Paul Monroe Pilcher

Background

He was born on April 11, 1876 in Brooklyn, New York, United States, the son of Lewis Stephen Pilcher, himself a distinguished surgeon, and Martha S. (Phillips) Pilcher.

Education

After studying at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, he entered the University of Michigan where he graduated with the degree of B. S. in 1898. Two years later he received the degree of M. D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.

While in Europe he came under the influence and teachings of Koenig, Orth, Nitze, and Von Fritsch.

Career

For two years following graduation, he was an intern in the Seney Hospital, Brooklyn, of which institution his father was senior surgeon. He then went abroad and for a year studied in clinics in Göttingen, Vienna, and Berlin, his work being chiefly in pathology and in the diagnostic use of the cystoscope.

Returning to Brooklyn in 1903, he received appointments to the Seney, German, St. John's, and Jewish hospitals. He resigned these positions in 1910, however, to join his father and brothers in the development of a private hospital. His frequent visits to clinics kept him well-informed as to medical progress elsewhere.

Following a visit to Copenhagen, he published Abdominal Surgery, Clinical Lectures for Students and Physicians (1914), a translation of the work of N. T. Rovsing. He also contributed an important chapter, entitled "Prostatic Obstructions, " to Modern Urology (1918), edited by Hugh Cabot. He was also the author of many scientific contributions to medical publications, and from 1907 to 1911, edited the Long Island Medical Journal.

He was operating surgeon at Eastern Long Island Hospital, Greenport; chairman of the section in surgery of the New York State Medical Society; and a member of numerous other professional societies. He died of pneumonia at the comparatively early age of forty.

Achievements

• Pilcher became well known and respected surgeon for his thoroughness and skill. He won recognition by reason of his original researches in urology, which were pioneer work of their kind in the United States. Pilcher introduced methods for the investigation of patients which have been widely adopted by others. His Practical Cystoscopy and the Diagnosis of Surgical Diseases of the Kidneys and Urinary Bladder went through two editions and was widely acclaimed.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Practical Cystoscopy and the Diagnosis of Surgical Diseases of the Kidneys and Urinary Bladder

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

Connections

In 1905 he married Mary Finlay of Montclair, New Jersey. She, with their two sons, survived him.

Father:

Lewis Stephen Pilcher

Mother:

Martha S. (Phillips) Pilcher

Spouse:

Mary Finlay of Montclair