The Family Doctor, or the Home Book of Health and Medicine: A Popular Treatise on the Means of Avoiding and Curing Diseases, and of Preserving the ... Body to the Latest Period (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from The Family Doctor, or the Home Book of Healt...)
Excerpt from The Family Doctor, or the Home Book of Health and Medicine: A Popular Treatise on the Means of Avoiding and Curing Diseases, and of Preserving the Health and Vigour of the Body to the Latest Period
It is all important, however, that the public generally should be, as far as possible, made acquainted with the strue ture and functions of the human body; the various agents by which it is preserved in a state of health and vigour, and by the abuse of which disease is induced and that they should not be left in entire ignorance of the nature and effects of reme dial agents, and the causes and symptoms of the various morbid affections of most common occurrence. It is believed that by the general diffusion of information on these points, quackery of every Species will be most successfully combated, the comfort and success of the regular practitioner aided and.
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Introductory Lecture Before the Medical Class of the University of Pennsylvania, Delivered November 9, 1843 (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Introductory Lecture Before the Medical Clas...)
Excerpt from Introductory Lecture Before the Medical Class of the University of Pennsylvania, Delivered November 9, 1843
Montpelier got a special permit from the Duke of Anjou to dissect annually the body of one of the criminals executed.(15)
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Lessons in Practical Anatomy: For the Use of Dissectors
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This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
William Edmonds Horner was an American anatomist and author, author of the first text of pathology to be published in America.
Background
He was born at Warrenton, Fauquier County, Va, in 1793. His grandfather, Robert Horner, emigrated from England and settled first in Maryland and later in Virginia. He died young, leaving a widow and two sons, the younger of whom, William, married Mary, daughter of William and Elizabeth (Blackwell) Edmonds, and was the father of William Edmonds Horner. As a boy Horner was delicate and physically deficient. This fact led to his avoidance of the sports which usually enter into a boy's life and to finding companionship in books.
Education
When he was twelve years old he entered the academy of the Rev. Charles O'Neill, at Warrenton, and later at Dumfries. O'Neill was a clergyman of the Episcopal Church, and had been educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and at Oxford. It was owing to his instruction that Horner acquired, and retained through life, an interest in the classics.
In 1809, Horner began the study of medicine as a house student under the direction of John Spence of Dumfries, who had studied medicine at Edinburgh, but, having developed tuberculosis, did not graduate. Horner continued a pupil of Spence until 1812, and during this time he attended two sessions of the University of Pennsylvania.
Career
In July 1813, before he had completed his medical studies, he was commissioned surgeon's mate in the hospital department of the United States Army, and served in the campaigns in northern New York. During the winter of 1813-14 he obtained a furlough and completed his medical studies, graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in April 1814, his thesis being entitled "Gunshot Wounds. " On the declaration of peace with Great Britain, Horner resigned his commission, March 13, 1815, and for a short time practised medicine in Warrenton, Va. Becoming dissatisfied with conditions there he applied for a surgeoncy in the East India service. Failing to receive an appointment, he set out, December 3, 1815, for Philadelphia. Here he devoted his time to lectures and to practical anatomy.
His skill in dissection and the neatness of his preparations attracted the attention of Caspar Wistar, at that time professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania, who offered Horner the position of prosector at a salary of five hundred dollars. Following Wistar's sudden death, January 22, 1818, his successor, John Syng Dorsey, not only continued Horner in his former position, but also turned over to him the entire dissecting class and its emoluments. After Dorsey's death the next fall, his uncle, Philip Syng Physick, undertook to carry not only his own course in surgery, but also the course in anatomy and Horner was continued in the same position he had occupied under Dorsey. In 1819, Physick exchanged the chair of surgery for that of anatomy and on November 17, 1819, Horner was appointed adjunct professor of anatomy. In 1831, Physick resigned and Horner was elected professor of anatomy, a position which he held during the remainder of his life. For some thirty years he also served as dean of the medical department, resigning in 1852.
Horner's writings were confined chiefly to anatomical subjects. In 1823, he published Lessons in Practical Anatomy, for the Use of Dissectors, and edited the third edition of Wistar's System of Anatomy; in 1824, he described for the first time the tensor tarsi, a special muscle connected with the lachrymal apparatus; in 1826, he issued A Treatise on Special and General Anatomy, in two volumes; in 1829 A Treatise on Pathological Anatomy, the first work on this subject to appear in America; in 1835, he published in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences a special study of Asiatic cholera based on the 1832 epidemic in Philadelphia. For his services in this epidemic the city council presented him with a silver pitcher. He also contributed numerous articles to various medical journals.
The anatomical museum at the university was founded by Caspar Wistar, and was largely made up of preparations which he had made. From time to time Horner presented numerous preparations to the museum and on his death he bequeathed an extensive collection to the medical school. In consequence of this bequest the trustees designated the collection thus constituted the "Wistar and Horner Museum. "
Beginning in 1819, he suffered from repeated attacks of dyspnea that were eventually found to be of cardiac origin. In 1848, in company with Joseph Leidy, he visited Europe, and returned somewhat improved in health. After resuming his duties, however, he felt a gradual loss of strength. In 1852, he was again obliged to take a short rest in the South. On January 27, 1853, he delivered his last lecture, and on the evening of March 13, 1853, he died. The necropsy showed old cardio-vascular lesions, but an enterocolitis with gangrene and peritonitis was the immediate cause of death.
Achievements
Under his leadership Pennsylvania "maintained the highest standards of medical education then existent in America" (W. S. Middleton, post, p. 39). He also played an important part in founding St. Joseph's Hospital.
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Religion
Originally a communicant of the Episcopal Church, in later life, influenced by the devotion of priests and sisters to their patients during the cholera epidemic in 1832, he became in 1839 a communicant of the Roman Catholic Church.
Connections
On October 26, 1820, Horner married Elizabeth Welsh of Philadelphia. Ten children were born to them; four daughters and two sons outlived him.
