VANCE
460
VANCE
the sacrifice he incurred from loss of
practice must have been considerable.
He did some good writing too, translat-
ing Bernard and Huette's "Operative
Surgery" and Morel's "Histology," and
writing on "Diseases of the Rectum."
With his assistant. Dr. Keyes, he made
an exhaustive treatise on " Diseases of
the Genito-urinary Organs:" a valuable
paper on "Aneurysms" attracted some
attention and an erudite article on
"Inflammation," in the "International
Encyclopedia of Surgery" also came from
him.
In 1842 he married the daughter of Valentine Mott.
Abridged from Autobiography of Dr. S. D.
Gross.
Distinguished living New York Surgeons,
S. W. Francis.
Vance, Reuben Aleshire (1845-1894).
A physician and surgeon of Cleveland, Ohio, he was born in Gallipolis, Ohio, August 18, 1845. His father, Alexander, was of Virginia extraction, his mother, Eliza Shepard, of Puritan, and this combination produced a character unique and striking. The son was educated in the schools of Gallipolis and in the Gallia Academy, and even while a lad was pre- cocious. At the age of nine he was an expert typesetter, and when the Civil War burst upon the land, at the age of sixteen he enlisted as a private in the Fourth Virginia Infantry, a regiment commanded by his brother; saw much active miUtary service, and was distin- guished for a gallantry bordering upon recklessness. At the close of the war he decided to study medicine and matricu- lated in the Bellevue Medical College, and graduated there in 1867; after the usual hospital service he settled down to private practice in New York City. In 1868 he was attending physician to the New York Central Dispensary; then assistant to the chair of the diseases of the mind and nervous system in Bellevue Hospital Medical College; assistant phy- sician to the New York State Hospital for diseases of the nervous system; attending physician to the Bellevue
Hospital Dispensary ; physician-in-chief
to the New York Institution for Epilep-
tics and Paralytics. In 1870 he was
called upon, as an expert witness, to
testify in the famous murder case of
Daniel McFarland. In 1873 he went to
Europe for purposes of travel and study,
and on his return, in 1875, married Anna
Cooper, daughter of Dr. James Cooper, of
New York. In 1879 he removed to Cin-
cinnati, where for two years he lectured
on pathological anatomy in the Cincinnati
College of Medicine and Surgery. On the
reorganization of the medical department
of Wooster University in 1881, Dr.
Vance was given the chair of clinical and
operative surgery, and removed to Cleve-
land. He had been interested in St.
Alexis Hospital, of Cleveland, almost
from its inception, and at the time of
his death was president of the hospital
staff. He died of cerebral hemorrhage,
following an attack of the grippe,
March 19, 1894.
He was a member of the Ohio State Medical Society. A frequent contributor to the medical journals of his day, he was a graceful, clear and forcible writer. Of contributions it will be sufficient to notice: "The Ophthalmoscope in the Treatment of Epilepsy." ("New York Medical Journal," vol. xiii, 1871.) "Writer's Cramp or Scrivener's Palsy. " (" Boston Medical and Surgical Journal," vol. Ixxxixl, 1873.) "Trichina Spiralis," an inaugural address before the Ohio Valley Medical Society ("Cincinnati Lancet and Observer," vol. xx, 1877), and " Vesico- vaginal Fistula." ("Cleveland Medical Gazette," 1888.)
He left a Ubrary of some five thousand volumes, ranging from the "Chirurgical Treatise" of Richard Wiseman and the "De Curtorum Chirurgia" of Taliacotius, to the first edition of the most obscure poet of the Elizabethan period, and reflecting in its contents both the abiUty and eccentricity of its collector. An excellent half-tone picture will be found in the "Cleveland Medical Gazette" (vol. ix, 1894). H. E. H.
Cleveland Medical Gazette, vol. ix, 1893-4.
