Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/80

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lxx INTRODUCTION

and skill. In the anatomy, pathology and surgical treatment of dis- eases of the accessory sinuses of the nose, the labor of Dr. Joseph H. Bryan, of Washington, D. C, has contributed much that is valuable and new. His original researches in this branch have been important and the value of his methods for dealing with difficult cases of sinus disease without resort to external operation has been generally recognized.

For the correction of deformities of the nasal septum of a certain type Dr. Morris J. Asch, of New York, developed and perfected the idea originally suggested by Adams and furnished an easy means of securing results which before had been unattainable.

The history of instruction in laryngology in the United States is a record of rapid and brilliant progress. Recording the statements of the late Dr. Louis Elsberg ("Tranactions of American Laryngological Associations," vol. i), he himself seems to have been the first in this field. He began lecturing on laryngology in 1861, and in 1863 established a laryngological clinic in connection with the University Medical College. Dr. Elsberg claimed that this was the first public throat clinic in America and perhaps in the world. Fifteen years later there were twenty-five teachers of the specialty in the medical colleges of the United States. Meanwhile a number of men from this country had studied the new art abroad and on their return home its growth here become rapid and influential.

Laryngology was introduced into the Harvard Medical School as a part of clinical medicine. It was first taught as a special subject by Dr. H. K. Oliver, in 1866. In 1872 Dr. Frederick I. Knight was made instructor in laryngology at Harvard and established a clinic in that branch.

Dr. J. Solis-Cohen, of Philadelphia, began giving private lectures in laryngology in 1866. In 1870 he was elected lecturer on laryngology and diseases of the throat and chest in Jefferson Medical College and later was appointed full professor of laryngology.

In 1869 Dr. Woolsey Johnson was appointed clinical lecturer on laryngology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, and in 1874 was succeeded by Dr. George M. Lefferts.

Closely following these were others, including Dr. Frank Donaldson, Sr., of Baltimore, Dr. Hosmer A. Johnson of Chicago, Dr. Ernest L. Shurly of Detroit, Dr. William C. Glasgow of St. Louis, Dr. Francke H. Bosworth of New York, and Dr. Harrison Allen of Philadelphia.

These men were physicians and specialists of first rank and the instruction which they gave was of a high order of merit. Indeed the department of laryngology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, was the best organized and most perfectly equipped of its kind either in this country or in Europe. No other clinic compared