William Gibson

Background

Gibson William was born on March 14, 1788, in Baltimore, Maryland. He was one of the twin boys.

Education

Gibson attended St. John’s College, Annapolis, and later went to Princeton, where he studied for some time but did not graduate. He began the study of medicine with Dr. John Owen of Baltimore and later was a student in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania for a time.

After a return to Princeton, he went to Edinburgh where he took his degree in medicine in 1809, the title of his thesis being "De Forma Ossium Gentilitia. ” For his thesis, which dealt with certain phases of ethnology, he used material from the museum of Alexander Monro. In Edinburgh he studied with John Bell; later in London, he became associated with Sir Charles Bell, who apparently was warmly attached to him and who took him as a private pupil.

He also attracted the attention of Sir Astley Cooper, the great surgeon of Guy’s Hospital, and seems to have had the opportunity of seeing a number of the wounded soldiers who were brought home after the battle of Corunna. In addition to his strictly professional pursuits, he studied painting, music, botany, and ornithology.

Career

After Gibson’s return to Américain iSio, he established himself in Baltimore and soon became engaged in organizing a medical department in the University of Maryland.

Upon the completion of the project in 1811, he became a professor of surgery at the early age of twenty-three. He seems to have acquired a reputation rapidly. Certainly, he did not lack originality and courage, for, in 1812, he tied the common iliac artery for an aneurysm, the first time it was done in America.

In 1828, he ligated the subclavian artery, also a brave undertaking for those days. He held the chair in surgery at the University of Maryland until 1819, when he was called to Philadelphia to the chair of surgery in the University of Pennsylvania, in which he succeeded Dr. Physick.

Those were the days of peripatetic teachers in American medical schools. In Philadelphia Gibson had a long and successful career, holding an important position in the profession, and occupying the chair of surgery until 1855.

His principal publication was The Institutes and Practice of Surgery, which went through several editions. The first edition, published in 1824, was intended as a guide to his students in following his lectures, but as additions were made to each edition the work developed into a treatise on surgery.

In 1815, Gibson again visited Europe and apparently was present at the battle of Waterloo where, it is stated, he received a slight wound.

He died at Savannah, Georgia, in his eightieth year.

Achievements

• One of Gibson's successful surgical deeds was the extraction of foreign material from the shoulder of Gen. Winfield Scott who had been wounded at the battle of Lundy’s Lane near Niagara Falls and had suffered from the wound for some time. His most striking surgical success was the performance of a Cesarean section twice on the same patient who lived for fifty years after the first operation.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Institutes and Practice of Surgery: Being Outlines of a Course of Lectures Volume 2 Volume 2

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

Personality

A man of wide learning, Gibson occupied a high place in his profession and did much to advance the knowledge and practice of surgery.

Probably part of his success was due to the influence of his association with Sir Charles Bell and Sir Astley Cooper, for he must have shown evidence of ability to have attracted their attention at such an early age.

He had the courage to publish his failures and his frankness appears to have surprised some of his contemporaries.

In his teaching, his lectures are said to have been characterized by clearness and accuracy of thought while his artistic training enabled him to make diagrams and illustrations of unusual merit.

Interests

• Gibson was also widely versed in classical literature, and there are accounts of his remarkable memory of Latin verse, especially of Ovid, Horace, and Virgil.

Connections

Gibson was married twice, his first wife being Sarah Hollingsworth, whom he married in Baltimore. He had eight children of whom one son, Charles Bell Gibson, was a professor of surgery at the Medical College at Richmond, Virginia.

Wife:

Sarah Hollingsworth

Son:

Charles Bell Gibson