Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/906

NAME PARKER 884 PARKER borough, in southern New Hampshire, Septem- ber 2, 1800. When he was live years old his parents moved to Chelmsford, Massachusetts, where their ancestors had settled early in 1600, and there the boy worked on the farm, taught school, and with his own earnings paid his way to and through Harvard College, gradu- ating A. B. in 1826. It is related that he had intended to study for the ministry, but was so much impressed with the skill of Dr. John C. Warren (q. v.), who diagnosed and reduced a strangulated hernia in Parker's roommate, that he decided to study medicine. He received an appointment as interne at the Marine Hos- pital in Chelsea, getting the munificent sum of thirteen dollars a month for his services dur- ing the two years he remained. Harvard gave him an M. D. in 1830 and the Berkshire Medi- cal Institution the same in 1831. His teaching of surgery began at once, for we find him hold- ing these appointments, which give a variety of experience : Professor of anatomy and surgery in Colby University, Me., 1830-1833; professor of surgery, Berkshire Medical Institution, 1833-1836; professor of anatomy, Geneva, 1834-1836; professor of surgery, Cincinnati, 1836-1837; finally professor of the principles and practice of surgery. College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, 1839-1869. In 1856 he was appointed surgeon to the New York Hospital. As an operator Dr. Parker was rated as most successful. He was ambidextrous, and even until the last operated without the aid of glasses. There are two operations which Dr. Parker may be said to have originated, cystotomy, for irritable blad- der, first done at the Bellevue Hospital, New York, in 1850, and the operation for peri- typhilitic abscess, in 1864. Parker was not aware that Mr. Hancock, of London, had done the same operation successfully in 1848. It h curious that Parker's reasoning in favor of the operation was -exactly the same as Han- cock's. He tied the subclavian artery five times, once performing the operation within the scaleni muscles, also taking the precaution to apply a ligature to the common carotid and right vertebral arteries for the first time in this country. As a lecturer Dr. Parker had a way of choosing the important from a mass of unim- portant details, and by means of apt illustra- tions coupled with a fine personal presence and a courteous and afifable manner won the at- tention and regard of his pupils. He loved to teach. Lyman Abbott says of him (Rem- iniscences, 1915, page 68) : "He was an earnest Christian man and as much interested in pre- serving health as in curing disease. He was in this respect in advance of his times. He impressed me with the truth that the laws of health are as much the laws of God as are the Ten Commandments, and that it is as truly a sin to violate the laws of health as to violate the Ten Commandments." One of Parker's special claims to public esteem was his untiring work for public hy- giene and temperance. When Valentine Mott died in 1865, he became president of the New York State Inebriate Asylum. He resigned active practice and lecturing in 1870, and was made emeritus professor of surgery. Princeton College gave him her LL. D. that same year. He did not write much, except articles for the medical journals, and these included: "Cases of Extensive Encephaloid Degeneratio!i of Kidneys in Children;" "Some Rare Forms of Dislocation ;" "Trephining the Cranium and Ligature of the Carotid in Epilepsy and Cure ;" "Practical Remarks on Concussion of the Nerves;" "Ligature of Subclavian Artery for Axillary and Subclavian .Aneurj-sm ;" "Liga- ture of the Subclavian Inside the Scalenus to- gether with Common Carotid and Vertebral Arteries for Subclavian Aneurysm." On the establishment of St. Luke's, the Roosevelt and the Mt. Sinai Hospitals he be- came one of the consulting surgeons and was for many years a most active member of the Pathological Society, and he was president of the Academy of Medicine in 1856. He may be said to have died in harness, for although prevented from working by physical suffering from pyelitis during the last two years of his life, he was frequently consulted by old patients and professional friends. His death occurred from cerebral hemorrhage at his home in New York, April 25, 1884.* The Wil- lard Parker Hospital for Contagious Diseases in New York was erected and named in his honor and his library of over 4,000 volumes, especially rich in early American medical works, was presented to the library of the Medical Society of the County of Kings by his son in 1906. Distinffuislied Living New York Surgeons. Dr. S. W. Francis. K. Y., 1866, 141-158. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 1884, vol. ex. Med. News, Phila., 1884, vol. xliv. Med, Rec.. New York. 1S84. vol. xxv. Med. and Surg. Reporter, Pliila., 1865, vol. xiii. New York Med. Jour., 1884. vol. xxxix. Trans. Amer Surg. Assoc, 1884, Phila., 1885. Trans. Med. See, New York, Syracuse, 188S, V. H. Draper. Long Island Med. Jour., 1907, 122-124. There is a portrait in the Surg, gen.'s lib., Wash- ington, D. C.