Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/861

NAME MURPHY 839 MURPHY son, and graduating in the Medical College of Ohio, 1846, serving afterwards as interne in the Commercial Hospital. He was one of the founders of the Miami Medical College, organized in 1852, and professor of ma- teria medica, therapeutics and medical juris- prudence. In 1853 he went to Europe, and studied in the great hospitals. When in 1857 the Miami Medical College was united with the Medical College of Ohio, Dr. Murphy was made professor of materia medica and therapeutics, and in 1865 the Miami Medical College was re-organized, Dr. Murphy being appointed professor of theory and practice. In association with Drs. George Menden- hall and E. B. Stevens he established and edited the Medical Observer until its union with the Western Lancet. He was until near his death on the staff of the Commercial Hospital and for many years a member of the Ohio State Medical Society, and its presi- dent in 1880. He married November 11, 1862, a daughter of Dr. Samuel G. Menzies, of Kentuckj', and had two daughters, Nora and Mary Ann, and a son, Archibald. The latter died at the age of three. Dr. Murphy died in Cincinnati, February 28, 1900. Alexander G. Drury. Murphy, John Benjamin (1857-1916) Dr. John Benjamin Murphy was born of Irish Catholic parents, Michael and Ann Grimes Murphy, Dec. 21. 1857, at Appleton, Wisconsin. His preliminary education was obtained in the public schools of Appleton, and his education in medicine in Rush Medi- cal College, from which he graduated in 1879. He was then an interne in Cook County Hos- pital, Chicago, completing his service in 1880. As a graduate in medicine he spent two years in Vienna. On November 25, 1885, Dr Murphy mar- ried Jeannette C. Plamondon of Chicago, to whom he owed inspiration, aid, and encour- agement throughout his subsequent brilliant career. Of this union five children were born, a son and four daughters. Dr. Murphy was a man of extraordinary energy and great scientific imagination. Tra- ditional medicine had little interest for him, but the newer knowledge that came from the discovery of the bacterial origin of disease furnished a fruitful field for his talents. His earliest interest was in abdominal surgery, then in its infancy. The Murphy button {Medical Record, 1892, vol. xliii, 665-676), the greatest mechanical aid in surgery, is an evi- dence of his inventive ingenuity and laid the foundation for the gastro-intestinal surgery of today. Murphy was among the first to inves- tigate the cause and treatment of peritonitis following appendicitis, the causes and vari- ous forms of ileus, and the pathologic proc- esses in the pelvis, gallbladder, stomach, pan- creas and kidneys. Each subject he investi- gated he left on a higher plane before enter- ing a new field. His writings on the prin- ciples underlying surgery of the lung and nervous system have been among the most important contributions on the subject. In recent years he was deeply interested in the subject of deformities, especially those due to infections of the bones and joints, and the results of his investigations were of high order. He was a dramatic figure in the oper- ating room. With instrument in hand he fairly thrilled his audience, as he reviewed the history of the case, exhibited a specimen and proved the minute accuracy of his diagnosis. In reviewing Dr. Murphy's manifold activi- ties, and attempting to determine the great- est of his many great qualities, I think we may place first his ability as a teacher of clinical surgery, and sum up by saying that in this respect he was without a peer. In his talented and discriminating writing we find evidence of his teaching on every hand. Dr. Murphy was the surgical genius of our generation. In recognition of his work Dr. Murphy was awarded the Lactate medal by Notre Dame University in 1902. He also received the following degrees : A. M., St. Ignatius College; M. D., Rush Medical College, 1879; LL. D., University of Illinois, 1905; LL. D., Catholic Univer- sity of America, 1915; D. Sc, University of Shefiield, England, 1908; F. R. C. S., Royal College of Surgeons, England, 1913, and F. A. C. S., American College of Surgeons, 1913. In 1916 the Pope made him a Knight- Commander of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great. Dr. Murphy was a member of the Amer- ican Association of Obstetricians and Gyne- cologists ; a fellow of the American Surgical Association; a member of the Southern Sur- gical and Gynecological Association and of the Western Surgical Association ; a life member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fiir Chirurgie; an honorary member of the Societe de Chirurgie of Paris; and a mem- ber of other scientific bodies. He was presi- dent of the Chicago Medical Society, 1904-