Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/286

NAME CULBERTSON 264 CULBERTSON take charge of Harvey General Hospital at Madison, Wisconsin. Here he did some of his most successful operating, which is re- corded and favorably commented on in the "Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion." In 1865 he left the volunteer service with the rank of brevet lieutenant colonel, and joined the regulars as captain and assistant surgeon, serving at Louisville as medical di- rector of Taylor barracks, at Memphis, and at Jefferson barracks, St. Louis. From there he was ordered to Baton Rouge, but climatic conditions completely prostrated him, and he was compelled to go on the retired list, with health permanently undermined. Returning to Zanesville in 1869, he again took up private practice, devoting most of his time to his chosen specialty, diseases of the eye, and soon became one of the leading oculists of the state. For several years he was professor of ophthalmology in the Colum- bus Medical College, Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Culbertson invented a number of in- struments for use in both general and ophthal- mic surgery. Among these were a meerschaum probe for bullets, used in the army, and a prismoptometer for testing eyes. Although comparatively an invalid, he worked in- cessantly, and it- was during the last twenty years of his life that his most important work was done. In 1862 he received the gold medal of the Ohio State Medical Society for an essay on "The Use of Anesthetics in Midwifery," and in 1876 published the greatest work of his life, a book entitled "Excisions of the Larger Joints of the Extremities." This was pub- lished as the prize essay of the American Med- ical Association for that year, and at the time was the most exhaustive treatise on the sub- ject. He also wrote and published a great many articles for medical journals both in America and England. He married Maria Louisa Safford, daughter of Dr. Elial T. Safford of Parkersburg, West Virginia, November 16, 1854, and had seven children, one of whom, Louis R., following in his father's footsteps, practised ophthal- mology in Zanesville, Ohio. The father died at Zanesville, June 18, 1890, of infirmities acquired by overwork and ex- posure in the service of his country. John G. F. Holston. Culbertson, James Cox (1840-1908) James, the eldest of seven children, was born on December 19, 1840, at Culberston Mills, Miami County, Ohio, son of William and Mary Ann Cox Culbertson, whose people came originally from Scotland. In August, 1860, he went to Cincinnati and began to study medicine under Dr. John Davis, attending lectures during the session of 1860- 61. On April 19, 1861, he volunteered as a pri- vate in the fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry — the first troops enlisted under the call of Pres. Lincoln — and went to Camp Harrison and later to Camp Dennison, then on, in 1861, with the regiment to West Virginia. Dr. Culbertson was detailed to act as medical officer to three companies sent to French Creek. Soon after- wards he was detailed as hospital steward at Seminary Hospital, Romney, Virginia, and held many medical army appointments until 1864. Owing to the illness of Dr. Clendenin, much of the responsibility devolved upon Dr. Culbert- son. In September, 1864, he entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and in October the vacancy occurred of senior assistant in the New York City Lunatic Asylum to which after a competitive examination he was elected. Arriving at the asylum, he found his predecessor had died of typhus fever, and the junior assistant was sick. That night the superintendent. Dr. Ranney, was attacked, and died five days later, leaving Dr. Culbertson the only acting medical officer. While thus em- ployed he found time to attend lectures at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and graduated there in March, 1865. In April, 1865, he resigned and went to Cincinnati and soon after to Chicago, with a view to making it his home, but in Octo- ber returned to Cincinnati and immediately began practice. On December 23, 1873, Dr. Culbertson purchased the Lancet and Observer, a monthly journal long established. From that time medical journalism was the principal business of his life, although for a number of years he took an active part in municipal affairs. In October, 1875, he purchased the Indiana Journal of Medicine, published in Indianapolis, and united it with the Lancet and Observer. In June, 1878, he took over The Clinic, a weekly journal founded by the Med- ical College of Ohio in 1871 ; a journal which numbered among its editors, James T. Whit- taker (q. v.) and Roberts Bartholow (q. v.). The title of the consolidated journal was changed to Lancet and Clinic, and in 1904, to Lancet-Clinic. Finally, in 1881, he bought the Obstetric Gazette. From 1891 to 1893 he was editor of the Journal of the American Medicat Association, and lived in Chicago. He was professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the Cincinnati College of Medi- ' dne and Surgery from 1893 to 1902, and ex-