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ology and Anatomy" which went through three editions, the first systematical treatise published this side of the Atlantic.
In 1S40 Gross was called to the chair of surgery in Louisville University and his sixteen years (with the exception of one winter) passed in Louisville were the happiest of his life, though every year brought increasing work and increasing desire to write. It was with real regret in 1S56 he set out to Philadelphia to become professor of surgery in the Jefferson Medical Col- lege, but his welcome comforted him and he conceived it an honor to be lecturing where twenty-eight years be- fore he had been a student. " While at Louisville," he writes, "among my earliest contributions to the ' Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery' was an account of a case of axillary aneu- rysm for which I had tied the sub- clavian artery. My case was almost unique, only one similar having oc- curred previously. In 1852 sent to the ' Philadelphia Medical Examiner ' a short account of the use of adhesive plaster in the treatment of fractures in which I proved I had been the first to de- scribe the method in my work on ' Dis- eases of the Bones and Joints' (1830). The method had been claimed by a number of physicians. It was first practised by my old preceptor Dr. Joseph K. Swift of Easton." An amusing story is told by a contempor- ary who, when a student at Jefferson Medical College, heard Gross lecture on Lister's theory and germs, which he always called "cocci." He lectured for a week and at the conclusion said: "Gentlemen, I have given you this course because the trustees require it, but my opinion is ' tain't worth a damn."
In Philadelphia there was little lei- sure, yet he edited with Dr. Richard- son the "North American Medico- Chirurgical Review;" prepared with Dr. Da Costa a third edition of the "Pathological Anatomy" and was hard at work on his "System of Surgery"
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which appeared in 1859. "I generally spent from five to eight hours a day on my manuscript, subject to tiresome interruption. I wrote with facility, as my knowledge of the subject from long study, practice and contemplation was extensive and in the main, accurate." In 1870 it had passed four editions, the last stereotyped for 6,000 copies. "What compensation" asks the au- thor "did I obtain for this hard work, this excessive toil of my brain includ- ing original composition, the correct it n and improvement of new editions, and the proof-reading, in itself a horrible task, death to brain and eyes, extend- ing over a period of not less than fifteen years? Eighty-five cents a copy all told and no extra dividends!" In 1863 the work was translated into Dutch.
In the winter of 1883 it was clearly seen that a too strenuous life was tell- ing on his health. There was not only dyspepsia but evidence of a fatty heart. He hoped to take part in the meeting of the American Surgical Association in Washington May, 1884, but even while that same association was plan- ning a letter of condolence on his ill- ness the good doctor was passing away and the telegram arrived shortly after his death, a death which completed his desire of not outliving capability for work and usefulness.
His appointments, memberships and writings were many, and among them besides those already named is found: membership of the Vienna Imperial Medical Society; Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, London; Medico- Chirurgical Society, Edinburgh; Med- ical Society of London; British Medical Association; one of the founders and early presidents of the Kentucky State Medical Society; co-founder and first president of the Philadelphia Patholog- ical Society; president of the Philadel- phia State Medical Society; honorary D. C. L., Oxford; LL. D., Cambridge.
His writings included also:
"An Experimental and Critical In- quiry into the Nature and Treatment
