American Medical Biographies/Brickell, Daniel Warren
Brickell, Daniel Warren (1824–1881)
D. W. Brickell, gynecologist, was born in Columbia, South Carolina, October, 1824, of Huguenot, German and Irish extraction. In 1844 he prepared to enter Yale but determining to study medicine, matriculated at the University of Pennsylvania under the private tutorship of Gerhard and received his diploma in 1847. He made a special study of gynecology, but applied for admission to the United States Navy, passing second among forty applicants. There being no vacancy for foreign service and having been assigned to duty at Pensacola, he resigned his commission as assistant surgeon and began to practise medicine in New Orleans in 1848. Teaching private classes in the Charity Hospital, he soon became known and was offered the professorial chair which he so long adorned. With Fenner, Choppin, Peniston, Picton, Axson and others he organized the New Orleans School of Medicine. He was editor of the New Orleans Medical News and Hospital Gazette, Southern Journal of Medical Sciences. He was clinical teacher of the diseases of females, and lecturer on obstetrics in Bellevue. In 1862 he was a member of the committee of safety and did what he could for the defense of the city; on its surrender he entered the service of the confederacy and served in field and hospital until the close of the conflict. In 1873 Bellevue tendered him the chair of obstetrics, which after a short while he resigned, returning to the home of his affection and there he remained until his death in December, 1881.
A wise, cautious conservative physician. A bold, dextrous and self-reliant surgeon, as lecturer, clear, cogent and terse; a successful journalist. In every phase of his multiform character, a valuable member of society.