Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/698

NAME KYLE 676 KYLE with oracular solemnity, 'I have directed weak sage tea. Good morning madam.' " As a lecturer, in his five or six professor- ships, "he was faithful and clear in the description of diseases and in the mode of ap- plying their appropriate remedies, avoiding theoretical discussions." It would be pleasant to know more of Kuhn, but the short-length, long-adjectived, pompous biographies in old medical journals do not give much. A discreet young physician, "not remarkable for powers of imagination but his talent for observation profound ; a lover of music, abstemious in diet, neat in person," says one biographer. He did not marry until he was thirty-nine, after which he had two sons, by his wife Eliz- abeth, daughter of Isaac Tartman of St. Croix. When seventy-three he "grieved" his pa- tients by giving up practice, and in June, 1817, began to feel conscious that life was ending. After a short confinement to the house of three weeks, but suffering no pain, Adam Kuhn passed away on July S, in full serenity of mind and heart. His other appointments included : Physician to the Pennsylvania Hospital, consulting phy- sician, Philadelphia Dispensarj', 1786; one of the founders and in 1808 president of the Col- lege of Physicians of Philadelphia ; professor of the theory and practice of medicine. Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, 1789, and on the junc- tion of the two medical schools of the College and University, he was chosen professor of the practice of physic, 1792-1797. Of his writings, with the exception of the thesis mentioned, nothing can be traced save a short letter addressed to Dr. Lettsom on "Dis- eases Succeeding Transplantation of Teeth." He opposed Rush's "Treatment of Yellov Fever" by publishing his own, over initials, in the General Advertiser of September 11, 1793. Some Amer. Med. Botanists, H. A. Kelly, 1914. Eclectic Repertory, Phila., 1818, Dr. S. Powell Griffiths. Stoever's Life of Linnaeus. Autobiography of Charles Caldwell, Phila., 188S. The Botanists of Philadelphia, Harshberger. Phila., 1899. Kyle, David Braden (1863-1916) D. Braden Kyle, laryngologist of Philadel- phia, was born at Cadiz, Ohio, October 11, 1863, and died at Philadelphia, October 23, 1916, succumbing to pneumonia when he had been in apparent good health. He was the youngest son of Samuel Wi Kyle, whose fam- ily came from Kyle in Ayrshire, Scotland. His mother was of English extraction, a descen- dant of Thomas Cross who emigrated to America in 1746 and served under Washington in the Revolution. Braden Kyle was educated at Muskingum College, Ohio, and at Jefferson Medical Col- lege, Philadelphia, where he graduated in 1891. In the autumn of the year of graduation he was appointed to the chair of pathology in Jefferson, continuing in office until 1896, when he was elected professor of laryngology in the same college, a position he held until his death. From 1891 to 1893 he was chief laryngologist, rhinologist and otologist to St. Mary's Hospi- tal and then accepted a permanent position of the same character at St. Agnes Hospital. Dr. Kyle was an industrious man and did not spare himself in the prosecution of his profession. He taught that disease of the throat and nose originated in systemic condi- tions, which should be the subject of treat- ment, and that topical applications were only adjuvants. He had a good habit of personally overseeing the convalescence of his patients and did not trust this important branch of operating to subordinates ; therefore he was very busy and did much traveling, for he had a large practice. Kyle's chief contribution to the literature of medicine was his textbook on "Diseases of the Nose and Throat," that appeared in 1899, and of which four subsequent editions were pub- lished. Two years previously he had contrib- uted a chapter on diseases of the uvula, pha- rynx and larynx to Hare's "System of Thera- peutics." He invented several instruments for use by throat and nose specialists and contrib- uted many papers to the medical journals, such as "Nasal Hydrorrhoea," 1896; "Nasal Bac- teria, the Relation They Bear to Disease," 1899; "The Use of the Suprarenal Gland in Diseases of the Nose and Throat," 1902; "The Chemistry of Saliva in Relation to Hay Fev- er,' 1907. In 1900 Dr. Kyle married Jeanette E. Smith, daughter of Colonel Thomas J. Smith of Phil- adelphia. Dickinson College conferred the honorary degree of Master of Arts on him in 1904. In 1900 he was president of the American Laryn- gological, Rhinological and Otological Society, and in 1911 he held the same office in the American Laryngological Association. Dr. Kyle was especially fond of children and had a kindly nature. During the summer va- cations he traveled extensively in the West and in British Columbia and, with Mrs. Kyle, frequently hunted big game. He left a dis- tinct impress on American laryngology. Trans. Amer. Climat. Asso., 1916, xxxii, pp. 38-41. Portrait. Who's Who in America. Trans. Amer. Laryngolog. Asso., 1917.