Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/169

This page needs to be proofread.

MARCH


York, on anatomy, with demonstrations and dissections of the recent subject. They were delivered to a class of fourteen students, in the fall of 1821. "The first subjects." he says, "ever dissected for pubhc demonstration, to the medical stu- dents in Albany, I procured from Boston, by what might now be called the over- land route, by horse power across the Green Mountains, for you will please bear in mind there was no raih'oad communi- cation at this time. It was then that I prepared arterial anatomical specimens, and formed the nucleus of the museum of the Albany Medical College."

In 1834 he estabUshed a Practical School for Anatomy and Surgery, the Albany Medical School being broken up by a dis- astrous fire which destroyed the building, and with it much of March's valuable ana- tomical and pathological preparations.

When the Albany Medical College was established in 1838, through March's ef- forts he was appointed professor of sur- gery, giving his first course of lectures the ensuing year, 1839, and remaining pro- fessor of surgery until his death, a period of thirty-one years.

Although the establishment of surgical clinics has been claimed by another city, yet it is believed Albany was the first to inaugurate this mode of imparting medical instruction ; and the honor should be conceded to Dr. March as the first to organize them in this country.

His appointments included: 1825, pro- fessor of anatomy, Vermont Academy of Medicine, Castleton; 1827, professor of anatomy, Albany Medical Seminary;

1833, professor of anatomy and opera- tive surgery, Albany Medical School;

1834, professor of surgery, Albany Medical College; 1832 and 1833, president of the Albany County Medical Society; 1857, president of the New York State Medical Society; 1864, president of the American Medical Association, and one of its founders. Honorary member of the Mas- sachusetts State Medical Society, the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, the Connecticut State Medical Society, and the Rhode Island State Medical Society.


147 MARCH

The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by Williams College in 1868; 1869, honorary member of the "Institut des Archivistes de France."

His writings included:

1821, "Upon Dissection of the Human Body."

1834, " Surgical Cases, and Reports of Some of the More Important Surgical Operations."

1849, "Description of Malgaigne's In- strument for Maintaining Apposition in Those Oblique Fractures of the Tibia, in which the Superior Fragment obstinately Tends to Overlap the Inferior," which was published in the "Transactions of the American Medical As.sociation."

1852, Paper on "Strangulated Hernia and Reducible," published in the " West- ern Lancet."

1853, "An essay on Morbus Coxarius or Dip-disease, and Report of Investi- gations." Published in "Transactions of the American Medical Association."

1853, " Report of a Case of Backward Dislocation of the Astragalus."

1854, Paper on "Penetrating Wounds of the Abdomen with Punctured Wounds of the Intestines. Penetrating Wounds of the Larynx, and Their Treatment, with Cases for Illustration, and Their Medico- Legal Aspect."

1854, " Report of an Operation for Ex- tirpation of Tumor from the Neck."

1854, " On Clinical Surgery."

1855, " On Improved Forceps for Hare- lip operation."

1856, "On Four Months in Europe." 1856, "On Encysted Osseous Tumors." 1858, " On Intra-capsular Fracture of

the Cervix Femoris, with Bony Union."

1861, "Report of a Case of Compound Comminuted and CompUcated Fracture of the Upper Part of Tibia."

1867, "Essay on an Unusual Place of Lodgment and Exit of Biliary Calculus."

1867, "Essay on New Method Employ- ed in Removing Urinary Calculi."

1867, "Essay on the Relations of the Periosteum to Osteogenesis."

Nearly all these essays and reports were read by him before the New York State