The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Polk, William Mecklenburg

POLK, William Mecklenburg, American physician, son of Leonidas Polk, the Rebel bishop: b. Ashwood, Maury County, Tenn., 15 Aug. 1844. He was graduated at the Virginia Military Institute in 1861; served in the Confederate Army under his father and rose to the rank of captain. In 1869 he was graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, since when he has practised in New York. In 1876-79 he was professor of therapeutics at Bellerue Hospital Medical College; in 1879-98 professor of obstetrics and gynecology at New York University and since 1898 dean and professor of gynecology at Cornell University Medical College. Dr. Polk is consulting gynecologist to many hospitals in New York City.