Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/873

NAME NOEGGERATH 851 NOEGGERATH Mary Winkerman Nickles, of Berne, Switzer- land, who came to Cincinnati just before his birth. Owing to the death of his father while he was still an infant, Samuel's early years were passed in comparative poverty, but the sterling qualities of his mother, coupled with the lad's insatiable thirst for knowledge, led him to gain a good common school education. Later, while supporting his mother and sis- ters as an employee in various mercantile houses he devoted all his spare time to study- ing medicine. German was to him as his mother tongue. In 18S6 he graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati ; in 1862 he served as surgeon to the 81st Ohio Re- serve Militia, and in 1865 graduated from the Medical College of Ohio, and was at once appointed its demonstrator of anatomy, a po- sition held until 1869. when he was made pro- fessor of medical chemistry. In 1874 he was given the chair of materia medica and thera- peutics. This he held until 1898, fhen lie was made professor emeritus, and retired from active teaching. He was known among the students as "dear old Sammy Nickles." His life was epitomized by his clinical as- sistant, Dr. T. W. Hays, as follows : "Atten- tion to duty, honesty, conscientiousness." In 1885 he became president of the Academy of Medicine of Cincinnati. While in active prac- tice he contributed to medical journals a great many excellent papers. He was a voluminous writer. In 1868 he translated the second Ger- man edition of Emil Siegle's "Treatment of Diseases of the Throat and Lungs." He wrote many articles for the "Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences" and for other medical periodical literature. August 8, 1858, he mar- ried Alice Bilmer, of Cincinnati, and had six children ; Mrs. Nickles died December 27, 1869. Only two children survived their father. On March 15, 1871, Dr. Nickles married Mrs. Caroline Dick Weglan, and had two more children. Dr. Nickles died April 21, 1908, the result, primarily, of an attack of influenza in the latter part of the previous January. Alexander G. Drury. Noeggerath, Emil Oscar Jacob Bruno (1827- 1895) Emil Noeggerath, pioneer gynecologist of New York, was born at Bonn, Germany, Oc- tober 5, 1827. He studied medicine in his native city from 1848 to 1852, when he re- ceived his medical degree from the University of Bonn. He studied under C. Mayer in Ber- lin, and Carl Braun in Vienna, and was an assistant of Rokitansky. For several years he was assistant to Kilian in the Bonn gyneco- logical clinic and then he emigrated to America in 1857, to establish there the teach- ings of his master and to do original work in the new specialty of diseases of women. Not being satisfied with a professorship offered him in St. Louis, he stayed in New York where he held the following positions : physician to the female department of the German Hospital; professor of obstetrics and diseases of women, New York Medical Col- lege; surgeon to the Woman's Hospital in the State of New York ; consulting surgeon to St. Mary's Hospital for Women. He was a member of the New York Academy of Medi- cine from 1861 to 1886. when he went back to Germany ; he was also corresponding sec- retary of the New York Obstetrical Society for several years. Dr. Noeggerath was one of the founders of the American Gynecological Society and at its first meeting in 1876 read his important paper, entitled "Latent Gonorrhea, especially with regard to its Influence on Fertility in Women." This article had been preceded by a paper on the same subject published in Ger- man, in Bonn, in 1872, that, as he said, "was not received very favorably by the medical press." Noeggerath maintained that "gonor- rhea in the male, as well as in the female, persists for life in certain sections of the organs of generation, notwithstanding its ap- parent cure in a great many instances," also: "About ninety per cent, of sterile women are married to husbands who have suffered from gonorrhea either previous to, or during mar- ried life." His views excited much opposition in the profession and led to an animated discussion of his paper. In closing the discussion he said : "After the gentlemen have given five years or more of careful study to this ques- tion, I shall expect to hear more approval than I have done to-day," a prophecy that was due to come true after Neisser had discovered the gonococcus in 1879, and Bumm, Sanger and Wertheim had developed the subject of gonor- rhea during the years from 1885 to 1896. The newer methods of diagnosis in gyne- cology, the use of electrolj'sis and electro- causis in treatment and the technique of ovari- otomy were subjects that engaged the atten- tion of this pioneer. He wrote partly in Ger- man and partly in English. In 1853 he de- vised the operation of epicistectomy, or the supra pubic operation on the bladder {New York Medical Journal, 1853, 3 s., vol. iv. 9-24). With Abraham Jacobi he founded the Ameri- can Journal of Obstefrics (1868), and was editor for five years.