Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/460

NAME GIHON 438 GILBERT (1841), and his numerous addresses before the University students. He had one hobby — to lead a crusade against tobacco; and became vice-president of an anti- tobacco society, though in other respects he liked the good things of life. Perhaps from the beginning what astounded people most was his absolute frankness. He published his surgical failures and told how in four cases he ruptured axillary arteries and the patients died. But, on the other hand, he had the unique experience of twice doing success- fully Cesarean section on the same woman, the life of the mother and of both children being saved. Of his remarkable memory one admirer tells how he made an off-hand bet that he could quote 300 lines of Virgil taken at random, and reeled off the hexameters until his audience begged him to stop. He withdrew from the university at the age of sixty-seven, having filled the profes- sor's chair thirty-six years, and for thirteen years longer — a keen bright-eyed old man — he watched the busy world. It was a tumul- tuous time for retired old age. However, he saw the end of the Civil War and resumed his travels about the world when it was over and continued them until he died in Savannah March 2, 1868. His son, Charles Bell Gibson (1816-1865), studied under his father and became professor of surgery at Washington Medical College, Baltimore, in 1843, and three years later at the Medical College, Richmond, Va. During the war he was surgeon-general of the state. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 1849. Med. and Surg. Reporter, Phila., 1868. Richmond and Louisville Med. Jour., Louisville, 1869. Reminiscences, S. C. Busey, Wash., D. C, 1895. Med. in Amer., J. G. Mumford, Phila., 1903. Hist. Med. Dept. of the Univ. of Penn., J. Carson, Phila., 1869. Gihon, Albert Leary (1833-1901) Albert Leary Gihon, a naval surgeon, was born in Philadelphia September 28, 1833, and received the degree of A. B. at the Central High School of that city, graduating in medicine at the Philadelphia College of Medi- cine and Surgery in 18S2. Princeton con- ferred upon him the degree of A. M. in 1854. In the following year he entered the United States Navy as assistant surgeon and made several sea voyages, being in 1861 promoted to the rank of surgeon. During the greater part of the Civil War he was on duty in European waters cruising after Confederate privateers. In 1872 he was appointed medical inspector, and medical director in 1879. In 1895 he was promoted to the rank of com- modore and retired from active service Sep- tember 28 of the same year. He died in New York November 17, 1901. Gihon was a pioneer in the field of Naval hygiene. His book "Practical Suggestions in Naval Hygiene" (1871), was a standard work at the time of its publication. He wrote numerous articles on naval hygiene, public health, vital statistics, and medical demog- raphy and climatology. He was a charm- ing companion, a man of brilliant talents, simple in manner, and sweet in temper. Albert Allemann Buffalo Med. Jour., 1901-2, vol. xli. Jour. Amer. Med. Asso., Chicago, 1901, vol. xxxvii. Gilbert, David (1803-1868) David Gilbert, surgeon, was born in Adams County, Pennsylvania, July 27, 1803, son of George Gilbert and Elizabeth Stites. In 1825 he graduated at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, then read medicine with Dr. J. Payson, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania ; he at- tended lectures at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, graduating in 1828. He settled first in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, moved to Gettysburg in 1832, and went to live in Philadelphia in 1851. He was appointed physician of the port of Philadelphia. When the faculty of the Medical Depart- ment of Pennsylvania College was reorganized in 1844, Gilbert was made professor of surgery. Following Wallace of Philadelphia, who used adhesive plaster for making extension at the ankle, he wrote on "Adhesive Plaster the Best Counter-extending Means in Fractures of the Thigh" (American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 1858, n. s. vol. xxxv, 105-109), after testing it extensively in "keeping up extension and counter-extension." He says : "Adhesive plaster, when well applied to the surface, be- comes united with the skin, so as to form a composite body, consequently friction and pres- sure are transferred to the areolar, adipose and other tissues beneath. . . . The skin is thus protected, and, consequently, abrasion, ex- coriation, or ulceration ... do not occur." He published an account of his first case of "severely complicated fracture of the thigh" in his paper on "Cases of Surgery" (American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 1851, n. s., 1851, vol. xxl, 70-76). Dr. Gilbert married Jane E. Brown, of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; they had eight children — Dr. W. K. Gilbert, a son, died in Philadelphia in 1880. Dr. Gilbert died in Philadelphia July 28, 1868, of disease of the liver. HOWASD A. Kellv. Pers. commun. from Dr. Gilbert's daughter. Instit. of Coll. of Phys. of Phila. W. S. W. Ruschcnberger, Phila., 1887.