Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/295

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HORWITZ
HOSKINS
267

HORWITZ, Phineas Jonathan, surgeon, b. in Baltimore, Md., 3 March, 1822. He was educated at the University of Maryland and at Jefferson medical college. In 1847 he entered the U. S. navy as assistant surgeon, and during the Mexican war was in charge of the naval hospital at Tobas- Frora 1859 till 1865 he was assistant to the aureau of medicine, and chief of that bureau in 1865-'9. He was promoted surgeon 19 April, 1861, ammissioned medical inspector 3 March, 1871, ledical director 30 June, 1873, and was retired nth the relative rank of captain in 1885. His office assistant to the bureau of medicine and surgery luring the war involved the adjustment of all the ensions that accrued to the wounded and to the widows and orphans of the killed in the navy ; the ibulation of medical and surgical statistics ; and ie general management of all financial matters ertaining to the office. Dr. Horwitz projected and instructed the Naval hospital in Philadelphia. HOSACK, David, scientist, b. in New York eity, 31 Aug., 1769 ; d. there, 22 Dec, 1835. His "ither was a Scotch artillery officer, who served at le capture of Louisburg in 1758. David was graduated at Princeton in 1789, and received his medical degree in the College of Phil- adelphia in 1791. He then removed to Alexandria. Va., practised there a year, and in 1792 went to England and Scotland for study. In 1794 he returned to New York with the first collection of min- erals that had been introduced into this country, and the duplicate collection of plants

from the herbarium of Linnaeus,

which now constitutes a part of the museum of the Lyceum of natural history of New York. He was appointed professor of natural history in Co- lumbia college in 1795. and became the" partner of its first president, Dr. Samuel Bard, succeed- ing Dr. William Pitt Smith in the chair of ma- teria medica in 1797, and combining its duties with that of botany. In 1807 he became professor of midwifery and surgery in the College of physi- cians and surgeons, afterward occupying the chairs of the theory ami practice of medicine and obstet- rics and the diseases of women and children until 1826, when, with Dr. Valentine Mott, Dr. John W. Francis, and others, he organized the medi- cal department of Rutgers college, which was closed in 1830. At different periods he was phy- sician to the New York hospital and the Bloom- ingdale asylum. He was one of the founders and the first president of the New York historical so- ciety in 1820-8. president of the Horticultural, the Literary, and the Philosophical societies, and estab- lished the Elgin botanic garden. He edited, with his friend and pupil, Dr. John W. Francis, the P American Medical and Philosophical Monthly " in 1810-'14. Dr. Hosack made a special study of yellow fever, having himself suffered from the dis- ease, and his report on its character is one of the best that has ever been published. His paper on "Contagious Disorders" and his treatise on " Vision " were republished by the Royal society of London (1794). His " Hortus Elginensis," a scien- tific catalogue of his own collection of plants, is a valuable contribution to botany. He was the first surgeon in this country to tie the femoral artery at the upper third of the thigh, and introduced as early as 1795 the operation for hydrocele by injec- tion. He published, besides many medical and scientific papers, " Memoir of Hugh Williamson, M. D." (New York, 1820) ; " Essays on Various Sub- jects of Medical Science " (1824-'30) : " System of Practical Nosology " (1829) ; "Memoirs of DeWitt Clinton " (1829) ; and " Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Medicine," edited by Henry W. Du- cachet (New York, 1838). — His son, Alexander Eddy, physician, b. in New York city, 6 April, 1805; d. in Newport, R. I., 2 March, 1871, was prevented by delicate health from receiving a col- legiate education. He was graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1824, and spent the years 1825-'7 in study in Paris. Return- ing to the United States in 1828 he settled in New York, devoting himself especially to the practice of surgery, and was the first practitioner in the city that administered ether as an anaesthetic. He invented in 1833 an instrument for rendering the operation for staphylorraphy more complete in its minutiae, was the first to introduce Symes's opera- tion of exsection of the elbow into this country, and devoted much time and study to the various modes of inflicting capital punishment, for the purpose of discovering the most humane method. For many years he was attending surgeon of the marine hospital, and was a principal organizer of Ward's island hospital. Among his original pa- pers are " Description of an Instrument for tying Deep-seated Arteries" and "Seventy-three Cases of Lithotomy by a Peculiar Operation without dividing the Prostate Gland, all Successful." His widow, recently deceased, left $70,000 to the New York academy of medicine as a memorial of her husband, by the advice of Dr. Samuel S. Purple. Dr. Hosack published a pamphlet on " Anaesthesia, with Cases, being the First Instance of the Use of Ether in New York," and also a "History of the Case of the Late John Kearnev Rodgers, M. D." (New York. 1851).


HOSFORD, Oramel, educator, b. in Thetford, Vt, 7 May, 1820. He was graduated at Oberlin college, Ohio, in 1843, became professor of mathe- matics and philosophy in Olivet college, Mich., in 1846, and at the same time was pastor of the Con- gregational church there. In 1864 he was elected superintendent of public instruction of the state of Michigan. He published " School Laws of Michi- gan, with Notes and Forms " (Ann Arbor, 1869).


HOSKIN, Robert, wood-engraver, b. in Brook- lyn, N. Y., 10 Feb., 1842. He was educated in the public schools, and studied drawing at the Brook- lyn institute, where he received the Graham medal in 1858. He received the gold medal for engraving at the Paris salon in 1883. and the same year, at the French government exhibition, his exhibit was placed in the niche of honor. At the international exhibition of the graphic arts, held at Vienna in 1887, he received the gold medal of honor for his engraving of "Cromwell visiting Milton." Mr. Hoskin's work shows great delicacy and truth- fulness, with a feeling for line and tone. He is at present (1887) an engraver for magazines.


HOSKINS, George Gilbert, congressman, b. in Bennington. N. Y., 24 Dec, 1824. He engaged in business in Bennington in early life, was town-clerk for many years, and justice of the peace from 1851 till 1865! He was postmaster of Bennington through the administration of Taylor and Fillmore.