American Medical Biographies/Parrish, Joseph (1818–1891)
Parrish, Joseph (1818–1891)
Joseph Parrish was born November 11, 1818, the son of Dr. Joseph Parrish (q. v.) and Susanna Coxe. He entered the College Department of the University of Pennsylvania, but left at the end of the freshman year and entered the Medical Department, and graduated in 1844. He began to practise in Burlington, New Jersey, but returned to his native city in 1855, and the following year took the chair of obstetrics in the Philadelphia Medical College. Resigning soon after, he went abroad until 1857, when he returned and was made superintendent of the Pennsylvania School for Feeble Minded Children at Media. At the opening of the Civil War he was connected with the U. S. Sanitary Commission, and visited hospitals and camps in the interest of supplies and hospital stores. He was also active in organizing auxiliary associations in various states. After the war he established the Maryland Sanitarium for Inebriates, near Baltimore, which he conducted for seven years. In 1875 he went back to Burlington and conducted a home for nervous patients. The energies of Dr. Parrish's life were largely devoted to the treatment and care of inebriates.
He was instrumental in founding the American Association for the Cure of Inebriates, and was its president for many years. He was vice-president of the International Congress on Inebriety in England in 1882, and was a member of many home and foreign societies. He wrote a number of papers on this subject. In 1848 he established the New Jersey Medical and Surgical Reporter, the forerunner of the Medical and Surgical Reporter of Philadelphia. During the war he edited the Sanitary Commission Bulletin.
His wife was Lydia, the daughter of Caleb Gaskill of Burlington. He died January 15, 1891.