DALTON, John Call, physiologist,
born in Chehnsford, Massachusetts, 2 February 1825. He was graduated at
Harvard in 1844, and at the medical department of that University in
1847. His attention was at once directed to physiology, and in 1851 he
obtained the annual prize offered by the American medical association by
his essay on "Corpus Luteum." Subsequently his researches on the anatomy
of the placenta, the physiology of the cerebellum, intestinal digestion,
and other experimental observations, embodied in his treatise on
physiology, gained for him a reputation as one of the first of modern
physiologists. He became professor of physiology in the medical
department of the University of Buffalo, and was the first in the United
States to teach that subject with illustrations by experiments on
animals. This chair he resigned in 1854, and accepted a similar
professorship in the Vermont medical College in Woodstock, where he
remained until 1856. From 1859 till 1861 he filled the chair of
physiology in the Long Island College hospital in Brooklyn. During the
winter of 1854-'5 he lectured on physiology at the College of physicians
and surgeons, New York, temporarily filling the place of Dr. Alonzo
Clark. In 1855 he was elected to that professorship, which he continued
to fill until his resignation in 1883. In 1884 he again succeeded Dr.
Clark as president of the College of physicians and surgeons.
During the civil war he was a
surgeon in the national service, going to Washington in 1861 in that
capacity with the 7th New York regiment. Subsequently he was appointed
surgeon of volunteers, and held important offices in the medical corps
until his resignation in March 1864.
Dr. Dalton has been an active member of many medical societies, and held
prominent offices in them. In 1864 he was elected a member of the
National academy of sciences. His contributions to the literature of
physiology have been numerous since 1851. He has published articles in
the "American Journal of the Medical Sciences," the "Transactions of the
New York Academy of Sciences," the "American Medical Monthly," and other
medical journals in New York; and also many valuable articles in his
specialties in the American and other cyclopaedias. He has published in
book-form "A Treatise on Human Physiology" (New York, 1859; 6th ed.,
1882);" A Treatise on Physiology and Hygiene for Schools, Families, and
Colleges" (1868); "The Experimental Method of Medicine" (1882);
"Doctrines of the Circulation" (1884); and "Topographical Anatomy of the
Brain" (1885) .
His brother, Edward Barry Dalton, physician, born in Lowell,
Massachusetts, 21 September 1834 ; died in Santa Barbara, California, 13
May 1872, was graduated at Harvard in 1855, and at the College of
physicians and surgeons, New York, in 1858. Dr. Dalton then settled in
New York, and was resident physician of St. Luke's hospital when the
civil war began. He at once volunteered as a surgeon, and served from
April 1861, till May 1865. At first he was a medical officer in the
navy, after which he was commissioned surgeon of the 36th New York
volunteers, and subsequently surgeon of U. S. volunteers, serving as
medical inspector of the 6th army corps, and as medical director of the
Department of Virginia. In March 1864, he was transferred to the Army of
the Potomac, where he remained throughout the campaign of that year,
from the Wilderness to City Point, having charge of all the wounded, and
establishing and moving the hospitals. At City Point he was made chief
medical officer of the depot field-hospitals, Army of the Potomac, till
the final campaign in March and April 1865, when he accompanied the
troops as medical director of the 9th army corps. After his discharge he
was successively appointed brevet lieutenant colonel and colonel of
volunteers.
In March 1866, he was appointed sanitary superintendent of the New York
metropolitan board of health, in which office he remained until his
resignation in January 1869. In 1869 he originated the present City
ambulance system for the transportation of the sick and injured. His
health had then begun to fail, and, after trying various resorts, he
finally visited California, where he died from consumption. He published
papers on "The Disorder known as Bronzed Skin, or Disease of the
Supra-renal Capsules" (1860); "The Metropolitan Board of Health" (1868);
and "Reports of the Sanitary Superintendent of the Metropolitan Board of
Health" from 1866 till 1869.
Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM
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Before the discoveries
of John Call Dalton, Jr., MD (1824–1889), innervation of
laryngeal muscles, long-term effects of cerebellar lesions,
and consequences of raised intracranial pressure were poorly
understood. Dalton discovered that the posterior cricoarytenoid
muscles adducted the vocal cords during inspiration. He confirmed
Flourens’ observations that acute ablation of the cerebellum
of pigeons caused loss of coordination. Dalton observed that
properly cared for pigeons gradually recovered "coordinating
power." Dalton observed that prolonged raised intracranial
pressure caused tachycardia and then fatal bradycardia in
dogs. Before Dalton published his photographic atlas of the
human brain, neuroanatomy atlases were sketched by Europeans
and imported into the United States. Dalton’s atlas of the
human brain contained precise photographs of vertical and
horizontal sections that equal modern works. Before Dalton
introduced live demonstrations of animals, physiology was
taught by recitation of texts only. Dalton was the first
American-born professor to teach physiology employing
demonstrations of live animals operated on under ether
anesthesia. He wrote an essay advocating experimentation on
animals as the proper method of acquiring knowledge of function
and that humane animal experimentation would ultimately improve
the health of man and animals. His eloquent advocacy for humane
experimental physiology quelled attacks by contemporaneous
antivivisectionists. Dalton was America’s first experimental
neurophysiologist.
