Page:Biographical Memoir of John C Otto MD.djvu/8

 a highly respectable rank amongst his contemporaries, of whom were Griffiths, James, Parke, Dewees, Physick, Hewson, Chapman, Ruan, and others; and seemed destined to occupy the position which some of these gentlemen acquired, not only as a private practitioner, but as a public teacher of the science; but his extreme diffidence of his own abilities prevented him from attempting any public display. His talents were more solid than brilliant, and his tastes more consonant with the unobtrusive sphere of the private physician, than with the excitement of public station.

In the year 1798, he was elected one of the Physicians of the Philadelphia Dispensary; an institution which he faithfully served for a period of five years.

In 1802, he was married to Eliza Tod, the daughter of Alexander Tod, a highly respectable merchant of Philadelphia,—a lady in every way qualified to render his domestic relations happy and congenial. They had nine children, seven of whom survive.

In the year 1813, Dr. Rush died, and Dr. Otto was appointed to succeed him as one of the Physicians of the Pennsylvania Hospital. A better appointment, for the interests of the Hospital, could not have been made, if untiring devotion to the sick, sound medical knowledge, a matured judgment, and a deep sense of the responsibilities of the post, are to be considered as the most important requisites. Had a handsome salary awaited Dr. Otto for the services rendered the institution, instead of their being gratuitously offered, the duties could not have been more faithfully performed. In his treatment of the patients, he united tenderness with firmness, and a humane regard for their health and comfort, with that strict discipline so necessary to the good order of a large hospital.