Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/677

NAME KEYT 6SS KIDDER than and Mary Thrasher Keyt. His father was of Dutch ancestry, his mother of Quaker stock — a descendant of Edward Penn, of Pennsylvania. A few years after his birth his father removed to Moscow, Ohio. The boy was educated in Parker's Academy in Felicity, Ohio, and in 1845 he began to study medicine with Dr. William Johnston, of Moscow, ma- triculating at the Medical College, Ohio, in 1S47. He had his M.D. in March, 1848, and in 1849 practised at Moscow, Ohio, but in 18S0 removed to Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, where he remained until the end of his life, Novem- ber 9, 1885. In manner he was sedate, almost grave, slow and deliberate in action, in accordance with the Dutch blood coursing in his veins. He crossed swords, in a lively journal con- troversy concerning the expediency of creat- ing a vesico-vaginal fistula for cystitis, with the late Pro. Parvin (q. v.), a master in dia- lectics and phraseology. The latter had no ad- vantage in style of expression or cogency of reasoning, although the operation he contend- ed for has become an established one. In 1873 Dr. Keyt's attention was attracted to the consideration of the graphic method in the portrayal of the movements of the cir- culation. First, experimentation was com- menced with M. Mavy's spring instrument, but it did not take long to discover that the spring did not furnish all the undulations of the blood-column to the slide. To elucidate the problems of the circulation a double in- strument was required — one that would take two tracings, the heart and an arterj', or two arteries, the one above the other, upon the slide, with a chronographic trace below, so that the difference could be recorded and the difference in time between the two tracings be computed. Such a mechanism Dr. Keyt devised, a cardiograph and sphygmograph com- bined, which he termed the compound sphygmograph. This invention has stood the test of time and is today the best adapted for its purpose of any that have been produced. A scheme was arranged by means of which lesions of the mitral and aortic cardiac orifices were represented, and their relations to pulse wave velocity. The developments were re- corded by the compound sphygmograph, and the results secured have been confirmed by graphic tracings of clinical cases. These ex- perimental researches formed the basis of a series of articles in the Journal of the Ameri- can Medical 'Associalion for 1883. His book, "Sphygmography and Cardiog- raphy," is an enduring monument to his in- dustry and genius. Between its covers is m- cluded more of patient, painstaking effort than is rarely presented to the profession in equal volume. To him is due the discovery that an abnor- mal delay of the pulse-wave follows upon mitral regurgitation. The value of this reve- lation to the practical physician is obvious. On October 10, 1848, Dr. Keyt married Miss Susannah D. Hamlin of Cincinnati. They had seven children. Dr. Keyt died suddenly, November 9, 1885, at Cincinnati, from rupture of a cerebral artery. His principal writings are included in "Sphygmography and Cardiography," New York, 1887. Asa B. Isham. Phila. Month. Med. Jour., A. B. Isham, 1889, vol. I. An oil painting is owned by Mrs. Mary H. Isham. Kidder, Jerome Henry (1842-1889) Kidder was born in Baltimore County, Alaryland, where he spent his boyhood days, then entered Harvard College at the age of sixteen and was graduated bachelor of arts in 1862. He was appointed a medical cadet dur- ing the war, and the study of medicine, begun that at time, was continued in Baltimore, and in 1866 he received the degree of doctor of medicine from the University of Maryland. Shortly afterwards he was commissioned an assistant surgeon in the United States Navy in which he served for eighteen years with much distinction. He was promoted to be passed assistant surgeon in 1871, and surgeon in 1876, and resigned his commission June 18, 1884. Dr. Kidder was recognized as one of the most accomplished and efficient surgeons in his corps. He became specially interested in chemical and physicial research and he was ordered to join the scientific party sent o'ut by the United States Government to observe the transit of Venus at Kerguelen Island, in 1874. On his return to Washington he studied the material which he had collected at the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Kidder was a contributor to the National Medical Diction- ary compiled under the editorial supervision of Dr. John S. Billings. His principal scientific papers have ap- peared as follows: Those relating to sani- tary and kindred subjects, in the reports of the navy from 1879 to 1882; the "Pro- ceedings of the Naval Medical Society for 1884;" the "Reports of the Forty-eighth Congress" and the "Report of the Smithson- ian Institution for 1884;" on the natural his- tory of Kerguelen Island, in "B'uUetins Nos. 2 and 3 of the National Museum," published