Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/583

NAME HOSACK 561 HOSACK tied the two carotids for encephaloid tumor and in one instance cut the portio dura. He gave special attention to the removal of tumors in the urinary passages of the female and amputated the urethra with signal success and permanent cure. For many years he was at- tending surgeon at the Marine Hospital and was a principal organizer of Ward's Island Hospital. He died in Newport, R. I., March 2, 1871. One fact is worthy of record: He was the first in the city of New York to anesthetize with ether, his first experiments being an amputation, removal of stone, and removal of two breasts. Among his contributions of value must be named : "Observations on the Uses and Ad- vantages of the Actual Cautery," 1831 ; "A Memoir on Staphylorrhaphy," 1833; "On Sen- sitive Tumors of the Female Urethra," 1839; "Three Operations for Encephaloid Tumors of the Antrum and Superior Maxillary Bone" ; "Twenty-three Cases of Lithotomy by a Pe- culiar Operation"; ".Anaesthesia with Cases, being the First Instance of the Use of Ether in New York." Disting. Living New York Surgs., S. W. Francis, New York 1866. Med. and Sung. Reporter, Philadelphia, 1865, vol. xiii. Appleton's Cyclop. Amer. Biog., New York, 1887. Hosack, David (1769-1835). David Hosack was one of those who live for to-morrow, who doggedly advocate and carry out reforms for which they themselves get neither thanks nor profit. He brought the same keen interest to bear on a new view of disease or a new plant for his botanical garden. He was born on .August 31, 1769, at num- ber 44 Frankfort Street, New York, the son of Alexander and Jane Arden Hosack and the eldest of seven children. His father came from Moray, Scotland, served as an artillery officer under Gen. Sir Jeffrey Amherst in America and was present at the capture of Louisburg. His mother was of English-French descent. When about thirteen young David went to school under the Rev. Alexander McWortcr of Newark, New Jersey, then for a short time to Dr. Peter Wilson of Hackensack, and finally,, in 1786, to Columbia College, New York, be- ginning to study medicine with Dr. Richard Bayley, a New York surgeon, in 1788, gradu- ating A. B. from Princeton in 1789. He at- tended lectures in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, and took his M. D. from the Pennsylvania Medical Col- lege in 1791. His next important steps were his marriage to Catherine Warner of Princeton, and remov- ing to .Alexandria, Virginia, because he thought it would become the capita! of the United States. But the call of a metropolis was too strong and he came back in 1792 and in that same year, seeing the necessity for studying in the European hospitals, he left his wife and baby with his parents and spent two years in Edinburgli and London, meeting Robert Burns and all the celebrities of that day, listening to learned divines on Sunday and getting all he could during the week from men like Munro, Black, Gregory and Duncan in Edinburgh, in London consorting mainly with those who, like himself, were genuine botanists. During his winter in London, by the con- currence of Sir Joseph Banks and other scien- tists, his "Observations on Vision" was pub- lished in the Transactions of the Royal So- ciety and the author thanked. He took full advantage of his stay, doing anatomical dis- sections under Dr. Andrew Marshall and studying chemistry and mineralogy and visit- ing tlie hospitals. A tedious journey of fifty- three days in the Mohawk, varied only by an outbreak of typhus on board, brought him again to New York, where he settled down to practise, helped somewhat by friendships made on board. The professorship of botany in Columbia College was offered him in 1795, and in the autumn of that year he and the other young doctors had plenty of opportunity to distinguish themselves because yellow fever of a malignant type broke out. Also at this time he took care of Dr. Samuel Bard's pa- tients for a while, and so well that a partner- ship was offered and accepted, a great compli- ment to Hosack. Having lost his wife and child, he mar- ried on December 21, 1797, Mary, daughter of James and Mary Darragh Eddy, and had nine children. Success attended him, particularly in his 'observation and treatment of yellow fever. He became a strong advocate of the doctrine of contagion and was the first to pur- sue sudorific and mild treatment in this dis- ease. Such faith was put in his judgment that he was often asked by the board of health to investigate diseases. He was an excellent botanist and mineralo- gist; the author of three volumes of "Medical Essays," of numerous articles in the medical journals and of memoirs of Hugh Williamson and DeWitt Clinton. His love of botany in- duced him to found the Elgin Botanic Garden in 1801— about twenty acres of land at Hyde Park on the Hudson, having at one time under cultivation nearly 1,500 species of Ameri-