George C.
Blackman, M.D.
View a copy of the
"Handbook for the Military Surgeon,"
by Dr's. Tripler and Blackman
In October, 1861, he was appointed
brigade surgeon on Gen. Mitchell's staff, being present at the battles
of Shiloh and Pittsburg Landing. He was for a short time on the
Ohio State
Medical Board for the army and was present at the battle of the
Wilderness.
Blackmail, George Curtis
(1819-1871)
The second child of Judge Thomas
Black- man, of the Surrogate Court of Newtown, Connecticut, he was
born April 21, 1819. He had his preliminary education at Newtown and
Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Newburg, New York, afterwards entering
Yale College and graduating in
medicine at the College of Physicians
and Surgeons, New York, 1840, immediately after practicing in the
dispensaries in that city. Devotion to work so impaired his health
that, at the suggestion of his friends, he went to Europe, acting as
ship's surgeon, in which capacity he made many trips across the
ocean and spent much time in London and Paris. In the former city he
had to contend with great poverty.
In 1845 he spent some months in
the London hospitals, living on seventy-five dollars, the sum-total
of his means.
He was well acquainted with
Liston, Astley Cooper, Sir Benjamin Brodie, Sir William Fergusson,
and other eminent London doctors.
By invitation he read a paper
before the Royal Mcdico-Chirurgical Society of London which so
impressed the members by its depth of research and profound
knowledge of the science and art of surgery that he was at once
elected a member.
He practiced some time in
Newburgh, New York, and in 1854 went to Cincinnati, where he was
appointed professor of surgery in the
Medical College of Ohio, a
position he held at the time of his death.
Although a brilliant and
fascinating lecturer at all times, it was in the hospital theater he
was in his native element. Outside of his own field he was a timid
speaker and it is told of him that at a large gathering of
medical men he refused to speak,
although urged, until one of those present referred to an operation
that is classical, giving the credit of its initiation to an English
surgeon. Blackmail was on his feet in an instant. For ten minutes he
blazed forth like a meteor.
The roar of applause that greeted
him when he sat down showed how neatly he had been entrapped.
In October, 1861, he was
appointed brigade surgeon on Gen. Mitchell's staff, being present at
the battles of Shiloh and Pittsburg Landing. He was for a short time
on the Ohio State
Medical Board for the army and was
present at the battle of the Wilderness.
Dr. Blackman was a large
contributor to medical literature. At
one time he was editor of the Western Lancet, and afterwards
one of the editors of the Cincinnati Journal of Medicine.
He translated and edited "Vidal
on Venereal Diseases" and "Velpeau's Operative Surgery." He was
author, in conjunction with Dr. C. A. Tripler, army surgeon, of a
"Hand-book on Military Surgery-" He did not leave any original work
of preat importance, although for several years he was engaged on a
work on the "Principles and Practice of Surgery." At the time of his
death he was occupied with the Hon. Stanley Mathews on a work
entitled "Legal Liability in Surgical Malpractice." Foi many years
he was on the staffs of the Commercial (later Cincinnati) and the
Good Samaritan Hospitals.
In the spring of 1856 Dr.
Blackman did an ovariotomy at my father's house, in Coving- ton,
Kentucky, removing a twenty-two pound cyst which had previously been
repeatedly tapped. Forty years later the lady was still sounding his
praises as the greatest of surgeons.
In the season of 1866-7 he twice
did Amus- sat's operation—artificial anus—for cancer of the rectum.
One of these patients lived several months.
In 1855 he married Agnes
Addington of New York and had two sons and a daughter.
He died at Avondale, Cincinnati,
July 17, 1871.
Alexander G.
Dkurv.
Cincinnati
Medical Observer, 18/1, vol. xiv.
Cincinnati Medical Observer, 1872,
vol. xv.
Trans. Ohio State
Medical Society, 1872.
Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 1871, vol. Ixxxv.
Trans. Amer. Med. Asso., 18/~3, vol. xxiv, 370-374.
____________________
Died at Cincinnati,
on the 19th of July, in the 53d year of his age, George C. Blackman,
M.D., Professor of Surgery in the Medical College of Ohio. Dr. Blackman
graduated in medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New
York, in 1840. In 1847 lie was honored by an election to the Fellowship
of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, and in 1853 was
appointed to the Professorship which he held at the time of his death.
His contributions to medical literature were numerous and valuable; not
only did he write for the pages of our periodical literature, but also
edited the last edition of Afott's Velpeau's Operative Surgery, and
translated with annotations Vidal on Venereal Diseases. His surgical
judgment was sound, his operations well conceived and bold, and his
teaching erudite. He did much to extend the fame of American surgery,
and in his demise American surgery has met a severe loss.
THE DUTIES OP THE MEDICAL OFFICER IN
THE FIELD, THE SANITARY
MANAGEMENT OF THE CAMP, THE PREPARATION OF FOOD, ETC.;
WITH FORMS FOE THE REQUISITIONS FOR SUPPLIES,
RETURNS, ETC.; THE DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF CAMP DYSENTERY; AND ALL
THE IMPORTANT POINTS IN WAR SURGERY:
INCLUDING GUNSHOT, AMPUTATION, WOUNDS
OF THE CHEST, ABDOMEN, ANKLES AND HEAD, AND THE USE OF CHLOROFORM.
CHAS. S. TRIPPLER, A.M., M.D.,
Surgeon United States Army
GEORGE C.
BLACKMAN, M.D.,
Professor of Surgery in the Medical
College of Ohio, Surgeon to the Commercial Hospital, St. Johns Hospital,
etc
