Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/761

MC DOWELL 739 MC DOWELL McDowell published an account of it. In 1816 he prepared a brief account of his first three cases, a copy of which he forwarded to his old preceptor, John Bell, who was then travel- ling on the Continent for his health, and had left his professional correspondence in the charge of Mr. John Lizars. The communica- tion failed to reach Mr. Bell, and another copy of the report was forwarded by McDowell to Philadelphia for publication. The report ap- peared in the Eclectic Repertory and Analytical Review for October, 1816. Two additional cases completed this report, all three patients making complete and prompt recovery. Three years later (October. 1819) McDowell reported in the same journal two more cases.- It will be observed that seven years elapsed from the time he first operated until he made his publication, when he was enabled to add two more successful cases. That so long a time should have been allowed to elapse was most probably due to the surgeon's natural aversion to writing. Perhaps the man- ner in which this report was made did much to provoke the criticism with which it was received. Dr. James Johnson, the very learned editor of the London M cdico-Chiriirgical Re- view, was especially severe and satirical in his criticisms. How many limes during his career Mc- Dowell performci ovariotomy is not now cer- tainly known. Dr. J. D. Jackson (q. v.) re- ports him to have made a long horseback jour- ney in 1822 of some hundreds of miles into middle Tennessee, to do an ovariotomy (suc- cessful) upon Mrs. Overton, who lived near the Hermitage, President Jackson's house. The only assistants he had were Gen. Jack- son and a Mrs. Priestly. The former seems to have been greatly pleased with McDowell, and took him to his house as guest. Dr. William A. McDowell (q. v.), for five years his uncle's pupil and two years his partner, tells us that up to 1820 his uncle had done seven ovariotomies, six of which he witnessed, and that six of the seven were successful. Dr. Alban G. Smith succeeded Dr. William A. McDowell as partner of Dr. Ephraim McDowell, and while with him Dr. Smith himself twice performed ovariotomy. The younger McDowell states later that he knew of his uncle having during his career operated thirteen times, exclusive of the two cases Dr. Smith operated upon, and of the thirteen eight recovered. McDowell first operated in 1809; in July, 1821, Dr. Nathan Smith (q. v.), professor of surgery in Yale College, per- formed ovariotomy at Norwich, Connecticut. Dr. Smith had never heard of McDowell's work and operated in an entirely original way. Dr. Alban G. Smith, previously men- tioned, reported his first operation (May 23, 1823) in the North American Medical and Surgical Journal, for January, 1826. When we think of one living on the border of Western civilization, in a little town of five hundred inhabitants, far removed from the opportunity of consultation with anyone whose opinion might be of value, and nearly a thousand miles from the nearest hospital or dissecting room, performing a new and untried operation of such magnitude upon the living, before the days of anesthesia, with a full sense of the responsibility and danger, without skilled assistants, our admiration for McDowell's courage and skill rises to its full height. He possessed an excellent medical library for his day and locality, and was in the habit of purchasing most of the principal new works on medicine. While having a fair knowledge of the classics he gave most of his professional leisure to history and belles-lettres. At the age of thirty-one. Dr. McDowell married Sarah, the daughter of Kentucky's famous "war governor," Isaac Shelby, with whom he lived happily, and had a family of six children, two sons, and four daughters, only three of these surviving him. Mrs. Mc- Dowell was his survivor by ten years. In the later years of his life he removed from the village to a country home, where he spent the later years of his Hfe, still continuing his professional work. He died on the twentieth day of June, 1830, after a brief illness. Careful reflection upon the operative methods- of the "Father of Ovariotomy," as I have endeavored to portray them, will demonstrate that, except as to asepsis, but little improve- ment has been made upon his methods as originally conceived and carried out. Lewis Samuel McMurtry. Gross, S. p. Origin of ovariotomy; brief sketch of the life and services of the late Ephraim McDowell. Tr. Ky. Med. Soc, 1852, Louis- ville, 1853, ii. Gross. S. D. Memorial oration in honor of Eph. McDowell, "the father of ovariotomy," Louis- ville. 1879. Chesney, J. P. Interesting incidents in the pri- vate life of Eph. McDowell. Cincin. Med. Re- port, 1870. iii. Dedication of the monument to Ephraim Mc- Dowell. Cincin. Lancet and Clinic, 1879, n. s., ii. Gross. S. D. Biography of Ephraim McDowell in his "Lives of Eminent American Physicians," Phila., 1861. Jackson, J. D. Biographical sketch of Ephraim McDowell. Richmond and Louisville Med. Jour., Louisville. 1873, xvi. Portrait. Letcher, T. H. Memoir of Ephraim McDowell. Tr. McDowell Med. Soc, Evansville, Ind., 1875. McMurtrv. L. S. Necrology. Tr. Amer. Med. Assoc, Phila., 1878, xxix.