biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1813–83)
|
| biography:
| Gynaecologist, born in Lancaster Co, South Carolina, USA. Practising in Alabama, he gained a reputation by performing difficult and unorthodox surgery, in particular for dealing with fistulas in women. He perfected his technique after 30 operations on an unanesthetized 17-year-old female slave named Anarcha (1849). His work, published in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences (1852), gained him such attention that he went to New York City (1853) where he taught his procedure to other doctors, and this led to the establishment of the New York Woman's Hospital (1857). He spent most of 1861–5 in Europe, where he performed various operations to considerable acclaim. Taking up his practice in New York City, he went to France during 1870 to perform surgery in the Franco-Prussian War. His Clinical Notes on Uterine Surgery (1866) contributed to the founding of modern gynaecology. |
|
|
