Robley Dunglison
Robley Dunglison | |
---|---|
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US | |
Burial place | Laurel Hill Cemetery |
Occupation(s) | Physician, medical educator, author |
Spouse | Harriette Leadam |
Robley Dunglison (4 January 1798 – 1 April 1869) was an English-American physician, medical educator and author who served as the first full-time professor of medicine in the United States at the newly founded University of Virginia from 1824 to 1833. He authored multiple medical textbooks and is considered the "Father of American Physiology" after the publication of his landmark textbook Human Physiology in 1832. He was the personal physician to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe. He consulted in the treatment of Andrew Jackson and was in attendance at Jefferson's death.
He served as chair of materia medica, therapeutics, hygiene and medical jurisprudence at the
Early life and education
Dunglison was born in
Career
Dunglison initially focused on
In 1824, Thomas Jefferson and the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia commissioned Francis Walker Gilmer to find professors in England for the new University. Gilmer offered the anatomy and medicine professorship to Dunglison.[6] The agreement with the University of Virginia was that beyond medical consultation with Jefferson and select others, he would not practice medicine. This made him the first full-time professor of medicine in the United States.[7] He received an M.D. degree in 1825 from Yale College.[4]
Dunglinson was known to own slaves while at the University of Virginia and purchased some of the slaves previously owned by Thomas Jefferson.[8]
Dunglison was the personal physician to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe and was called into consultation for the treatment of Andrew Jackson.[9] He was a frequent visitor to Jefferson at Monticello and was in attendance during his illness and death in 1826.[3]
While at the University of Virginia, Dunglison published his landmark textbook Human Physiology (1832), which established his reputation as the “Father of American Physiology.” [4]
He took an active role in the scientific experiments on gastric digestion conducted by William Beaumont. Dunglison performed some of the experiments on gastric juice, outlined additional chemical experiments to be conducted and designed further experiments for Beaumont to conduct. He would have also published the work but deferred to Beaumont to publish the work himself.[7]
In 1832, Dunglison was elected to the
In 1837, he established a monthly publication, the American Medical Library and Intelligencer. He co-edited the journal along with Granville Sharp Pattison[12] until 1842 when the journal was discontinued.[4] In 1838, Dunglison became a naturalized U.S. citizen.[3]
In 1840, Dunglison was appointed by Jefferson Medical College as a representative to the National Medical Convention for the revision of the United States Pharmacopeia.[13] He was also personal physician to Peter Stephen Du Ponceau toward the end of his life.[14]
Dunglison successfully campaigned for the creation of an asylum for Philadelphia's mentally ill residents. In 1844, he became an officer at the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind (later known as
He received an honorary LL.D. degree from
First description of Huntington's disease
One of Dunglison's recently graduated students at Jefferson Medical College, Charles Oscar Waters, provided his professor with a description of the "magrums" (a folk name for what is now called Huntington's disease), which Waters observed was prevalent in Westchester County, New York.[15]
Although he had never seen a case, Dunglison included a description of the disease in his 1842 textbook The Practice of Medicine. Waters's account of the disease was one of the first to note that the disease is hereditary, "within the third generation at farthest."
Another of Dunglison's students at Jefferson, Charles R. Gorman, wrote his thesis on the magrums as well.[16]
Family
Dunglinson married Harriette Leadam on 4 October 1824.[3] Together they had seven children[4] including:
- Harriette Elizabeth (1825 – 1841)
- John Robley (1829 – 1896), newspaper editor, politician
- a son, born in November 1827, died of bronchitis at 11 months[17]
- William Leadam (1832 – 1891), merchant
- Richard James (1834 – 1901) -- Physician and editor of the first American edition of Gray's Anatomy in 1859[18]
- Thomas Randolph (1837-1920), physician, died at Rosny-sous-Bois, France
- Emma Mary (1840-1916), married John Browne, Capt. in British Army, died in Charlton, London
Death and legacy
He died on April 1, 1869, and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery.[3] A dormitory at the University of Virginia was named in his honor.[19]
Bibliography
- Commentaries on Diseases of the Stomach and Bowels of Children, G.B. Whittaker, London, 1824
- Human Physiology, 1832
- A New Dictionary of Medical Science and Literature. The 1st (1833), The 2nd (1839), 3rd (1842), and 5th (1845) editions added "Medical Lexicon" to the title page.[20]
- The Medical Student; or, Aids to the Study of Medicine, 1837
- New Remedies: The Method of Preparing and Administering Them; Their Effects on the Healthy and Diseased Economy, &c., Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1841
- The Practice of Medicine; or, A Treatise on Special Pathology and Therapeutics, Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1842
- Medical Lexicon: A Dictionary of Medical Science, Blanchard and Lea, Philadelphia, 1857
Citations
- ^ Lonsdale 1875, pp. 262–263.
- ^ a b Radbill 1963, p. 7.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Hickman, Ellen C. "Dunglison, Robley (1798–1869)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g h The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. 10. New York: James T. White and Co. 1909. p. 270.
- ^ Radbill 1963, p. 10.
- Macmillan. pp. 342, 371.
- ^ a b c Radbill 1963, p. 4.
- ^ Schulman, Gayle M. "Slaves at the University of Virginia" (PDF). www.latinamericanstudies.org. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
- ^ Radbill 1963, p. 3.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
- ISBN 978-1-60938-120-2. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
- ^ Radbill 1963, p. 103.
- ^ Radbill 1963, p. 130.
- ^ Radbill 1963, pp. 131–133.
- ISBN 978-0-19-851060-4.
- ISBN 978-0-300-10502-5.
- ^ Radbill 1963, p. 35.
- ^ "Gray's Anatomy: The Jefferson Years" in Jeffline Forum, September 2003
- ^ "University of Virginia Housing and Residence Life". www.housing.virginia.edu. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
- ^ Dunglison, Robley (1856). Medical lexicon : a dictionary of medical science ... Columbia University Libraries. Philadelphia : Blanchard and Lea.
Sources
- Dorsey, John M., ed. (1960) The Jefferson-Dunglison Letters. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
- Lonsdale, Henry (1875). The Worthies of Cumberland. Ballantyne & Company.
- Radbill, Samuel X. (1963). The Autobiographical Ana of Robley Dunglison, M.D. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society,new ser., v. 53, pt. 8. The American Philosophical Society.
External links
- Letter From Thomas Jefferson to Robley Dunglison
- Manuscripts and Archives - Robley Dunglinson, 1798-1869, A brief biography by Joby Topper - Claude Moore Health Sciences Library Repository, University of Virginia
- Manuscripts and Archives - Robley Dunglison, includes photos, circa 1980s - Claude Moore Health Sciences Library Repository, University of Virginia
- The Microscope of Robley Dunglison, MD
- Thomas Sully Portrait of Dr. Robley Dunglison