Robert Battey

Background

He was born on November 26, 1828, in New York.

Education

Robert was educated at the Richmond Academy there and at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachussets (1838 - 44).

He studied medicine in Rome under his brother's guidance, and in 1855 entered Prof. James C. Booth's School of Analytical Chemistry, Philadelphia. He also studied at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, and subsequently attended two courses of lectures at the Jefferson Medical College and the University of Pennsylvania, receiving his medical degree from the former, March 7, 1857.

Career

He then gave up school and worked in Detroit and in Marshall, Michigan, later returning to Rome, Georgia, where he became a clerk in a drugstore. By 1849, when he was twenty-one years of age, he had become owner of a drugstore there, which he continued to run until 1855.

He then returned to Rome to practise, where his brother was well established. In 1858 an early successful operation for vesico-vaginal fistula brought him local renown; in 1859 he described a simple treatment for congenital clubfoot. As a result of this work he was invited to London. Before going abroad, he attended the American Pharmaceutical Association convention in Boston (1859) and presided as vice-president.

In Europe, he spoke on vesicovaginal fistula before the Obstetrical Society of London, on November 2, 1859. He performed his operation for fistula successfully at the Dublin Hospital on a case that had been operated five times before. He also visited Scotland, Paris, and Brussels, and was everywhere well received. He returned home the next year and resumed his practise in Rome, but the Civil War soon interfered. He served throughout the war, first as medical officer in a battalion of artillery, and later as surgeon in the 19th Georgia Volunteers. He saw active service with the Army of Virginia and later under Stonewall Jackson, when he was surgeon to Hampton's and Archer's brigades.

After 1862, he was put in charge of various hospitals, first at Atlanta and later at Rome. When he was driven out of Rome by the Northern forces, he took charge of hospitals elsewhere in Georgia and in Mississippi. In 1864 he established a successful hospital in Macon especially for the treatment of soldiers with hernias and fistulas. In April 1865 he was discharged from the army, after a very honorable service. He again returned to Rome, where he resided the rest of his life, except for a few years in Atlanta as professor of obstetrics at the Atlanta Medical College and editor of the Atlanta Medical and Surgical Journal (1872 - 75). He established the Martha Battey Hospital in Rome in honor of his wife, who assisted him at many operations.

Battey's reputation rests largely on what is known as "Battey's Operation, " first performed by him August 17, 1872.

By 1891 he was able to report 300 consecutive cases with a mortality of nine. The reasoning on which his operation was based has long since been recognized as unsound, but his method of procedure by abdominal, and later by vaginal, section opened up an important field of surgery. He also performed other operations, radical in nature for the times, such as perineal cystotomy.

In 1877 he introduced iodized phenol as a drug of value in gynecological work. All his work, especially in pelvic surgery, was carefully described in a manner which led even the more conservative members of the profession to study and if necessary operate upon the female reproductive organs. The experience gained by these procedures, plus the advent of asepsis, led to the high standard of abdominal surgery as we know it to-day. Battey's operative skill, combined with his personal magnetism, drew patients to Rome from a large area. He was in broken health for some years before his death. His son, Dr. Henry H. Battey, continued his practise.

Achievements

• He is known for pioneering a surgical procedure then called Battey's Operation and now termed radical oophorectomy (or removal of a woman's ovaries).

Works

More photos

• book

  • Antisepsis in Ovariotomy and Battey's Operation: Seventy Consecutive Cases With Sixty-Eight Recoveries and Two Deaths (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Antisepsis in Ovariotomy and Battey's Operat...)

  • Normal Ovariotomy: A Paper Read Before the Georgia Medical Association, at Its Twenty-Fourth Annual Session, Held in Atlanta, Georgia, April 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th, 1873 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Normal Ovariotomy: A Paper Read Before the G...)

  • Intestinal Obstructions: A Safe and Ready Method (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Intestinal Obstructions: A Safe and Ready Me...)

  • The President's Annual Address (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The President's Annual Address Our annual m...)

Membership

He was an ardent member of numerous medical societies.

Connections

In 1849 he married Martha B. Smith, by whom he had fourteen children.

Father:

Cephas Battey

Mother:

Mary (Magruder) Battey

Wife:

Martha B. Smith

References

• Atlanta Medical and Surgical Journal, 1858, Vol. 3 (Classic Reprint)