Dr. Ephraim McDowell, 'father of ovariotomy' : his life and his work / by August Schachner.
- August Schachner
- Date:
- [1913]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Dr. Ephraim McDowell, 'father of ovariotomy' : his life and his work / by August Schachner. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![[154] blood. He was the ninth of eleven children, and the sixth son. When about 13 years of age, he moved from the place of his birth to the place of his future activity, Danville, Kentucky. He received the best education that those early times and frontier conditions afforded, which, however, according to our present, standard, might rightly be termed limited. Worley and James, who conducted a school at Georgetown, and later at Bardstown, were among his teachers. He also attended the Academy at Lexington, Virginia. His subsequent reputation as an athlete, while at the University of Edinburgh where he was successfully pitted by his class against an Irish profes- sional in a foot race, lends color to the view that at school he was fonder of outdoor sports than indoor studies. Later he studied medicine for two or three years with Dr. [155] Alexander Humphreys, of Staunton, Virginia, who was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. In 1793 and 1794, McDowell attended the University of Edinburgh. It is believed that while there he gave especial attention to anatomy and surgery. Apparently dissatisfied with the surgical lectures, or at least feeling a desire for more instruction in this line of work, he became a member of the private class of John Bell, who, in addition to being an able surgeon, was a clear and forceful teacher, and a man of charm- ing personality. It is generally thought that from Bell’s in- fluence, together with his lucid lectures upon the diseases of the ovary and his statement that some day surgery would relieve those suffering from ovarian troubles, the seed sprung from which developed the operation of ovariotomy. Indications justify the belief that he left Edinburgh without his degree, although some of his relatives claim that he secured it. He returned from there in 1795 and began the practice of medicine at his home in Danville where he remained until his death. In 1817 the Medical Society of Philadelphia, the most dis- tinguished of that time in this country, publicly recognized McDowell’s ability, and in 1825 he received an honorary degree from the University of Maryland. This appears to be the first degree that was ever conferred upon him. Lunsford P. Yan-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22440951_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
