Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1210

NAME WANLESS 1188 WARD he remained one year to secure means to con- tinue his journey, during which time he at tended medical lectures and especially those of Sir Astley Cooper, who afterwards re- mained his friend. Afterwards he crossed to America and began practice in Nashville, Ten- nessee, remaining there two years, when he went to Pittsburgh and practised there until his death in 1876. In 1867 he published a work entitled "Con- servative Surgery," advocating the thorough drainage of crushed limbs by very long and deep incisions to release the imprisoned prod- ucts, demonstrating that in this way only could crushed limbs be saved when the pres- ence of imprisoned fluids under high tension would result in infection or interference with blood supply. On January 12, 1859, he was called to at- tend a patient who had been kicked in the suprapubic region and sustained an intra- peritoneal rupture of the bladder. He made the correct diagnosis and, with a courage pe- culiar to the man, opened the peritoneal cav- ity widely, sponged away the effused urine, drained the bladder and his patient recovered. This was not only the first case in which the abdomen had been opened for rupture of the bladdti-, but was also the first case of delib- erate laparotomy for injury which has been recorded. Although this case was published by Dr. Walter in the Medical and Surgical Reporter, of November 16, 1861, it received scant notice till the publication of a similar successTul case by Dr. R. F. Weir, in 1884. Dr. Walter was a man of wonderful indus- try, taking the most minute notes of his cases, making plaster casts of his orthopedic cases and sketches of his operative work. He en- joyed good health until his death from pneu- monia, in 1876. John J. Buchanan. Wanlegs, John (1813-1901) lohn Wanlcss, son of James and A'lies Sim Wanlcss, was born at Dundee, S.otland, on May 26, 1813, and died at Toronto, Canada, April 14, 1901. He received his medical educa- tion at Edinburgh and the University of Glas- gow, where he received his license in 1835. During his student days he spent some time as ship surgeon and in hospital work. Some of his experiences while acting in the former capacity are well worth relating, notably those of one voyage which, like Sir A. Conan Doyle, he made as surgeon on a large whaler in 1832 that was full of "hair breadth escapes." Later, the young man, led by the adventuresome spirit no doubt, decided to try the hazard of a life in Canada, and came to London, Ontario, to practise at the age of about 27. Soon after he was established there, he met a homeo- pathist, and being a sturdy allopath himself, he undertook to denounce by his pen the new system of medicine and all its works; cur- iously enough, in his studies which were to enable him to shatter the opposite school to his own satisfaction, he found much to interest and finally attract him, and ere long he be- came a full-fledged homeopathist himself — in Goldsmith's words, "who came to scoff, re- main'd to pray." In the spring of 1835 Dr. Wanless returned to Dundee and married Margaret McDonald, the only daughter of Duncan McDonald, a manufacturer of that town. A son of this marriage. Dr. John R. Wanless, practised in Dunedin, New Zealand. In 1861, Dr. Wanless, now as trenchant a homeopathist as the best, was asked by a num- ber of the leading practitioners of that school in the city of Montreal to come there and be- gin practice, aiding this medical system by his efforts. This he did, soon establishing an ex- cellent practice, and he was chiefly instru- mental in causing legislation to be passed giv- ing the school of homeopathy recognition and rights in Canada. He obtained the degree of Bachelor of Medicine from the University of Toronto in 1861 and the M. D. degree the fol- lowing year from the same miversity. An ardent Scotsman, he was prominent in the affairs of St. Andrew's Society; he was the first honorary secretary of the Protestant Hospital for Insane at Verdim near Montreal, being elected December 20, 1886, and resign- ing in 1892 ; he was also a member of the first, or provisional, directorate of the hospital formed in 1885. He was of vast assistance to the institution during its formative period. His last few years were spent in Toronto, and there death called him at the advanced age of 87, at the close of a useful life. Institutional Care of the Insane in the U. S. & Canada, Henry M. Hurd, 1917. Cyclop. Canadian Eiog, Toronto, G. M. Rose, 18S8. Ward, Richard Halsted (1837-1917) I^ichard H. Ward of Troy, New York, was born in Bloomficld, New Jersey, June 17, 1837. He was the son of Israel C. and Almeda Hanks Ward. After graduating from the Bloomfield Academy he entered Williams Col- lege from which he received the degree of B. A. in 1858 and M. A. in 1861. While in college he was president of the college literary society, editor of the IVilUams Quarterly, and a leading member of the Florida expedition sent out in 1857. After Williams Dr. Ward studied four years