Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/984

NAME REA 962 REAMY He died March 7, 1915, following a posteric gastroenterostomy performed for duodenal ulcer. Long Island Med. Jour. 1915, vol. i.x, pp. 227-229. Portrait. Data froin Dr. J. D. Rushinore. Rea, Robert Laughlin (1827-1899). Robert Laughlin Rea, a Chicago surgeon, was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on July 1, 1827. Until fifteen he had a scanty education, which was followed by farm work in Fayette County, Indiana, and five years as a teacher. He afterwards studied medicine under Dr. W. P. Kitchen, and in 18SS gradu- ated at the medical college of Ohio, Cincin- nati, although, degrecless, he had previously practised for four years at Oxford, Ohio. He occupied the positions of demonstrator of anatomy in his alma mater; physician to the Commercial Hospital, Cincinnati; for si.xteeu years (after 1859) professor of anatomy. Rush Medical College, Chicago ; professor in the Chicago Medical College, and in 1882, pro- fessor of surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons (Chicago), of which he was a co-founder. During the war of the RebelHon he served as surgeon in the Federal ranks. "Surgery was his choice in practice and his knowledge of anatomy made him a skilful and dexterous operator. He seized upon all the rapidly increasing innovations in surgery and adopted them." In 1851 he married Adeline Tuttle of Fay- ette County, Indiana, and in 1874 Nellie R. Manlove, of Indianapolis. At his death he made provision for the endowment of the Rea professorshif* of anatomy in the North- western University and gave $5,0(X) to the College of Physicians and Surgeons. His death, from a complication of cerebral and kidney disorders, occurred on July 10, 1899. Disting. Phys. and Surgs. F. M. Sperry, Chicago, 1904. Phys. and Surgs. of U. S. W. B. .tkinson, 1878. Reamy, Thaddeus Asbury (1829-1909). Thaddeus Asbury Reamy was born in Fred- erick County, Virginia, April 23, 1829. His father, Jacob A., was of Huguenot extraction, his mother, Mary W. Bonifield Reamy, of Scotch and English, They were natives of Virginia, but migrated to Muskingum County, Ohio, in 1832 Here Reamy, the first of eleven children, was brought up on a farm and re- ceived a rudimentary education at the district school. As soon as he became of age he taught school himself and, as opportunity af- forded, completed his education. He com- menced the study of medicine under Dr. D. L. Crist, and in 1854, after attendance upon two courses of lectures, obtained his M. D. from the Starling Medical College. He practised medicine at Zanesville until 1871, when he moved to Cincinnati. The honors conferred upon him, and the work he did, indicate the character of the man. With no advantages other than those of nature's endowment, such as a powerful and versatile mentality, a rugged physical or- ganism and a magnetic and winning address, he rose by his own efforts, and often against active opposition, to the highest honors of his profession. He was one of our pioneers, and did good work. A self-made man and possess- ing the self-reliance and resourceful qualities of such men, he held the first obstetric clinic ever held in a college amphitheater in this country. His extensive knowledge,, felicity of expression, quickness at repartee, and will- ingness to fight for his convictions caused him to be feared. In his days there was no out-door obstetrical clinic and lying-in hospital connected with the Cincinnati Medical College, and Reamy had two or three rooms established in the rear of his amphitheater.. He, too, introduced into that city the study of pregnancy, labor and confinement in the living human female, in an amphitheater. He was invited to join the American Gyne- cological Society in 1877, the year after its foundation, and took an active and prominent part in its deliberations, until prevented by advancing age and infirmity. He was vice- president in 1881, president in 1886, and was placed on the list of honorary members in 1907, at the age of seventy-eight years. The degree of A. M. was awarded him by tha Ohio VVesleyan University in 1870, that of LL. D. by Cornell in 1890. He was pro- fessor of materia medica and therapeutics in Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery from 1858 to 1860. He was surgeon to the Thirteenth Provost Marshall District of Ohio in 1863 ; professor of diseases of women and children in Starling Medical College from 1864 to 1871 : professor of obstetrics, clinical midwifery and diseases of children, in the • Medical College of Ohio, from 1871 to 1888, when he became professor of clinical gynec- ology. He was also obstetrician and surgeon to the Good Samaritan Hospital, and con- sulting surgeon to Christ's Hospital. He was an ex-president of the Ohio State Medical Society; of the Cincinnati .'cademy of Medi- cine; member of the Southern Surgical and