Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/668

NAME KANE 646 KANE pedic Surgery as a Specialty," the president's address before the American Orthopedic As- sociation, delivered at Washington, D. C, 1891 ; "The Weight of the Body in its Relation to the Pathology and Treatment of Club- Foot," translated into French, German, Italian, and Spanish, 1892; and "The Influence of Growth on Congenital and Acquired Deformi- ties," 190S. Dr. .Tudson died September 20, 1916. Bioj. of Emin. Amer. Phys. & Surgs., R. F. Stone, 1894. Who's Who in America, vol ix, 1916-1917. Kane, Elisha Kent (1820-1857) Elisha Kent Kane, explorer, scholar, scien- tist, was born on the third of February, 1820, in Walnut Street, Philadelphia, the eldest of the seven children born to John Kent, jurist, and Jane Leiper Kane. The spirit of adven- ture and daring seems to have been in him from his cradle and the embryo scientist was unappreciated by worried schoolmasters and received as a boy a good many hard knocks. He had the free life of a country lad and when sixteen was sent to the University of Vir- ginia to fit himself to be a civil engineer but an attack of acute rheumatism followed by heart disease forced him to give up during the second year. He had the good luck to study natural science under Prof. Rogers, en- gaged just then on the geology of the Blue Mountains, and accompanied him in his jour- neyings. He then made a determined effort for an M. D. degree, which he took with highest honors from the University of Penn- sylvania in 1842 after studying under Dr. Wil- liam Harris. Boyish in appearance, not yet twenty-one, he was made resident physician in the Pennsylvania Hospital, Blockley, in Oc- tober, 1840, and found time to explore still further than his colleagues the nature of a new substance found in the renal secretion which M. Nauche of Paris had named Kyes- tine and announced as a final test in cases of suspected utero-gestation. The result of the Blockley Hospital research was published in the Medical Intelligencer, March, 1841, and Kane shortly after wrote a graduation thesis on the subject in which, as Dr. Samuel Jack- son said, that which was still a matter of con- troversy was investigated and permanently set- tled. In May, 1843, Kane became assistant sur- geon in the United States Navy. He served in China, on the coast of Africa, in Mexico (where he was wounded), in the Mediterra- nean and on the first Grinnell Arctic expedi- tion in the search for Sir John Franklin. He wrote and published a narrative of the expedi- tion in 1853. The ships met with many disas- ters and Kane's medical skill did much to help and hearten the scurvy-stricken crew. He also joined the second expedition in 1853 with Dr. Isaac I. Hayes (q. v.) as surgeon. The Advance touched at various Greenland points to obtain Esquimaux recruits and finally reached 78' 43' north, the highest point attained by a sail- ing vessel. In 1855, after tremendous hard- ships including desertion by a Danish crew, Kane was obliged to abandon the ship and by indefatigable exertions succeeded in moving his boats and sick some sixty miles to the open sea. He reached Cape York and success- fully arrived at Upernavik in August. The explorer and his companions were enthusias- tically received here.' Arctic medals were au- thorized by Congress and the Queen's medal presented to officers and men. Kane had the Founders medal of 1856 from the Royal Geo- graphical Society and that of 1858 from the Societe de Geographic. The chart exhibiting the discoveries of the expedition was at first issued without Kane's name attached to any land or sea it embraced, but Col. Force, exer- cising his authority in the distribution of hon- ors, had Kane's Sea printed on a body of wa- ter between Smith's Strait and Kennedy Chan- nel. His health had been terribly broken by hard- ships endured, and in the hope of recovering he went to England. Finding no relief, suffer- ing with heart disease, he set out on a pain- ful journey to Cuba where his mother and brother joined him, but after a few weeks of pleasure in their company, this heroic young navigator set out in that ship which sails into the land of shadows and does not return. He died at Havana, February 16. 1857, following an attack of apoplexy, aged 37 years. Of his marriage there is no public record, but there is extant a curious little volume called "The Love-life of Dr. Kane," contain- ing the correspondence and a history of the acquaintance, engagement and secret marriage between Elisha K. Kane and Margaret Fox, in October, 1856, just previous to his depart- ure for England. Truly the warm glow of affection in the letters forms a good contrast to any other account of Kane's life story found in his "United States Grinnell Expedi- tion" (18.S4) or in the second volume in 1856. Yet a third aspect of him, in his home life, may be gained by reading William Elder's "Bi- ography" of him from his boyhood's days to