Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/343

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RAUCH


305


RAVENEL


mouth College he first studied under his uncle, Prof. Alfred L. Loomis, in New York City, then graduated M. D. from the University of the City of New York in 1870.

Early recognizing the connection of eye strain as a cause of functional nervous disease he paid special attention to and wrote a great deal on this subject, the most important of which writings are given in the "Surgeon-general Library Catalogue" under his name.

Some of his books passed several editions and were translated into French or German. Among these is his chief work: "Essentials of Anatomy," 1880; "Applied Anatomy of the Nervous Sys- tem," 188S; "Treatise on Surgical Diag- nosis," 1884, and "Practical Medical Anatomy," 1882.

Dr. Ranney was for many years a railroad surgeon and there were few physicians more frequently on the witness stand. He was so expert a witness that Chief Justice Van Brunt said, " Any lawyer who attempts to cross- examine Dr. Ranney is a fool"; but a good instance of counsel triumphant over Ranney is given in Wellman's "Art of Cross-examination."

In 1876 he married Marie Celle, of New York City, and had two children, A. Elliott and Marie Bryan. Dr. Ranney died suddenly from heart disease in New York City, December 1, 1905.

He was adjunct professor of anatomy. University of the City of New York; president of the New York Academy of Medicine; professor of nervous and mental diseases in the University of Vermont, Medical Department.

D. W.

Jour. .\m. Med. Ass., 190.5, xlv.

N. York Med. Jour., 1905, Ixx.xii.

The Art of Cross-ex.amination, F. L. Wellnian,

1908, p. 66.

Rauch, John Henry (1828-1894).

Best known as a natural scientist,

John Henry Ranch was born in Lebanon,

Pennsylvania, September 4, 1828, and

graduated from the University of Penn-

VoL. 11-20


sylvania in 1849. He was great on the subject of sanitation, above all, the cheapest form of it — fresh air. When he settled in Burlington, Iowa, he got marine hospitals established and a large cemetery for the town. Professor Agas- siz had his help in collecting material, chiefly piscatorial, for his " Natural History of the United States," from the upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and in 1856, he largely aided in getting a bill through Congress for a geological sur- vey of Iowa, when in Venezula in 1870, he visited the mining districts to see what improvements could be made in the miners' dwellings and made a fine collec- tion of natural ol)jects for the Chicago Academy of Natural Sciences.

Rauch was president of the Iowa State Medical Society in 1858; an organizer of the Chicago College of Pharmacy ; profes- sor of materia medica in the Rush Medical College; professor of materia medica and botany in the Chicago College of Pharmacy, and served throughout the civil war as surgeon and medical director.

He found time, like most busy men, to do that to which his genius prompted him. Natural Science was his mistress. At the first meeting of the Iowa State Medical Society he gave an address on, "The Medical and Economical Botany of the State," but during the fire of 1871 his synopsis of " The Flora of the North- west," his "South American Notes" and his herliarium and valualile notes were all destroyed. He had, however, con- tributed to tlie material benefit of his countrymen by his writings on cattle and other plagues, drainage, etc.

He died in 1894.

Rep. Proc. Illinois Army and Navy M. As.s.

Springfield, 1896, vi (port.).

Tr. Illinois M. Hoc, Chicago, 1894, xliv

(port.)

Ravenel, Edmund (1797-1870).

Edmund Ravenel physician, chemist, and conchologist, was born at Charleston, South Carolina, Dec. 8, 1797, of Hugue- not lineage being descended from Rene Ravenel, Sieur de la Massais, the emi- grant.