Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/579

NAME HORNER 557 HORNER juries are suffered by the epithelial layer. He published an account of his method of study and the results in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences in 1834. He was one of the first medical men in the country to make practical use of the microscope. Horner's chief attention, however, was given to the study of anatomy rather that pathologj'. He was untiring in the preparation of speci- mens and at his death his collection is said to have rivalled those of some of the better museums in Europe. He bequeathed all his specimens, together with his instruments and apparatus connected with the dissections to the medical department of the university, a donation valued at some eight or ten thous- and dollars. It formed the larger part of the collection known as the Wistar and Horner Museum, subsequently housed in the Wistar Institute of Anatomy at Philadelphia. His chief claim as an original investigator rests upon the discovery of the muscle which he called the "tensor tarsi," frequently called the muscle of Horner. He was led to this discovery because the common ac- count of the apparatus for lachrymation did not seem to him to explain fully the phenomena of that function. He accordingly sought for and found a special muscle situated on the posterior surface of the lachrymal ducts and sacs. His discovery was accepted as such by a number of European anatomists, but others pointed out that the muscular apparatus de- scribed by Horner had previously been de- scribed by others, though not exactly as Hor- ner described it ; several indeed have denied the existence of the muscle as an independent structure. He is, in any case, justly entitled to credit for calling attention to the structure and pointing out its physiological bearings. Horner's original articles on the subject ap- pear in the London Medical Repository for 1882 and in the American Journal of the Med- ical Sciences for 1824. Horner also investigated the anatomical basis of the peculiarly intense odor of the negro and found that the glands of the axilla in the black race exist in much larger numbers and are much more greatly developed than in the white. {American Journal of the Medical Sciences, vol. xxi, p. 13.) Horner in addition made contributions on the musculature of the rectum and on a fibro- elastic membrane of the larynx which he called the "Vocal or Phonetic Membrane." As a teacher, "Dr. Horner was not fluent, nor had he any pretensions to elocution, but he was a very excellent teacher of anatomy. His plan was. to a certain extent, novel. He composed a text-book, which was a most com- plete but concise treatise on "Anatomy." "It was written in strict reference to the course of study pursued in the University of Pennsylvania, and was kept in as compendious a state as possible, so that there should be no unnecessary loss of time in reading it." Horner was throughout life deeply religious. In 1839 he united with the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1841 was active in the estab- lishment of St. Joseph's Hospital. He labored against considerable physical disabilities, as he suffered from an affection of the heart. In 1840 he visited Europe in company with Joseph Leidy (q. v.), and returned much benefited in health. He soon, however, began to suffer again. Finally, in January, 1853, he had to abandon his lectures. Jackson gives an interesting account of Hor- ner's fortitude while awaiting the end. "He was lying on a couch ; Dr. Henry Smith and myself sitting on each side. Dr. Horner was suffering some pain, a new symptom that had just commenced. He demonstrated with his finger the different regions of the trunk, enumerating the organs they contained, and the state of each, and indicated the exact seat where he then suffered the most. This was done with the interest and earnest manner of a demonstration to his class. I was so struck with it as to call the attention of Dr. Smith to this display of the 'ruling passion strong in death.' 'Look! here is the anatomist dissecting his body — making a post-mortem be- fore he is dead.' The remark so amused Dr. Horner that he laughed heartily, in which we joined him. At the end he said: 'Well, I have not had so good a laugh for a long time.' This occurred on the third day before hi's death." The direct cause of death on March 13, 1853, was an enteroperitonitis. His chief writ- ings were: "Edition of VVistar's Anatomy," Philadelphia, J. E. More, 1823; "The United States Dissector or Lessons in Practical Anat- omy," first edition, 1826, fourth edition edited by Henry H. Smith, Philadelphia, 1846; "A Treatise on Pathological Anatomy," 1829, three editions published ; "A Treatise on the Special Anatomy of the Human Body," published in two volumes, 1826, eighth edition, Philadel- phia, 1851 : "A Plate of the Fetal Circulation" (about 1828). Horner contributed numerous articles to various medical journals, especially to the