Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/578

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HORNER 556 HORNER the United States army. In the following Sep- tember he was attached to the ninth Military District north of the Highlands, New York. Jackson gives an interesting picture of Hor- ner at this period: "Let us pause and survey his position at this time. He had just reached his twentieth year, of slender form (his weight about one hundred pounds), his pay, some thirty or forty dollars per month, and rations. He has donned his uniform, made after the regulation of the surgeon and physician-general. Dr. James Tilton (q. v.), of Delaware. Whatever may have been the professional excellences of the surgeon and physician-general, his sartorial qualifications were not very brilliant. The dress was coal-black, which, from the readi- ness it shows dirt, was found in the service of llie hospital and camp the most imfit that could have been selected. "The coat was single-breasted, with stand- ing collar, a gold star on each side, short- waisted and pigeon-tailed ; the nether garments were tight. Picture the slight frame of the new-fledged surgeon's mate thus arrayed. "At first it was thought very fine, but it was soon found to attract an attention in the streets that did not consist of admiration ; and when he arrived in camp it had acquired for the surgeons, from their fellow-officers and soldiers, the soubriquet of "Crows." In a short time, the off-spring of the physician and surgeon-general proved an abortion. The surgeons, in disgust, threw it aside, and each dressed after his own fashion." Horner joined the army on tlie Niagara frontier September 25, 1813. He at once had orders to take charge of the transportation of seventy-three invalids from Lewistown to Greenbush. There was considerable difficulty in transportation, and while on the Mohawk near Little Falls the boats used in transport- ing the invalids grounded. After delivering up his command at Green- bush, Horner went to Philadelphia, attended the medical course at the University during the winter and graduated in April, 1814. He then returned to the Niagara frontier as sur- geon. He had severe experiences during the campaign, for the attack on Fort Erie, on the fourth of July, and battle of "Chippewa," on the fifteenth, filled the wards of the hos- pital with wounded. Between sixty and seven- ty fell to the share of Dr. Horner. The bat- tle of Bridgewater, on the twenty-fifth of July, in which the British were defeated, swelled his list to one hundred and seventy- five wounded and sick. Notwithstanding his incessant occupation with very inadequate assistance in dressing the wounded and prescribing for the sick, he kept notes and records of his cases, many of them of great interest. The results were published in the Medical Examiner in 1852. After the conclusion of peace, Horner re- signed from the army and went to Warren- ton, Virginia, where he practised for a short time. He soon tired of this. "Flesh and blood," he writes, "could stand it no longer; often have I paced with rapid and disordered steps my little office, agitating in the most pain- ful state of mind my future fortunes." After some indecision as to what to do, Hor- ner finally decided to remove to Philadelphia. He had received a small legacy from his grand- mother, which he converted into cash before he left. On arriving in Philadelphia in the winter of 1815-16 he attended lectures at the university and devoted much time to reading works on medicine and to dissection. His en- thusiasm for anatomy had meanwhile attracted the attention of Caspar Wistar (q. v.), at that time professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania. In March, 1816, Wistar ofltered Horner the position of dissector, at a salary of five hundred dollars. The offer was at once accepted. The connection formed with Wistar ripened into personal friendship and warm regard. On the death of Wistar in 1818, John Syng Dorsey (q. v.), nephew of Philip Physick (q. v.), was appointed to the chair of anatomy. Dorsey appointed Horner as his demonstrator and placed the dissecting class with all its emoluments in his hands. Dorsey died soon after his appointment and the chair of anatomy passed to Dr. Physick. Physick continued Horner as demonstrator on liberal terms, and in 1820 he was made adjunct professor of anatomy and appointed professor when Dr. Physick resigned in 1831. In 1820 Horner married Elizabeth Welsh of Philadelphia, and his family life was very happy. He devoted himself closely to his teach- ing, to the development of the museum of anatomy, started by Wistar, and to scientific study. He also established a medical practice of considerable magnitude, and was a success- ful surgeon. During the cholera invasion of 1832, Horner was made a member of the Sani- tary Board of the city. He made a special study of the lesions produced by cholera in the mucosa of the intestines and showed by means of microscopic study of specimens in- jected with water that especially severe in-