Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/366

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ROBERTSON


326


ROBERTSON


Ten years later he came with his regi- ment to America and went on the disas- trous expedition against Fort Du Quesne. He escaped the carnage of Braddock's defeat with twcntj' men, who made their way, subsisting on acorns alone, to Dun- bar's camp, to which the remnant of the Army under Col. Washington had retreated.

Soon after his return he resigned his commission and emigrated with his wife and child to Virginia. He landed at Indian Banks in Richmond County, where he was entertained by a wealthy Scotch merchant, Mr. Glasscock. He prescribed, at the request of her father, for Mr. Glasscock's little daughter, who was then sick with measles, and it is said that this his first patient became his fourth wife in 1771.

Dr. Robertson settled in Lancaster County and for many years enjoyed an e.Ktensive practice, acquiring a high re- putation. In addition to fame he also ac- quired wealth, and was specially noted for his charity and attention to the indigent sick. He continued in active practice to the day of his death, which occurred on March 1, 1795.

He made several contributions to medical literature, and some of his articles were published in the "Medical Inquires and Observations," London.

R. M. S.

Robertson, Charles Archibald (1829- ISSO).

Charles Archibald Robertson was born in Mobile, Alabama, on the fifteenth of October, 1829, being the son of Arcliibald T. Robertson, of New London, Connec- ticut, and Sarah Carnico, of Beverly, Massachusetts. His father was of Scotch, his mother of French and English descent.

He studied at the Beverly Academy and Phillips' Exeter Academy, at Exeter, New Hampshire, entering Harvard Col- lege in 1846, from which he graduated in 1850. He began his medical studies at the Tremont Street Medical School, and was a special student of diseases of the


chest, under Dr. Henry I. Bowditch, when he also took up studies in skin diseases, under Dr. Silas M. Durkee.

He attended lectures at and received his diploma from the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. Returning to Bos- ton, he studied diseases of the eye and ear at the Perkins Institution and Boston Eye and Ear Infirmary, which studies were also pursued at Wills' Hospital in Philadelphia. The next year and a half were spent in Europe for professional study and general travel ; four months he was under the instructions of the noted aurist of St. Mark's Hospital in Dublin — Sir William R. Wilde. At Paris he devoted himself to the teachings of Desmarres and Sichel, giving his time and studies to the clinics of these great masters.

Robertson, on his return to this coun- try, began practice with a preparation which is the fortune of few. The depart- ment which he selected was the diseases of the eye and ear, commencing at Boston in 1855, and soon after removing to the State of New York.

In 1861 he joined the medical staff of the Army, and was appointed surgeon of the One Hundred and Fifty-ninth Regi- ment of New York volunteers. He served with distinction in that regiment until 1863, being for a portion of the time division-surgeon in Gen. Grover's Divi- sion, at Port Hudson. Owing to iU health he resigned and returned north to resume practice in 1863, settling tempo- rarily at Poughkeepsie, then removing to Albany, where he remained in practice till the time of his death, being the first regular oculist located in this section of the State. He was surgeon in charge of the department of diseases of the eye and ear at St. Peter's Hospital, and ophthalmic and aural surgeon of the Albany Hospital. For years he was attending oculist at the Troy Hospital, and afterwards surgeon- in-chief of the Eye and Ear Relief.

He held ever a leading place among American oculists, and was one of the founders of the American Ophthalmo- logical Society; was a member of the In-