture, so that he attracted to himself a large circle of intelligent companions. I quote from one of his pupils : His home was the resort of professors of the college, clergymen, gentlemen of the bar and scientific and literary persons who visited his place of residence, and this continued until the period of his death. This same student speaks of him in his professional life: He felt that he was called upon to main- tain the dignity and honor of his profession and long before we published our Code of Ethics he practised its principles under the keenest sense of their claims upon a true physician. In the days when there was no standard for entering upon the practice of medicine he re- quired of his pupils a certain amount of lit- erary culture. He made his pupils promise that they would study three years and attend three courses of lectures and not practise until they had received their degree. He died in 1871 from a painful disease that had affected him for thirty years, all the time bearing his suffering with cheerfulness. Ch.vrles McIntire. Swinburne. John (1820-1889) John Swinburne's early life presented the not unusual spectacle of a clever boy, one of a large family with small means, doing un- congenial work cheerfully until he could con- scientiously tread the path of inclination. The ninth child and sixth son of Peter and xrte- mesia Swinburne, he was born in Deer River, Lewis County, New York, on May 30, 1820. From boyhood he attended the county dis- trict school and afterwards acted as teacher, subsequently studying at Fairfield, Herkimer County. In the spring of 1843 he became interested in medicine and chemistry, studying the latter under Prof. Mather and in 1844 taking up medicine under Dr. GrifSn Sweet and after- wards under Prof. J. H. Armsby (q. v.). He graduated from Albany Medical College in 1846. with a thesis on "The Anatomy of the Neck." During the first years of his practice in Albany he gave all his leisure to practical anatomical studies and the careful prepara- tion of specimens. After graduating M. D. he was obliged, owing to a serious attack of pleurisy, to take up country practice, but was in a short time appointed demonstrator of anatomy at Albany Medical College. Three years he held this post, giving loving care to the arrangement of a private anatomical museum, where pupils attended, till 1851. The skeleton of the celebrated Dr. Edson who was exhibited on account of his "attenuated abne- gation of flesh" was prepared by Swinburne for this museum. While almshouse physician Swinburne attended 800 cases of ship fever in one year with only fifteen deaths, he himself being attacked by the disease. In May, 1862, he became medical superintendent of the New York wounded troops at the front, a post which was no sinecure, for the victims of ' disease increased more rapidly than the gov-" ernment could provide accommodation. He