Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/136

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ATKINSON


ATKINSON


which was in the possession of his son-in- law, Lewis Tappan, a noted New York abolitionist, at the time when antislavery rioters broke into his home. The por- trait so much resembled George Washing- ton that the mob, thinking it a picture of the father of his country, spared it.

The following offices were held by him during his lifetime: Town Treasurer, War- den, Surveyor, State representative, and senator. While studying medicine in 1 769 he wrote a sketch of his ancestors, which has been preserved by his descendants. W. L. B.

The Aspinwall Gynealogy, 1630-1901, A. A.

Aspinwall.

New England Historic Gynealogical Register,

1843.

J. M. Toner, Medical Men of the Revolution.

James Thacher, American Medical Biog- raphy.

Ebenezer Alden, in Boston Med. and Surg.

Jour., vol. xlix.

Atkinson, Isaac Edmundson (1846-1907).

Isaac Edmundson Atkinson was born in Baltimore January 23, 1846, and took his M. D. from the University of Mary- land in 1865, when he was only nine- teen.

Dr. Atkinson was a remarkable clini- cian and a brilliant lecturer, and while he did not devote special attention to der- matology his writings on this subject were authoritative because of his vast experi- ence and intelligent judgment.

In 1881 he had charge of a clinic for internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Maryland; from 18S6 to 1900, was professor of materia medica; from 1S90 to 1895, dean of the medical department of the University of Mary- land.

He was vice-president and later presi- dent of the Medico-Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland.

He was one of the founders of the American Dermatological Association and its president in 1888.

He died in Baltimore November 24, 1907. J. M. W.

Atkinson, William Biddle (1832-1909).

William B. Atkinson, an obstetrician in Philadelphia and who also gathered


the lives of well known American physi- cians into a volume of biography, was the son of Isaac S. and Mary R. Biddle Atkinson and born in Haverford, Penn- sylvania on June 21, 1832. His father's people were among the earliest settlers in Burlington, New Jersey.

His degrees of A. M. and A. B. were taken from the Central High School in Philadelphia and his M. D. from the Jefferson Medical College in 1853, after three year's study with Dr. Samuel Mc- Clellan. For several years he was cor- respondent for the "New Jersey Medical and Surgical Reporter," the "New York Medical Times," the "Nashville Medical Journal," the "New Orleans Medical Journal," and others. He also co-edited the "Medical and Surgical Reporter" with Dr. S. W. Butler in 1858, but in another year Atkinson became obstetric editor for S. D. Gross, of the "North American Medico-Chirurgical Review," but the war caused its discontinuation. When secre- tary of the State Medical Society of Pennsylvania he edited the "Transac- tions" and did the same to the "Trans- actions of the American Medical Associa- tion" when permanent secretary. The last journal which he edited was the "Medical Register and Directory" of Philadelphia.

His written work included "Physicians and Surgeons of the United States, 1878," which includes the lives of over a thou- sand medical men, and papers to the various medical journals. Of positions he held many; professor of obstetrics and diseases of women in the Harvard Hospital, Philadelphia; the same post in 1S59 at the Pennsylvania Medical College where he stayed until the entire faculty resigned and the college became defunct. In 1S73 he was president of the Philadel- phia County Medical Society. His re- tiring address " Hints in the Obstetric Procedure" was, in consequence of its popularity, extended and published in book form.

In 1867 he married Jennie R. Patterson of Philadelphia who died in 1871, leaving one child, a boy. He afterwards married