Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/868

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
NAME
846
NAME

NEILL 846 NEILL Ulster, Ireland, who came to America in 1739, was a physician of Snow Hill, born in Lewes, Delaware, June 3, 1749; he was a member of the Board of Examiners of the Eastern Shore, and a "strong Whig in the Revolution" (Cordell) ; he married Eliza- beth Martin and died at Snow Hill, in June, 1816. Henry Neill was educated at the Washing- ton Institute, Somerset ■ County, Maryland, then began to study medicine with John Church of Philadelphia. Dr. Church had married a daughter of Benjamin Duffield (17S3-1799), a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in 1774, and in 1806 Neill mar- ried Martha Rutter, another daughter of Dr. Duffield. In 1807 he graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania with a thesis on "Bubonocele." He settled to prac- tise in Philadelphia and remained there all his life. He had a large practice in obstet- rics ; was interested in delirium tremens ; and suggested a novel treatment for club-foot. He was physician to the Walnut Street Prison and to the Almshouse, including its lying-in-department; he was fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, one of its censors and in 1844 its vice-president. He died at Belvedere, October 7, 1845. His children were: Catherine; Elisabeth Duffield (who married John Rodman Paul, M. D., University of Pennsylvania, 1822) ; Benjamin Duffield, M. D. (1811-1872), (University of Pennsylvania, 1833); Anna Phillips; Henry (graduate at Amherst College, 1834) ; Emily Martha; John (q. v.); James Patriot Wilson (captain in the United States Army) ; Edward Duffield (1823-1893, graduate of .A.mherst College, 1842, minister, author and educator) ; and Thomas Hewson (1826-1885, distinguished soldier; general in the L^nited States Army). Dr. Neill's portrait hangs in the College of Physicians, Philadelphia. Communication from Dr. Ewinj Jordan, who gave as sources: John Neill and His Descendants of Delaware (privately printed). Memoir by Tolin Marshall Paul, in Trans. Coll. of Phys. of Phila., 1846-49, vol. ii. Medical Annals of Maryland, E. F. Cordell, Balto., 1903. NeUl, John (1819-1880) John Neill, surgeon, third son of Henry Neill, physician (q. v.) and Martha Rutter, second daughter of Dr. Benjamin Duffield (1753-1799), was born in Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania, July 9, 1819. He graduated in .rts at the University of Pennsylvania in 1837, then entered the medical department of the University and graduated M. D. in 1840, with a thesis on "Diseases of the Eye." He began to practise in Philadelphia, but spent a short time in the West Indies in 1841, returning in 1842, to practise and give private medical instruction. He was appointed assistant dem- onstrator of anatomy in the University, and in 1845 demonstrator of anatomy, succeed- ing Paul B. Goddard. From 1849 to 1852 he was surgeon at Wills Eye Hospital; in 1849 he was physician to the Southeast Cholera Hospital, where his method of treat- ment formed the basis of a report published by the College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1852 he was elected to the staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital, from which he ■ re- signed in 1859; he was professor of surgery in the Pennsylvania Medical College 1854- 1859. He was a contract surgeon in the United States Army 1861-62, and in 1862 was made surgeon of volunteers. When Fort Sumter fell he was the first to attempt to secure a military hospital "by converting Moyamensing Hall on Christian Street into one, and telegraphed to the surgeon-general of the Army for authority to establish it as a branch of the United States Army. This was so timely for service after Bull Run that he was given charge of the establish- ment of hospitals . . . and was finally placed at the htad of Broad Street Central Hos- pital." (Henry.) In 1863 Dr. Neill was made medical direc- tor of the forces from Pennsylvania, and for able service was brevetted lieutenant-colonel; after the Civil W'ar he was post-surgeon. Neill was instrumental in founding the Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia,- and wrote the first printed matter on the subject, "Shall Presbyterians have a Hospital in the City of Philadelphia?" prinited during the war. He was on the first medical board of the hospital, serving from 1872 to 1875, when he resigned. Neill invented an apparatus to treat frac- tures of the leg and he modified Desault's splint for fracture of the femur. He was the first professor of clinical sur- gery in the University of Pennsylvania, 1874- 75. He wrote twelve articles for the Medical Examiner (1849-1875); and seven for the American Jowrnal of the Medical Sciences (1842-1875). Henry says: "Treatment of Fracture of the Patella and Extension and Counter-extension of the Leg have a perma- nent place in surgical literature." He wrote: "Outlines of the Arteries." 1845; "Outlines of the Nerves," 1845; "Outlines of the Veins and Lymphatics," 1847; illustrated with original drawings, the names being