Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/960

NAME PRESTON 938 PRESTON When the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania opened in 1850, Miss Preston was one of the first applicants for admission and graduated at the first commencement in 1851-2. The winter after, she attended lec- tures at the college and in the spring accepted the chair of physiology and hygiene then vacant. At that time it was impossible for a woman to gain admission to any hospital in Philadel- phia. So highly did the managers of the Woman's Hospital value Dr. Preston's work at that time that in a report is found the following statement: "To her efforts more than to all other influences may be traced it5 very origin." She said in speaking of it, "I went to every one whom I thought would give me either money or influence." When the hospital was opened she was put on the Board and became consulting phj'sician, holding these offices until the time of her death. In 1866 Dr. Preston was elected dean of the faculty, a position she held for six years. In 1867 she wrote her ever-memorable reply to the preamble and resolutions adopted by the Philadelphia County Medical Society, to the efifect that they would neither offer encouragement to women becoming practition- ers of medicine nor meet them in consultation. This was one of her ablest literary produc- tions and so completely did she answer the arguments put forth by the society that no reply was attempted. For years Dr. Preston had looked forward with pleasure to making a home for herself and in 1864 she gathered around her a pleasant family. In 1871 she had acute articular rheumatism from which she did not completely recover, so when the college opened in the fall she resumed her usual duties with less than ac- customed vigor. Another attack made it im- possible for her to leave her room and at this time she prepared the Annual Announce- ment for the college session of 1872-73. It was the last work of her life, performed slowly and painfully, and this exertion brought on the relapse which terminated in complete nervous prostration from which she died, April 18, 1872. Both the college and hospital were remem- bered in her will, the interest of four thousand dollars being used annually to assist in the education of one good student. FR.A.NCES Preston. Address in Mem. of Ann Preston, Penn., 1873 E. E. Judson. Preston, George Junkin (1858-1908) George Junkin Preston, neurologist, was born in Lexington, Virginia, in 1858, the son of Col. J. T. L. Preston. He graduated A. B. in 1879 at Washington and Lee University and took his M. D. at the University of Pennsyl- vania in 1883. In 1894, as a member of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, he was the first to suggest the feasibility of establish- ing a State Bacteriological Department. As chairman of the Faculty Library, he did his utmost to increase its richness and utility. He made the study of the nervous system his life work, and in 1885 went abroad and studied under Charcot, and, later, worked on the subject at Leipzig. In 1889 he was pro- fessor of physiology in the Woman's Medical College, Baltimore, and in 1890 entered the Faculty of the College of Physicians and Sur- geons of Baltimore as professor of physiology and diseases of the nervous system. He also held the post of neurologist to the city. Bay- view, the Hebrew and St. Agnes' Hospitals. In all this work he labored unceasingly to better the condition of the insane and attained high rank as a neurologist, for his knowledge and work were of an intensely practical nature. He died in Baltimore on June 17, 1908. His writings included: "The Differential Diagnosis and Treatment of Multiple Neuri- tis," 1891; "The Effect of Arterio-sclerosis Upon the Central Nervous System," 1891 ; "Traumatic Lesions of the Spinal Cord," 1893; "Cerebral CEdema," 1894; and a large volume, "Hysteria and Certain Allied Conditions," 1897. Bull, of the Med. and Chir. Fac. of Maryland, 1908-1909. vol. i. Maryland Med. Jour., 1908. Preston, Jonas (1764-1836) Jonas Preston, founder of the Preston Re- treat of Philadelphia, was born January 25, 1764, at Chester, Pennsylvania. His family moved to Cantrells Bridge where his father died, when he returned with his mother to Chester, and lived there until the outbreak of the Revolution ; then they moved to Wilming- ton, Delaware. There he studied with Dr, Way and in 1784 graduated in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania. He went to Europe in 1785 and attended lectures and clinics in Edinburgh, London and Paris. Returning to America "his extreme Parisian mode of dress and address was a source of deep concern and an.xiety to his mother," who was a preacher in the Society of Friends.