John Davies Jackson

Background

Jackson was born on December 12, 1834, in Danville, Kentucky, the son of John and Margaret (Spears) Jackson, both natives of Kentucky.

Education

After a preliminary education at Centre College, from which he obtained the degree of A. B. in 1854, Jackson studied medicine for one year in the medical department of the University of Louisville, going then to the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, where he took his doctor's degree in 1857.

Career

Jackson was of a reserved, modest, studious disposition and made his way slowly in practice in his native town. During the Civil War he served with the rank of surgeon in the Confederate army, and upon being paroled at Appomattox returned at once to Danville, where he established a private dissecting room, built up a class, and proved himself an excellent teacher. He read extensively, learning French so as to read French literature, and collected a fine medical library, very rich in old books. Giving his attention especially to surgery, he went repeatedly to the East to perfect himself in various branches of his profession, and spent some time in study in Paris in 1872.

In 1874 he published An Operation Manual, translated from the French of L. H. Farabeuf, and he contributed many clinical papers to the Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal, the American Journal of the Medical Sciences, and the Transactions of the Kentucky State Medical Society. He set forth in an amusing manner some of the ethical questions confronting the medical profession in two papers, Anniversary Address before the Boyle County (Kentucky) Medical Society (1869) and The Black Arts of Medicine (1870), which, edited by L. S. McMurtry, were subsequently (1880) republished together. His papers were marked by clarity, brevity, and a vivid, pleasant style. At the time of his death he was first vice-president of the American Medical Association.

Jackson's chief service outside his professional work was in reviewing and vindicating the claim of Ephraim McDowell to recognition as the first physician to perform ovariotomy and thus to inaugurate abdominal surgery. He wrote a "Biographical Sketch of Dr. Ephraim McDowell, of Danville, Kentucky, " which was published in the Richmond and Louisville Medical Journal in November 1873; spoke constantly of McDowell, and urged the Medical Society of Kentucky appropriately to mark his grave. It was by virtue of his efforts that the bodies of McDowell and his wife were brought from their neglected graves at "Travellers' Rest, " Governor Shelby's country place, and reinterred at Danville with a suitable monument commemorating McDowell's epoch-making operation of 1809 in the wilderness. Jackson's death at the age of forty-one was due to tuberculosis which he developed during his convalescence from an autopsy infection.

Achievements

• Jackson is best known for his works in medical field.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Justice in the Church, Second Series. Further Correspondence with the Bishop of London J. Jackson On the Subject of Marriage

    (This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before ...)

  • The Black Arts In Medicine: With Anniversary Address...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Membership

Jackson was a vice-president of the American Medical Association.

Personality

Jackson was universally esteemed by his colleagues and patients for his kindness of heart, integrity of character, affectionate friendship, and his wide knowledge; and he was called in consultation throughout central Kentucky.

Connections

Jackson was unmarried, his whole life and energy being devoted to his profession.

Father:

John Jackson

Mother:

Margaret Spears

References

• Some of the Medical Pioneers of Kentucky (Classic Reprint)
• A biographical sketch of John D. Jackson, M.D., Danville, Ky