Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/902

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5 ■3 CO PANCOAST 880 PANCOAST

of the American Philosophical Society; the Medical Society of Pennsylvania, and other scientific organizations. Dr. Pancoast was married at Philadelphia in 1829 to Rebecca, daughter of Timothy Abbott He died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 7, 1882. Ch.rles R. Bardeen. Autobiography. S. D. Gross. Nat. Encyclo. Amer. Biog., vol. ix. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 1882. Med. Bull., Phila., 1882, vol. iv. Med. News, Phila., 1882, vol. -xl. Phila. Med. Times, 1881-2, vol. xii. There is a portrait in the Surg.-gen.'s Lib. at Washington, D. C. Pancoast, Seth (1823-1889) Seth Pancoast, physician and cabalist, was born in Darby, Pennsylvania, July 28, 1823, and died in Philadelphia, December 16, 1889. He was a descendant of one of three Pancoast brothers who came to this country with Wil- liam Penn. His father was Stephen Pancoast, a paper manufacturer, and his mother Anna Stroud. The local schools of Darby gave him his primary education, and in 1843 he engaged in business. Matriculating in the medical de- partment of the University of Pennsylvania in October, 1850, he graduated M. D. in 18S2, becoming professor of anatomy in the Woman's Medical College in Philadelphia the following year. Resigning this chair in 1854, Jhe was professor in the Peniisylv?frvia Medical College, Philadelphia, until 1859, when his pri- vate practice compelled him to relinquish the chair and accept the position of professor emeritus, and so remained until the close of the college in 1862. In 1877 he wrote "The Cabala," the first book in tlie English language to explain the system of mystical interpretation of the Scrip- tures as embodied in the ten "sepheroths." Two years earlier he had calculated the return of the seventh cycle of Tritheinius in 1878. announcing that if the calculation were cor- rect, there would be a revival in theosophy and other occult studies at that time, as there was. He wrote a larger work that embodied twenty years' search and selection through ancient works in European libraries, but which presumably was never finished. Dr. Pancoast had the finest private collec- tion of works on the occult sciences in the United States. His other books include : "An Original Treatise on the Curability of Con- sumption by Medical Inhalation and Adjunct Remedies," Philadelphia, 1855; "Ladies Med- ical Guide and Marriage Friend," Philadelphia, 1864, new ed. 1876; "Blue and Red Light as Mediums," Philadelphia, 1877; "The Kabbala ; or. The True Science of Light," Philadelphia, 1878, new ed., 'New York, 1883; "What is Brighls Disease? Its Curability," Philadel- phia, 1882. .He was thrice married, his first wife being Sarah Saunders Osborn, the second Susan George Osborn, and the third Carrie Almena Fernald. The doctor had issue by each wife, eight children in all. Professor Henry R. Pancoast, M. D., 1898, University of Pennsyl- vania, instructor of roentgenology, was a son by the second wife. Information from Ewing Jordan, M. D. Appleton's Cyclop. Amer. Biog. 643. Dictionary of Authors, AUibone. N. Y., 18 Pancoast, William Henry (1835-1897) William Henry Pancoast was the son of Jo- seph (q. v.) and Rebecca Abbott Pancoast. He was educated at Haverford College, Pennsyl- vania, where he graduated in 1853. Following in the footsteps of his father, a leading mem- ber of the medical profession of Philadelphia, he entered Jefferson Medical College, where he was graduated M. D. in 1856. He then studied two and a half years in London, Paris, Vienna and Berlin. Upon his return he settled in Philadelphia and soon acquired a reputa- tion as a brilliant diagnostician, a bold and skilful, yet conservative operator. In 1859 he was elected visiting surgeon to the Charity Hospital, a position which he held for ten years, during which time he established a large surgical clinic. On resigning, he was elected consulting surgeon, and placed on the board of trustees. During the Civil War he was appointed surgeon-in-chief and second officer in charge of the Military Hospital, Philadel- phia. In 1862 he was appointed demonstrator of anatoiny at Jefferson Medical College; this position he held until 1874. He was also a lecturer on surgical anatomy in the Summer School. In 1866 he was elected one of the visiting surgeons to the Philadelphia Hospital. When his father went to Europe in 1867 he was appointed adjunct professor of anatomy in Jefferson College. He also occupied the same position in 1873 and 1874, and upon the resignation of his father in the latter year, he was elected his successor. Dr. Pancoast was a fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia; member of the Philadelphia College Medical Society (president in 1869), and a member of numer- ous other medical societies. From 1886 to the time of his death he was professor of genera! descriptive and surgical anatomy and clinical surgery in the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia, an institution which he helped