The Practical Application of the Rontgen Rays in Therapeutics and Diagnosis
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The Wilderness Road to Kentucky, Its Location and Features
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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.
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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 Allen Pusey was an American dermatologist and syphilologist, president of the American Medical Association. He authored several books, including the first history of dermatology that had been written in English.
Background
William Allen was born on December 1, 1865 in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, United States, the elder in a family of two sons of Robert Burns Pusey, a country doctor, and Bell (Brown) Pusey. There was a strong medical tradition in his family; two of his uncles were also physicians, and his brother, Brown Pusey, became a prominent ophthalmologist. The Puseys had originally been Quakers, settling in Pennsylvania in the days of William Penn.
Pusey's paternal grandfather, a prosperous millwright, had moved from Maryland in 1822 to Meade County, Kentucky, where Pusey's father was born in 1836. His mother's forebears had gone to Kentucky from Virginia in 1782.
Education
William Allen Pusey received his education in Elizabethtown and at Vanderbilt University, Nashville. Valedictorian of his class, he received his Bachelor of arts in 1885 and an Master of arts in 1886. In that fall he entered the medical college of New York University and after two years received the Doctor of Medicine degree. His medical training here was largely self-study and, in keeping with the time, entirely non-clinical. He was disillusioned with this medical program, and his first publication was a critique of the didactic lecture.
Career
Determined to be a dermatologist, Pusey with family support began training at the Skin and Cancer Hospital in New York. In 1889 he embarked for Europe with his bride, Sallie Warfield Cunningham of Elizabethtown, and after a year at home, following the death of his father, he completed a grand tour of dermatological centers in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and London. In 1893 he opened an office in Chicago for the practice of his specialty.
His training had been outstanding, and in the following year he was made head of the department of dermatology of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Chicago (later affiliated with the University of Illinois), a position he held until 1915, when he retired. His practice was most successful, and he always had two or three younger men in training under him.
In 1899 Pusey traveled to Europe to learn about the newly discovered Roentgen rays, a trip which was the start of his first renown. He published in 1903, in collaboration with E. W. Caldwell, an important early treatise on Roentgen therapy, The Practical Application of the Rontgen Rays in Therapeutics and Diagnosis. His next influential medical contribution was his textbook The Principles and Practice of Dermatology, which appeared in 1907 after four years of laborious writing at nights and in free time. Other books followed: Syphilis as a Modern Problem (1915), an authoritative monograph; his historical work on the Wilderness Road; a biography of his father, A Doctor of the 1870's and 80's (1932). In his writings on syphilis, Pusey went beyond its medical aspects to consider its effect on society.
During World War I, as a major in the army, he was chairman of the committee on venereal-disease control under the Surgeon General's office. In 1909-10 Pusey served as president of the American Dermatological Association and from 1911 to 1922 as treasurer of the American Medical Association. In 1920, at his suggestion, the A. M. A. took over the official journal of the Dermatological Association, the Journal of Cutaneous Diseases, and converted it into the Archives of Dermatology and Syphilology, with Pusey as editor-in-chief. Pusey's highest recognition came in 1923 when the American Medical Association elected him as its president for the following year.
Active in civic affairs in Chicago, he served on the executive committee of the board of trustees of the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition. The last five years of his life showed a slowing of pace, the result of arteriosclerosis and hypertension.
He died in Chicago, of cardiac failure, and was buried in Elizabethtown.
Achievements
William Allen Pusey became a pioneer in the use of X rays for the treatment of systemic malignancies (such as Hodgkin's disease) as well as for diseases of the skin. He was also the first to suggest (1907) the use of solid carbon dioxide in dermatological treatment, a practice which became standard according to the techniques he developed. Besides, he was the author of famous works: The Principles and Practice of Dermatology, The History of Dermatology. He was the president of the American Medical Association and for 16 years served as the editor of the Archives of Dermatology and Syphilology and won international acclaim.
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Views
Pusey emphasised on social problems, including an endorsement of the principle of birth control. He also urged reforms in medical education and opposed the trend toward highly paid specialists in place of the general practitioner. Such specialization, he felt, was reducing the medical services available in country districts and would as a consequence lead to the socialization of medical practice, a development he completely opposed.
Personality
William Pusey was of stocky build, a friendly, witty man, usually described as wearing gloves, carrying a cane, and smoking a small cigar. He was a good speaker, though not an orator. Nothing about his activities, including his golf and billiards, could be described as casual.
Connections
Pusey was married to the former Sallie W. Cunningham. The Puseys had no children.
