GIBBES 338
Natural History," twenty-eighth of
July, 1887.)
W. P. P.
Gibbes, Robert Wilson (1809-1866).
Robert Wilson Gibbes was born in the city of Charleston, South Carolina, on the eighth of July, 1809 and died at his home in the city of Columbia, South Carolina, on the fifteenth of October, 1866. Gibbes was descended from an English family, several branches of which settled in Barbadoes.
Gibbes graduated at the South Caro- lina College in 1827 and the following year was elected assistant professor of chemistry, geology and mineralogy. He graduated in medicine at the Med- ical College of South Carolina (Charles- ton) in 1830; and in 1834, having sev- ered his connection with the South Carolina College, entered on practice in the city of Columbia, where he es- tablished a large practice, which in later years he turned over to his son, Robert Wilson. Dr. Gibbes was often selected as delegate to the American Medical Association, and for several years was president of the Medical As- sociation of South Carolina. He had a genius for scientific pursuits and pub- lished papers in the "Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences"; in the second volume of the " Smithsonian Contributions," and in other journals. He made very large and precious collections of autographs, coins and specimens in pakeontology, geology, mineralogy and conchology, and his collection of fossils of South Caro- lina was important, as illustrative of the tertiary formation. He devoted much attention to the subject of orni- thology. Apart from his medical and scientific papers, Dr. Gibbes made other publications of value, including a " Documentary History of the American Revolution" (three volumes, 1853), a "Memoir of DeVeaux," a young South Carolina artist of promise, and a vol- ume entitled "Cuba for Invalids" (1860). In 1852-60 he edited the
GIBSON
"Daily South Carolinian." During the Civil War Dr. Gibbes was surgeon- general of South Carolina, and twice held the office of mayor of Columbia. He married Caroline Elizabeth Guig- nard and left a large family. His son, Dr. Robert Wilson, became a doctor in Columbia, South Carolina, also his grand-son, Dr. Robert Waller Gibbes, practised in the same city.
The following is a partial list of the societies in which he held membership: American Association for the Advance- ment of Science, New York Historical Society, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, of Copenhagen, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.
R. W., Jr.
Gibson, Charles Bell, M. D. (1815-1865).
This surgeon was born in Baltimore, Maryland about 1815, the son of Dr. William Gibson, professor of surgery in the University of Pennsylvania, and Sally Hollinsworth of Baltimore. He was named after his father's pre- ceptor, Sir Charles Bell.
His professional education was received at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1836, the subject of his thesis being "Apoplexy."
In 1848 he was elected professor of surgery in the medical department of Hampden-Sidney College, now the Med- ical College of Virginia. In 1861 Gov. Letcher appointed him surgeon-general of the state of Virginia, which posi- tion he held until the military affairs of the state were merged into those of the southern confederacy.
Dr. Gibson was a noted and skill- ful surgeon and a teacher of marked ability. He was one of the first in Vir- ginia to make use of anesthetics, and in 1848 reported five cases of the suc- cessful employment of chloroform or ether, the former being used in three cases and the latter in two ("Trans- actions American Medical Association," vol. i). In 1851 he was one of a committee of the Medical Society of
