Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/907

NAME PARKER 885 PARKES Parkei-, William W. (1824-1899) At Port Royal, Caroline County, Virginia, on May S, 1824, William Parker was born. His early education was obtained at Richmond Academy, his medical at the Medical College of Virginia, from which he graduated in 1848, afterwards settling down to practice in Rich- mond, Virginia. He was a member of th-; Richmond Academy of Medicine and of the Medical Society of Virginia. In the Civil War he was captain and, later, major of artillery in the Confederate States Army; he was the founder of the Magdalen Home in Richmond; the Old Ladies' Home, and the Home for Foundlings. He served a term as president of the Academy of Medi- cine, and was elected president of the Med- ical Society of Virginia in 1890. A contemporary says of him that "he was one of the most unique figures in the profes- sion. He always rode on horseback and did an enormous practice, chiefly among the poor people in moderate circumstances ; and per- haps no man ever did so much work for humanity in Richmond for such poor remuner- ation. A man of great courage, both physical and moral, he served his country during the Civil War as commander of Parker's Battery of Artillery, winning great distinction by his daring and bravery as an officer. It has been told of him by old war comrades that after hard battles lasting all day, he was wont to lay off his coat and roll up his sleeves and work all night as a surgeon. From an early period in his life he was an ardent and consistent Christian, carrying the same enthusiasm into his church as he did upon the field of battle. He possessed, too, a well-equipped and well-stored mind, t.i which was added the fiery enthusiasm of youth. Dr. Parker married in January, 1862, Ellen J. Jordan, and had three sons and three daugh- ters. One of his sons, Dr. William W. Parker, became a physician in Richmond. The father died at his home in Richmond, on August 5, 1899. He was a prolific writer for the newspapers on whatever subject was at the time of publi? interest, and contributed some papers to the Medical Society of Virginia and some to the journals. Robert M. Sl.ughter. Dr. J. N. Upshur's Medical Reminiscences of Richmond, V'a. Trans. Med. Soc. of Va., 1899. Virginia Med. Semi-Month., Rich., 1S99-1900. vol. iv, 290. Parkes, Charles Theodore (1842-1891) Charles T. Parkes had remarkable success as a teacher of anatomy, and a clear and concise method of demonstration which not only excited enthusiasm and love in all his students, but gained for him a wide reputation. He was born August 19, 1842. at Troy, New York, the youngest of ten children. His father, Joseph Parkes, an Englishman by birth, moved to Chicago in 18o0. At that time the son was a student in the University of Michigan, where he afterwards received his A. M. He enlisted in the army in 1862 as a private and was discharged three years later as captain. At the close of the war he returned to Chi- cago, and began to study medicine under Br. Rae, pro.fessor of anatomy in Rush Medical College. He graduated from this college in 1868, and was at once appointed demonstrator of anatomy, a position he held until his ap- pointment as professor of anatomy in 1875. His specialty was abdominal surgery, in which lie was a pioneer investigator. The first to advocate uniting severed intestines, he in this antedated N. Senn (q.v.) and J. B. Murphy (q. V.) For the purpose of gaining a better knowledge of both the consequences and treat- ment of gunshot wounds of the intestine he made a series of experiments on forty dogs. The number of recoveries astounded the medi- cal profession and led to further experiments in all parts of the world. He made his first report at a meeting of the American Medical Association in Washington, 1884. He took with him three specimens of intestine and a living dog from which he had removed five feet of intestine perforated by bullet wounds. His work in the surgery of the gall-bladder, which was then in its infancy, was no less conspicuous in influencing new lines of treat- ment. Preceding Parkes' operations, there were not twenty-five ideal cholecystotomies. Always a student, he read much, loved old books and also kept in touch with the con- tinental medical schools. For several years before his death he had been accumulating material for works on general and abdominal surgery, but his sudden death stopped the writing. The works he left were published under "Clinical Lectures," but there were some fifty or more besides those that appeared in the current medical journals. Of these a partial list can be seen in "Distinguished Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago," F. M. Sperry, 1904. He married, in 1868, Isabella J. Gonterman and had two children, Charles Herbert and Irene Edna. The son, like his father, becam?