Rufus Pratt Lincoln

Background

Rufus Pratt Lincoln was born on April 27, 1840 at Belchertown, Massachusetts, United States, the son of Rufus S. and Lydia (Baggs) Lincoln.

Education

Lincoln studied at Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Massachusetts, and at Phillips Exeter Academy, from which he graduated in 1858. He then entered Amherst College, where he received the degree of Bachelpr of Arts in 1862. After his military service he began the study of medicine, attending the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, for one year and Harvard Medical School for two more years, and received from the latter institution in 1868 his medical degree.

Career

Lincoln enlisted in the 37th Massachusetts Volunteers as second lieutenant and was promoted to a captaincy after two months. He served through the Civil War, was in many battles, and was twice wounded. He rose to the rank of colonel and toward the close of the war was made inspector-general of the VI Corps, Army of the Potomac.

After the war he settled in New York and formed a partnership with the well-known surgeon Willard Parker, but was soon attracted to the then new specialty of laryngology, which included intranasal surgery. He leased the house which had been presented to General George B. McClellan, where for thirty-two years, without interruption, he was entirely occupied with the duties of a practice which was enormous. His career was almost unique, since patients came to him solely because of his merit. He acquired no prestige from post-graduate study in Europe, he declined to associate himself with any college faculty, hospital, or clinic, and he did little writing. In the belief of good judges he stood at the head of his special field, an estimate which seems to be borne out by the fact that his opinion was sought by Morell-Mackenzie in the case of Emperor Frederick of Germany.

He was distinguished especially for his technic in the removal of retronasal growths by means of the electric snare, and here he seems to have had no peers or successors. These formations are semi-malignant and, in theory at least, should be extirpated by a bloody and mutilating intervention; but Lincoln succeeded in removing many of them by the bloodless and painless method. One of his earliest patients with this trouble is said to have been General Judson Kilpatrick, and the renown of his cure had much to do with Lincoln's early vogue as an intranasal surgeon.

Lincoln's own death was premature, for he was stricken in the midst of apparent health with appendicitis. At the operation Dr. Charles B. McBurney found an anomalous congenital formation which made it impossible to locate the appendix, so that after much effort it was finally necessary to abandon the operation, and the patient succumbed to exhaustion; at an autopsy the suppurating organ was found in an inaccessible position.

Achievements

• Lincoln was a prominent intranasal surgeon. He contributed some publications to medical literature, the majority were devoted to the removal of retronasal growths. He was also a co-founder of the New York Laryngological Society.

Membership

Lincoln was a past president of the New York Laryngological Society--later the Laryngological Section of the Academy of Medicine--and was also a past president of the American Laryngological Association.

Connections

In 1869 Lincoln married Caroline C. Tyler. His only son, Rufus Tyler Lincoln, died of appendicitis at the age of sixteen.

Father:

Rufus S. Lincoln

Mother:

Lydia (Baggs) Lincoln

Spouse:

Caroline C. Tyler

Son:

Rufus Tyler Lincoln

References

• The Harvard Medical School; A History, Narrative and Documentary. 1782-1905 Volume 3