Samuel
Henry Dickson, M.D.
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Samuel
Henry Dickson, M. D., was
born in Charleston, S. C., 1797. After graduating in Yale
College, and then in medicine at
University of Pennsylvania, he practiced his profession many years in
his native city, and established the Medical
College there. In 1847 he was Professor in University of New
York, and after the war
(having returned South and lost everything in the contest)
he accepted a chair in Jefferson Medical
College, Philadelphia, which he filled
until his death a few years ago. His published volumes have been on
medicine or collateral subjects, except Essays on Slavery, 1845.
He is said to have delivered the first temperance lecture south of Mason
and Dixon's line. His essays on literary and scientific subjects have
been numerous, and his occasional verses are remarkable for simple grace
and true feeling.
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Samuel
Henry Dickson, M.D., LL.D.,
who died in Philadelphia, March 3ist, in the 74th year of his age, had
been for nearly fifty years'a medical professor. He was born in
Charleston, S.-C., Sept. 20, 1798, graduated from
Yale College in 1814, studied Medicine in
Charleston, and practised there during the terrible epidemic of yellow
fever in 1817, subsequently prosecuted his studies in Philadelphia, and
took his medical degree there in 1819. In 1823, he commenced lecturing
before the physicians and medical students of Charleston on physiology
and pathology ; in 1824, was called to the Chair of Institutes and
Practice of Medicine in the New Medical College
there, which he had helped to found. In 1832 he resigned, but on
the reorganization of the College in 1833
he was reflected and continued there till 1847, when he was called to
the Chair of Practice of Medicine in the University of the City of New
York, but in 1850 his health obliged his
return to his former post. There he remained till 1858, when he was
called to the Chair of Practice of Medicine in the Jefferson Medical
College, Philadelphia, where he continued
to lecture until his
de,ath. Dr. Dickson was the author of several medical and other works,
which indicate talent of a high order.
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Professor Samuel Henry Dickson,
M.D., LL.D., was born in Charleston, S. C., September 20, 1798, and died
in Philadelphia, March 31,1872. In 1811 he entered the Sophomore Class
at Yale College, and graduated in 1814, at the early age of sixteen. He
commenced the study of medicine during the same year, in the office of
Dr. P. G. Prioleau, a distinguished physician of his native city,
remaining with him for five years. He attended two courses of medical
lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, fi om which he graduated in
1819. His practice began the July following his graduation, and soon
became one of the most extensive and most lucrative in this country, and
continued so until ill-health forced him to retire from its active
duties.
In 1822 he read a course of lectures on physiology to a class of young
men, and in 1824 took the chair of Professor of Institutes and Practice
in the Medical College of South Carolina, of which he was one of the
founders. This position he afterwards resigned, but soon, in conjunction
with other medical gentlemen of distinction, established another College
in Charleston, in whieh he occupied a similar chair. Here he remained
until 1847, when hu accepted an invitation from ihe University of New
York to fill the same position in that institution. He always referred
witii pb asure to this portion of his life, as his reception by 1rs
colleagues, and his intercourse with them and with the profess:on
generally, as well as the literary and soc:al circles of New York City,
was most cordial and agreeable. He remained in New York for three
winters, when he was urgently invited to return to the position he had
filled in the Charleston College, to accomplish which Dr. Bellinger, the
Professor of Surgery, resigned his chair to Dr. Geddings, who had taken
Dr. Dickson's professorship on the letter's removal to New York. When
Prof. Dickson returned to Charleston, he was most warmly welcomed, a
public dinner having been given him by his friends in the profession and
nut of it. He remained in Charleston until 1858, when he accepted an
invitation to join the faculty of Jefferson Medical College of
Philadelphia, the death of his special friend, Dr. J. K. Mitchell,
having left the professorship of the practice of medicine vacant in that
institution ; and here he lectured until death called him from the
duties he loved so well.
From early life Prof. Dickson had suffered ill-health; from 1825 being
ill with phthisis, attended with many hemorrhages from the lungs, and in
1857 being first attacked with the painful malady of which he eventually
died. He had been invited to the medical colleges of Lexington, Ky.,
Augusta, Ga., Richmond, Va., and Nashville, Tenn. His contributions to
medical journals have been absolutely enormous, and the habit of writing
was continued almost to the last days of his life. His bes' known and
largest work is his Practice of Medicine, fi st published in two
volumes, and afterwards condensed into one. It was a masterly
production, and at once commanded attention and respect. In the earlier
editions of this work will be found many physiological and pathological
opinions upon disease, which, at the present day, are considered
progressive, but which his acumen detected a score of years in advance
of the regular progress of medical science. His work on Dengue, his
Essayt on Life, Sleep, Pain and Death, and his Studies in Pathology
and Therapeuiics have also been vегу widely read, and
greatly
appreciated ; but besides these productions, there have been hosts of
paper?, not only on subjects purely medical, but upon almost every
conceivable topic that could interest a reader and man of science—papers
which it would be impossible to enumerate in the limited space at our
disposal.
Prof. Dickson was one of the most scientific ami well- read men that our
profession could boast of. His familiarity with ihe classics, with the
elegant literature of the past century, and the new topics of his own
time was wonderful. He was a lover of the historian and of the muse, and
often brought their records and their ihy me to bear upon the
illustration of the subjects of his lectures, or topics of conversation.
He loved the good writers of fiction also; and Dickens and others were
occasionally mentioned in his lecture-room as having depicted some of
tlie objective symptoms of certain lingering diseases more minutely and
picturesquely than some of i he masters of medical literature.
Prof. Dickson, at least during the later уеaгs of his life, did not
resort to diagrams, models, or specimens in his lectures; but he
strongly encouraged post-mortem investigations, and bed-side
observation. His style of lecturing was somewhat peculiar. He spoke extemporaneously, without note or paper, but
occasionally he would
read an extract from a book that had engaged his attention while
preparing for the lecture. He entered the lecture-room dressed as he
came from the street, hat in hand; and, bowing to his class as he placed
his hat on the desk and deposited his gloves, commenced in a
colloquial way, which seemed to say of itself—аз well as manners can
speak—" I was passing by, gentlemen, and thought I would drop in and
talk to you this morning about—so and sо."
