Thomas Addis Emmet

Background

He was born near Charlottesville, Virginia. He was the grandson of Thomas Addis Emmet, the Irish-American lawyer, and the son of Dr. John Patten Emmet, who was born in Ireland but educated in America, and who was one of Thomas Jefferson's original appointees to a professorship in the University of Virginia.

His mother was Mary Byrd Farley Tucker, of an old Bermuda family.

His grandmother taught him to read at an early age and he had free range of his father's library which was well stocked, mainly with books of travel, history, or science.

His father taught him to observe and think from an early age and in his wanderings through the fields and woods he had abundant opportunity to exercise his powers of observation.

Education

His early education was far from formal.

During 1845-46 he was a student at the University of Virginia but failed to fit into the academic groove, and after a while he entered Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, found medicine to his taste, and graduated in 1850.

Career

He then served several years as visiting physician to the Emigrants' Refuge Hospital on Ward's Island, New York. The work was both strenuous and hazardous as virulent typhus fever was common in those days and Emmet contracted it. In this work he gained wide experience both with disease and human nature.

In 1855, through a change in New York politics, he lost his position at the Emigrants' Hospital. During the same year he met J. Marion Sims, the pioneer gynecologist, who, recognizing his executive ability, appointed him his assistant at the Woman's Hospital, which position he filled until 1861, when he became surgeon-in-chief, continuing until 1872, when he was made visiting surgeon.

During this period he developed into a skillful and original surgeon, devising new operations for the repair of injuries received during childbirth based on his own studies.

He was the first to show clearly that what were formerly regarded as ulcerations of the womb were really tears, and he devised an operation for their repair which still bears his name.

He contributed freely to literature, and his book, The Principles and Practice of Gynecology (1879), went through three editions, was republished in London, and translated into French and German.

Achievements

• He was always an ardent advocate of home rule for Ireland, especially after his visit to Ireland in 1871, and espoused it with tongue and pen, writing among other things Ireland Under English Rule (2 vols. , 1903), a vitriolic work on the blunders of England in handling the Irish situation. He is described by one biographer as "a world figure in the fight for Home Rule. " He was president of the Irish National Federation of America as long as it lasted, from 1891 until 1901. He was also honorary president of the Robert Emmet Branch of the Irish National Federation in Ireland in Clondalkin, County Dublin.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Vesico-Vaginal Fistula From Parturition and Other Causes: With Cases of Recto-Vaginal Fistula (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Vesico-Vaginal Fistula From Parturition and ...)

  • The Principles and Practice of Gynecology (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from The Principles and Practice of Gynecology S...)

Views

He freely and generously demonstrated his methods to visiting physicians from all parts of the world. He was recognized both in the United States and in Europe as an outstanding surgeon and received many professional honors both at home and abroad. His antiquarian activities are said by him to have dated from a period in his boyhood when he was shown the Declaration of Independence.

As a result he became interested in the signers and he secured during his life authentic duplicates of every signature in this historic document. He was also one of the best known and foremost collectors of American prints and autographs and during his lifetime he extra-illustrated 150 books.

Connections

On February 14, 1854, he married Catherine R. Duncan of Autauga County, near Montgomery, Alabama, who died November 14, 1905. By her he had six children including Dr. Robert and Dr. John Duncan Emmet.

Father:

Dr. John Patten Emmet

Mother:

Mary Byrd Farley Tucker

Grandfather:

Thomas Addis Emmet

Wife:

Catherine R. Duncan

son Dr. Robert Emmet son Dr. John Duncan Emmet

References

• Pioneer surgeons of the Woman's Hospital;: The lives of Sims, Emmet, Peaslee, and Thomas