Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/300

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DALCHO 278 DALTON lecturer at Jefferson College, 1864 ; professor of medicine and clinical medicine, 1872, emeri- tus professor, 1891 ; president of the Associa- tion of American Physicians; twice president of the College of Physicians, Philadelphia; honorary member of the Medical Society of New York and that of London; president of the Pathological Society of Philadelphia. Autobiograpliv of S. D. Gross. Phys. and Surgs. of the United States, W. B. Atkinson, 1878. Dalcho, Feraerick (1770-1836). Frederick Dalcho was born in London, Eng- land, in 1770, and died in Charleston, South Carolina, November 24, 1836. His father, a distinguished officer under Frederick the Great, had retired to England for his health, and at his death Frederick came to Baltimore, Mary- land, at the invitation of his uncle, who had removed to that place a few years before. Here he received a classical education, and then studied medicine, giving special attention to botany. He then entered the medical depart- ment of the army, and was stationed at Fort Johnson, Charleston harbor, but in consequence of some difficulty with his brother officers, re- signed in 1799 and practiced in Charleston, where he was active in establishing the botani- cal garden. About 1807 he left his practice and became one of the editors of the Charleston Courier, a daily Federal newspaper. He began to be interested in theological studies in 1811, was ordained deacon in the Protestant Epis- copal church in 1814, and priest in 1818. On February 23, 1819, he became assistant minis- ter of St. Michael's church, Charleston, where he remained until his death. A monument, erected to his memory by the vestry, stands near the south door of the church. Dr. Dalcho published "The Evidence of the Divinity of Our Saviour" (Charleston, 1820) ; "Historical Account of the Protestant Epis- copal Church in South Carolina" (1820) ; and "Ahiman Rezon," for the use of freemasons (1822). Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography. New York, 1887, vol. ii, 55. Dalton, John Call (1825-1889). John Call Dalton, a pioneer physiologist, was born at Chelmsford, Massachusetts, February 2, 1825, educated at Harvard University, where he received his A. B. in 1844 and M. D. in 1847, and early devoted himself to the study of physiology. He learned to experiment and prove under Claude Bernard in Paris, in 1850, rather than to rely on guesswork. Here he developed the "teaching instinct" which he possessed. In 1851 his essary on the "Corpus Luteum of Pregnancy," which obtained the prize offered by the American Medical Asso- ciation, at once established his reputation as an able investigator in physiology. Shortly afterwards he was appointed professor of phy- siology and morbid anatomy in the University of Buffalo, and, it is said, was the first in this country to use vivisection in class teaching. He resigned this chair in 1854 to accept a simi- lar one in the Vermont Medical College, and three years later he accepted the chair of phy- siology and microscopical anatomy in the Long Island College Hospital, and in 1855 held the same chair in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, until 1883, when he retired from active teaching and accepted the presidency of the college. As both a demon- strator and teacher Dr. Dalton had few equals. He was especially deft as a blackboard artist and in giving "chalktalks" with many colored crayons, much to the edification of his stu- dents. By the experimental method he brought them face to face with the facts of physiology so that the science became something more than a resume of the best foreign text books. During his presidency the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons moved into its new build- ings in fifty-ninth street. During the war he served in the army, first in April, 1861, as surgeon of the New York Seventh Regiment, and in August he was ap- pointed brigade surgeon, and served until March, 1864, when he returned to New York City and re-entered upon his duties at the Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons. Dalton was a member of the National Acad- emy of Sciences and of numerous medical societies. He was an earnest student and able writer. He was a good artist and had great manual dexterity as well. He died in New York, February 12, 1889. His "Treatise on Human Physiology," the first edition of which was published in 1859, always enjoyed marked popularity, and was at once adopted as a stan- dard text-book in all of our medical schools; it went through seven editions, the last pub- lished in 1882. He also wrote a "Treatise on Physiology and Hygiene for Schools" (which was published in 1868 and was trans- lated into French) ; "The Experimental Meth- od in Medicine" ; "Doctrines of the Circula- tion" ; "The Topographical Anatomy of the Brain" (1885), a beautifully illustrated atlas of which only two hundred and fifty impres- sions were printed, and copies of which are now highly prized. A list of his writings is in the Surg, gen's Cat., Wash., D. C. Med. Record, N. Y., 1889, vol. xxxv. N. Y. Med. Join., 1SS9. vol. xWx. Nat. Acad. Sc. Biog. Mem. Wash., 1895, vol. iii. S. W. Mitchell. Hist, of the Coll. of Phys. and Surgs. N. Y. J. Shrady, 1912, 149-157