Frederick William Parham / [E. Denegre Martin].

  • Martin, E. Denegre.
Date:
1929
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Frederick William Parham / [E. Denegre Martin]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ROY MOODIE COLLECTION. Reprint from SURGERY, GYNECOLOGY AND OBSTETRICS October, 1929, pages 566-568 MASTER SURGEONS OF AMERICA FREDERICK WILLIAM PARHAM E. DENEGRE MARTIN, M.D., F.A.C.S., New Orleans, Louisiana IN the death of Frederick William Parham, on May 7, 1927, the medical profession lost one of its ablest and most beloved surgeons. He was born in New Orleans on March 20,1856, the son of John Greenway and Mary Blount Parham. His early education was received in the public schools of his native city and his collegiate work done at Randolph Macon College of Virginia. He studied medicine at the University of Louisiana, now Tulane University, and later did post graduate work in Philadelphia. Essentially a scholar, a student not only of medicine, to which he devoted his life, but a lover as well of art and music. He had a keen analytical mind and sound medical judgment. It was his great devotion to surgery and his untiring efforts to improve this branch of medicine which inspired his associates to greater deeds, and it was their co-operation which had much to do with firmly establishing aseptic surgery in the wards of the Charity Hospital of New Orleans. The history of his life’s work would be incomplete without a short sketch of his accomplishments in this great institution, for it was here he spent his spare moments and gave freely of his time, not only for the advancement of surgery, but to the establishment of new regulations in the management of the hospital tending toward the improvement of standards and the betterment of the staff. It is astonishing that a man of such frail physique could accomplish some of the herculean tasks he undertook, for in those days reforms were slow to introduce and accepted only after convincing proof. From the time he entered the hospital as an interne in 1877, a position he won in competitive examination, until his death fifty years later, his interest never ceased. It was through his direction, while assistant house surgeon 1885-1887, that a system of antiseptic methods was established in the obstetrical wards, which practically eliminated the scourge of puerperal infection from this department. In 1889, immediately after his return from the European clinics where he studied under such masters as Czerny, Bramann, Hohen and Ewald, and where he gained a thorough knowledge of the teachings of Lister and Pasteur, Dr. Parham established in his wards at the Charity Hospital, at his own expense, a sterilizing outfit and faithfully carried out the directions for the sterilization of hands, dressings, instruments and ligatures, as well as the preparation of pa- Copyright, 1929, by Surgical Pub. Co. of Chicago