Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/927

PEPPER the same subject at the Jayne Street Medical Institute. He was assistant to (q. v.) at the Pennsylvania Hospital, and in 1868 contributed to the Hospital Reports a paper on "Retroversion of the Womb, Complicated by a Large Fibroid." He was a manager of the Philadelphia "Lying-in and Nurse Charity" in 1866.

He was largely responsible for the founding of the Philadelphia Obstetrical Society (1868), was its first secretary and was elected annually until he resigned because of his long illness. Two papers contributed to the Transactions were: "Adipose Deposits in the Omentum and Abdominal Walls of Women as a Source of Error in Diagnosis" and "The Mechanical Treatment of Displacements of the Unpregnant Uterus."

"Had it not been for his untimely death. He would have become as famous in obstetrics and gynecology as his brother, William Pepper, was in other lines, for he possessed the same remarkable executive and mental abilities and the same tireless industry that is called genius." (American Journal of Obstetrics, 1918, lxxviii, 602).

He had suffered from attacks of pleurisy and nephritis, and in the spring of 1871 had typhoid fever; in the autumn an inflammation of the left lung developed, and after being ill ten months, he died at Chestnut Hill, September 14, 1872, and was buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery.

George Wharton Pepper, distinguished lawyer of Philadelphia, was his son.



Pepper, William (1810–1864)

William Pepper, writer and eminent teacher, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 21, 1810. When a lad of nine years he was sent to a boarding school at Holmesburg and from, there went to Princeton University, where he graduated with the highest honors in 1828. He began to study medicine under (q. v.), then entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1829, graduating M. D. in 1832, with a thesis on "Apoplexy."

In the summer of 1832 Asiatic cholera appeared in Philadelphia, and hospitals were established in different parts of the city; Pepper gave valuable service at the hospital at Bush Hill. In the autumn of 1832 he went to Europe, remaining there two years in study, in Paris under Louis and Dupuytren.

In 1834 he returned to Philadelphia and began to practise, as well as to take charge for three years of one of the districts of the Philadelphia Dispensary. In 1839 he became a physician to the Wills Eye Hospital, and in 1841 a physician to the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind. In 1842 he was elected a visiting physician to the Pennsylvania Hospital, resigning in 1858, because of ill health and of his other engagements. He became professor of the theory and practice of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 1860, succeeding (q. v.). "As a didactic lecturer, he was clear, concise, and yet complete". . . Thoroughly familiar with medical literature, he had also studied disease in the great book of nature, at the bedside in private practice and in the wards of the hospitals." (Kirkbride.)

He contributed largely to medical journals and Kirkbride says that his writings were "distinguished by brevity, clearness of expression, and an eminently practical character," naming among his important writings: "Chronic Hydrocephalus" (1850); "Scrofulous Inflammation of the Lungs and Pulmonary Condensation" (1852); "Poisonous Effects Produced by Pork"; "Cases of Diseased Gall-Bladder." Henry in his "Standard History of the Medical Profession in Philadelphia" (1897) calls attention to an article by Pepper on "Pleuritic Effusions" as "among the best contributions to this important subject that can be found in medical literature."

Pepper was a member of the Philadelphia Medical Society; the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences; and was a Fellow of the College of Physicians.

In 1840 he married Sarah, daughter of William Platt; they had seven children, two of whom were physicians, (q. v.) and  (q. v.). Dr. Pepper had a slight cough for years and suffered also from attacks of dyspnea. An acute bronchitis followed what seemed to be improvement; hemorrhage occurred and he died on October 15, 1864.



Pepper, William (1843–1898)

The establishment of the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, a re-organization of the medical curriculum of the University and the founding of a great commercial museum and free library are deeds whose fruit