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ated upon was seventy-six and the youngest two
years of age. Tracheotomy was performed in thirty-
six cases. This was for foreign bodies in the
trachea with a mortality of eight percent. Trach-
eotomy was practiced for disease, sixty-two times
with a mortality of seventy percent. Membraneous
croup and diphtheria furnished fifty-one of these
patients with a mortality of eighty percent. due to
diphtheria. The greater number of the cases re-
ported were by the following surgeons:
Number of
cases
Acheson, Alex. W., Denison, Texas
Beall, E. J., Fort Worth, "
Blackrnore, T. M., Abilene, "
Carothers, A. E., San Antonio, "
Clopton, A. G., Jefferson, "
Cupples, George, San Antonio, "
Dowell, Greensville, Galveston, "
Eads, D. F., Marshall, "
Hadra, B. E., Austin, "
Herff, Ferd., San Antonio, "
Jordan, P., Beaumont, "
Loggins, J. C., Ennis, "
Paschal, Frank, Chihuahua, "
Reeves, W. W., Wills Point "
Stinson, J. B., Sherman, "
Wilkerson, C. H., Galveston, "
Wooten, T. D., Austin, "
reported.
61
30
13
60
3
221
20
20
22
214
30
5
11
22
20
69
28
It will be impossible to review all the out-
standing surgeons of these periods, and it is very
likely that I have not come in contact with the
accounts of many who deserve mention in a review
of this kind, but because of their peculiar ability
I think I should mention some few in more detail.
Though not strictly a surgeon, one cannot dis-
cuss the surgeons of Texas without referring to the
name of DR. ASHBEL SMITH, who came to Texas
about the time of the Battle of San Jacinto, and
was a very close friend of Sam Houston, and was
appointed Surgeon General of the Texas Army. His
unusual intelligence was of great value to those
men who were creating a new nation. His influence
in the enactment of laws regulating the practice of
medicine was needed and accepted. Also, he was
the great spirit which caused the establishment of
our University and early Medical School.
He wrote upon medical and surgical topics and
many of his writings were published. He also
became famous because of the assistance he gave
as a collaborator of the American Revised version
of the Bible. His library of four thousand volumes
is now a part of the University of Texas. He was
minister from Texas to the Court of St. James; he
danced with Queen Victoria and lunched with
Napoleon, III. He spoke and wrote French thor-
oughly, also Latin and Greek. At the beginning
of the Civil War he raised the Second Texas In-
fantry and fought throughout the war. He was
seriously wounded at the Battle of Shilo. He was
without fear, having fought several duels. His
home was near Galveston at Goose Creek, and his
property consisted of two thousand acres of land
overlooking Galveston Bay. He was a bachelor
throughout life.
DR. GEORGE CUPPLES was probably the
most outstanding surgeon in Texas at the time he
lived. He was well educated and never ceased in
his endeavor to improve the conditions of surgery
in Texas. His father was surgeon in the English
navy and he himself served as Assistant Surgeon in
the British army. He graduated from the University
of Edinburgh and studied extensively in London and
Paris. He reached Texas about the time of the
Mexican War and enlisted serving throughout the
war as a surgeon. He served as first surgeon of
the Seventh Texas Regiment during the war between
the States, and at the end of the war gave his parol
at San Antonio at the surrender. He was President
of the Texas State Medical Association in 1874, and
again in 1878.
He was the first to introduce into Texas anes-
thetics-ether first and chloroform afterwards. He
was the first in the United States to perform the
extirpation of the tongue for cancer by Nunnelly's
method, and to perform the operation of ovariotomy
in a child under eight years of age. He is recorded
as being the first in Texas to amputate at the hip
joint and knee joint with success. (Dr. Hugh Young
recently informed me that Dr. Cupples officiated at
his birth.)
BERTHOLD ERNEST HADRA was born in
Germany in 1842, and received his medical educa-
tion in Breslau and Berlin. He served in the
Prussian army and immigrated to Texas in 1870.
He was a member of the Board of Regents of the
University of Texas; held the Chair of Surgery in
the old Texas Medical College, and his contri-
butions to medical literature were numerous. He
deserves credit for devising conservative surgical
treatment in place of oophorectomy. He also was
probably the first to propose total eventration of
the contents and thorough washing and draining
of the abdominal cavity in diffuse peritonitis. He
wrote papers upon repair of cystocele, perineum,
etc. He contributed to surgery of the spine by
adding wiring of the vertebrae, which was probably
the first effort ever made at internal fixation of the
vertebrae for tuberculosis of the spine. He wrote
papers on the open treatment of torticollis, on non-