Charles T. Parkes, M.D. Click on image to enlarge Go to lecture card display   Name: Charles T. Parkes Cause of death: pneumonia Death date: Mar 28, 1891 Place of death: Chicago, IL Birth date: 1847 Place of birth: Troy, NY Type of practice: Allopath Practice specialities:GS General Surgery Professorship: Rush Medical College, Chicago, surgery Journal of the American Medical Association Citation: 16:500 Parkes, Charles T. (1842-1891). Charles T. Parkes had remarkable success as a teacher of anatomy, and a clear and concise method of demonstration which not only excited enthusiasm and love in all his students, but gained for him a wide reputation. He was born August 19, 1842, at Troy, New York, the youngest of ten children. His father, Joseph Parkes, an Englishman, came to Chicago in 1860. At that time the son was a student in the University of Michigan, where he afterwards received his A. M. He enlisted in, the army in 1862 as a private and was discharged three years later as captain. At the close of the war he returned to Chicago, and began to study medicine under Dr. Rae, professor of anatomy in Rush Medical College. He graduated from this college in 1868, and was at once appointed demonstrator of anatomy, which position he held until his appointment as professor of anatomy in 1875. His specialty was abdominal surgery in which he was a pioneer investigator. The first to advocate uniting severed intestines; he in this antedated Drs. Senn and Murphy. For the purpose of gaining a better knowledge of both the consequences and treatment of gunshot wounds of the intestine he made a series of experiments on forty dogs. The number of recoveries astounded the medical profession and lead to further experiments in all parts of the world. He made his first report at a meeting of the American Medical Association in Washington, 1884. He took with him three specimens of intestine and a living dog from which he removed five feet of intestine perforated by bullet wounds. His work in the surgery of the gall-bladder, which was then in its infancy, was no less conspicuous in influencing new lines of treatment. Preceding Parkes' there were not twenty-five ideal cholecystotomies. He recognized the practical place of surgery in the relief of common maladies. Always a student, he read much, loved old books and also kept in touch with the continental medical schools. For several years before his death he had been accumulating material for works on general and abdominal surgery but his sudden death stopped the writing. The writings he left were published under "Clinical Lectures," but there were some fifty or more besides what appeared in the current medical journals and of which a partial list can be seen in " Distinguished Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago," F. M. Speery, 1894. He married, in 1868, Isabella J. Gonter- man and had two children, Charles Herbert and Irene Edna. The son became, like his father, a surgeon. Among his appointments he was: attending surgeon to the Presbyterian Hospital; surgeon-in-charge of St. Joseph's Hospital; surgeon-in-chief to the Augustana Hospital; consulting surgeon to the Hospital for Women and Children, and professor of surgery in the Chicago Polyclinic. He held also the presidency of the Chicago Medical Society and of the Chicago Gynecological Society. In 1887 he was elected professor of surgery—successor to Prof. Moses Gunn— and in this position he was gaining wide renown at the time of his death, which occurred after a short illness from pneumonia, March 28, 1891. ____________________   Dr. Charles T. Parkes, one of the best known surgeons of Chicago died, March 28th, of pneumonia, aged forty-eight. Dr. Parkes was born in Michigan, and graduated from the Rush Medical College. In 18tiH he became demonstrator of anatomy in that institution, in 1875 he was made professor, and in 1SS5 became professor of surgery. He was also surgeon to the Presbyterian Hospital, treasurer of the Rush Medical College, and president of the Chicago Medical Society. His sudden death, coming just at the commencement season, cast a gloom over the graduating exercises of the largest class in the history of the Rush Medical College.