RUSSELL 1011 RUSSELL maps continued in use but his figures were ultimately superseded by the Braille process. Dr. Russ was active in the organization of the New York Prison Association, and was for several years its secretary, serving also gratu- itously for five years as its agent for investi- gating cases of detention. He also took an active part in bringing about the reform in the penitentiary at Blackwell's Island, New York Harbor, and the erection of the new work- house. In 1&49 he prepared a petition to the legislature, requesting it to make same pro- vision for the proper training of vagrant children; and in 1851 the juvenile asylum was incorporated, Dr. Russ being appointed the superintendent, a position he held until 18S8 when he resigned, to live in Brooklyn. He died, March 1, 1881, at Pompton, New Jersey. New Amer. Encyclop. Appleton. 1S86, vol. xiv. Ruisell, John Wadhams (1804-1887). His grandfather was Captain John Russell, who commanded a privateer brig in 1778; his father, the Hon. Stephen Russell, of Litch- field County, Connecticut ; his mother, Sarah Wadhams, of Goshen, Connecticut. John Wadhams was born in Canaan, Litchfield County, Connecticut, January 28, 1804. As a boy he went to the common schools of Litchfield, then entered Hamilton College in 1821, with the intention of taking a complete course, but in 1823, health failing, he was com- pelled to go to South Carolina, where he recovered and began the study of medicine under Dr. Sheridan. In 1824 he attended a course of lectures in the medical department of Yale College, and the year following, a course in Berkshire Medical Institution of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The following year he studied medicine with Dr. George McClel- lan (q. v.) of Philadelphia. In 1826 he en- tered Jefferson Medical College, and in 1827 took his M. D. there, the same year beginning practice at Litchfield, Connecticut, in partner- ship with Dr. Abbey, filling, meantime, the office of demonstrator of anatomy in the med- ical department of Yale College. In 1828, by the advice of his physician, he removed to Ohio, with the hope "that the malarial climate might ward off a tendency to consumption." He settled first in Sandusky, Erie County, but finding the lake winds too harsh, moved, dur- ing the same year, to Mt. Vernon, in Knox County, where he remained constantly engaged in practice until 1887. He was one of the founders of the Ohio State Medical Society, of which he became president in 1862. Dr. Russell was of medium height and rather stout. He was lame, a disability resulting from an injury in childhood. He had dark hair, dark complexion, aquiline features, and piercing black eyes. In manner he was cheer- ful. He was a fine conversationalist, but inclined to be abrupt and rather positive. He had the caution of the proverbial Connecticut Yankee, and before performing a dangerous operation, to avoid suits, made it a custom to have the patient sign a proper instrument dividing re- sponsibilty and assuming for himself no more than he considered jusr. He was in active practice from 1827 until 1887, and during that long period, performed many of the capital, and most of the minor operations of surgery, operating for stone in the bladder more frequently than any other surgeon of Ohio of his day, and, though his facilities were meagre as compared with those of the present, he never lost a case. He pre- ferred the suprapubic operation, and used it in several cases, but, swayed by custom, more frequently chose the lateral perineal route. During the early years of his practice it was impossible to obtain necessary instruments, and he was often compelled to devise such as he needed. For special purposes he made models of dough and forged the instruments himself, or had a silversmith copy them in silver or other metal. Some of these home- made instruments are now in the possession of his grandson, Dr. John E. Russell, and it is remarkable how closely they resemble in form, those now in use, especially the instruments for the removal of stone and those for trache- otomy. In the early fifties he treated, successfully, a case of spinal bifida involving cervical ver- tebrae. This operation and its results were considered so remarkable that the father, Hon. C. P. Buckingham, took the patient, a child, to New York, where it was exhibited to the most renowned surgeons of that city. They reported it to the Society of Surgeons in London, England, and it was published in the London Lancet. In 1828 he married Eliza Beebe, daughter of the Hon. William Beebe, of Litchfield, Con- necticut. They had five children, William B. ; Sarah, who died in infancy; John Wadhams, Jr. ; Ann Eliza ; Isaac Wadhams. All of the sons were at some time partners of their father, but died early. His grandson, Dr. John E. Russell, was his partner during the last six years of his life. Dr. Russell died of uremia, March 22, 1887, in Mt. Vernon, Ohio. He wrote and delivered many addresses be-
