HISTORY OF MEDICINE IN NEW YORK Three Centuries of Medical Progress BY JAMES J. WALSH, M.D., PH.D., Sc. D. Member of the French, German and Italian Societies for the History of Volume IV NATIONAL AMERICANA SOCIETY, INC. NEW YORK 1919 W22 1919 BIOGRAPHICAL THOMAS COCK was born at Glen Cove, Long Island, in 1782. He was a student in the office of Dr. Valentine Seaman at the same time that Dr. Valentine Mott was there for the same purpose. Later Dr. Cock became a partner of Dr. Seaman and settled in New York City. In 1812 he was elected to the chair of Anatomy and Physiology in Queens (now Rutgers) College, New Jersey, serving for four years. From 1819 to 1834 he was visiting physician to the New York Hospital, and from the latter year still served as consulting physician. He first became connected with the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1820; was a fellow for seven years; then elected vicepresident; served in this capacity until 1855, and as president from 1855 to 1858. He performed valuable work during the yellow fever epidemic of 1822 and again during the cholera epidemic of 1832; in recognition of the latter the city presented him with a silver service. He was president of the New York Academy of Medicine in 1852, and vice-president of the American Bible Society at the time of his death. He was obliged to abandon his profession on account of ill health and a few years later, June 14, 1869, he died in New York. JOH OHN PUTNAM BATCHELDER was born at Wilton, N. H., August 6, 1784. From early youth he showed a strong interest in medical science and considerable aptitude in discovering and applying remedies, and after a good education in the local schools became a student in the office of Drs. Samuel Fitch and Mathias Spaulding of Greenfield, New Hampshire. In June, 1807, he was licensed to practice, but did not receive the degree of M.D. until 1815, when he completed the course of the Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. On his graduation he presented a thesis on aneurism which is notable for its profound reasoning and many remarkable anticipations of improvements in medical science. In 1817 he became Professor of Anatomy in the Castleton Medical College, Vermont, and later in the Pittsfield Medical College, Massachusetts, and afterwards practiced at Utica, New York, whence he removed to New York City in 1846. He performed his first operation for calculus as early as 1818, and during his career treated a wide range of surgical cases, although devoting particular attention to diseases of the eye and to tumors and fungus growths, and was also an inventor of considerable note. He was a member of several professional and learned associations, was president of the New York Academy of Medicine in 1858, and also at one time of the New York Medical Association. His writings consisted mainly of reports on important operations performed by him, and were in the form of lectures, monographs and magazine articles. Dr. Batchelder died in New York City, April 8, 1868. 3 |