Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1889-12-07
AN EMINENT PHYSICIAN.

The Hagerstown Mail publishes a
lecture delivered in 1859, by Judge ].
T. Mason, Oh DR.. Frederick Dorsey.
DIR. Dorsey was born in 1774. and died
in 1858. He lived nearly all his life
in Hagerstown.
Professor Nathaniel Potter, whose
authority no one can question. pro
nounced him as good if not the best
judge of pulse he knew. A single !
touch of that mysterious fibre was
sufficient to know whether it beat the
cheerful notes of life, or the sad muf-
fled tolls of death. His predictions of
life and death upon the sick bed were
almost superhuman. He could fix
with miraculous precision the last /
moment OF sinking patient, and in
his own case, he foretold with as much
calmness and precision as Wesley had |
done of himself, the very moment
when his spirit would take its flight.
In the department of midwifery, he
was admitted by all persons to stand
in tho front rank of his profession. |
His experience and success in that par |
ticular branch of medical science were
extraordinary. At the early age of
seventeen, he first entered on his par
ticular field of practice. and before he
died, he had officiated on upwards of
eleven thousand occasions. a few
years ago he could claim nearly half
the younger population of this county
as the offspring of his professional
skill. In number of instances which |
| might name, he has been the ac- |
coucher Of three generations. On
one occasion | remember to have
seen dancing party on the floor com |
posed Of sixteen persons, fourteen of !
whom he had introduced into this |
dancing world, while the two excep- |
tions, married ladies and heads of
families, had been his patients at del
icate periods no less than thirteen |
times. Was it ever in power of any
man to say the same? The conf |
dence of the public in his skill in this
particular was as unbounded as it was
meritcd.
In Dorsey's Elements of Surgery.
which l believe is compilation of |
DR.. Physics Practice and Lectures,
honorable mention is made of our |
old friend. In the article upon tre-
panning and the treatment generally |
of hemorrhages of the arteries of the
dura mater, the author says: The
middle artery of the dura mater was
once tied with a nedle and ligature |
by DR.. Frederick Dorsey, of Mary
land, and no i'll consequences result
ed" The gentleman, himself an en-
inent physician, to whom l am in
debted for the above fact, adds: 81
believe, as told you. that this artery
had never before, nor since, been lig-
atured and the success of the opera
ton proved the thorough skill of our
venerable friend"
Another case ! beg leave to refer
to. DIR. Harrison leading physician
and citizen of Martinsburg, Virginia,
suffered long and severely from fistula.
Having been treated by some of the
first surgeons of our own country |
without success, he went to Europe
and placed under the care of DR.. Bell,
of Edinburgh, than whom, at that |
time, no more eminent surgeon lived |
in any country. His treatment prov
ed equally unsuccessful, and DIR. FL.
returned home in despair of ever re-
covering. DIR. Dorsey was finally
consulted, and performed an operation
which resulted in the complete restor- |
alton, at last, of his patient to health.