Page:Biographical Memoir of John C Otto MD.djvu/9

 There was nothing rough or austere in his manners, and the poorest and most destitute often found, in their physician, a kind and sympathizing friend. The caste of his mind and the goodness of his heart, seemed to qualify him especially for the treatment of the insane, who, under the old regulations of the Hospital, were committed to the charge of the attending physician. He took a warm interest in the maladies of this deeply-afflicted class of patients, and devoted much time to the study and investigation of their diseases.

The vast improvements which modern science has introduced for the treatment of diseases of the mind, were heartily embraced by Dr. Otto; and, so far as his influence extended, he gave them his support. Unlike some of the veterans of our profession, whose dread of the spirit of innovation leads them to look with suspicion upon every thing new, he was open to the investigation of such novel facts and suggestions as are constantly presented in the advance of our science, and formed his conclusions of their value upon rational principles. In no department of medicine has modern inquiry been more successfully prosecuted than in the study of insanity; and to the humane mind of Dr. Otto, it must have been a source of peculiar pleasure to observe, that as he was passing from the stage of action, new light was breaking upon this obscure subject, and methods of treatment were instituted more consonant with reason and humanity than those which had prevailed in the earlier periods of his career.

Dr. Otto held the situation of Physician to the Pennsylvania Hospital during a period of twenty-two years.

At his resignation in 1835, the Board of Managers, deeply impressed with the valuable services which he had rendered the institution, adopted the following minute:

"A communication was received from Dr. John C. Otto, resigning the station of Attending Physician, after more than