American Medical Biographies/Gunn, Moses
Gunn, Moses (1822–1887)
His parents were natives of Massachusetts, of Scotch descent, and pioneers in Western New York. Moses was born in East Bloomfield, Ontario County, New York, on April 20, 1822, and after a general education in common schools and Bloomfield Academy, he was attacked by serious illness which kept him from study for two years and compelled him to take a sea voyage. On returning he began medical study with Dr. Edson Carr of Canandaigua, New York, and in October, 1844, entered Geneva Medical College and graduated M. D. in 1846. As the college closed, a body arrived too late for dissection and was given to young Gunn for teaching purposes. At once he placed it in a large trunk, transported it to Ann Arbor, collected a class, and within two weeks after graduating was demonstrating anatomy to his eager listeners. It is believed that this was the first course of lectures on anatomy delivered in Michigan. These courses were regularly repeated by Dr. Gunn in connection with his private practice, till the opening of the Medical Department of the University. In July, 1849, he held the chair of anatomy in the University of Michigan and in 1850 that of surgery was added. In 1854 anatomy was transferred to Dr. Corydon L. Ford (q. v.). In 1853 Gunn settled in Detroit, visiting Ann Arbor twice weekly to deliver his lectures and hold clinics, adding to his work in 1857 co-editorship of the Medical Independent, a Detroit monthly medical journal, merging in 1858 with the Peninsular Medical Journal under the name of the Peninsular and Independent Medical Journal (1858–1860), Gunn continuing on the editorial staff. His main purpose in this was the removal of the medical department of the university to Detroit. In September, 1861. Moses Gunn joined the Army of the Potomac as surgeon of the fifth Michigan Infantry, remaining in the army till ill health compelled him to resign in July, 1862. In 1856 Geneva Medical College gave him her honorary A. M., and in 1877 Chicago University her LL. D. Among other memberships and appointments he was a member, during its second epoch, of the Michigan State Medical Society, the Detroit Medical Society, the Illinois State Medical Society, Chicago Medical Society, the American Surgical Association, the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons; surgeon to the Cook County Hospital, St. Joseph's and St. Luke's Hospitals, and the Presbyterian Hospital—all in Chicago—and in 1867 he accepted the chair of surgery in Rush Medical College, proving a potent factor in its larger evolution. During the winters of 1851–52–53 he made many dissections which proved that the untorn portion of the capsule in dislocation of the shoulder and hip caused the characteristic attitude assumed by the limbs and was the true obstacle to reduction. He also demonstrated that the return of the dislocated bone into its socket can easily be effected by putting the limb in such a position as will effectually approximate the two points of attachment of the untorn portion of the ligament (Peninsular Journal of Medicine, Detroit, vol. i, p. 95). Gunn was over six feet, well proportioned, with erect military carriage, long side whiskers, heavy drooping mustache, curly hair that rested on his coat collar, and clear blue eyes. His lectures were prepared with the greatest care, and so had an effect far beyond the modern medical lecture. It is said that the great Chicago fire destroyed the manuscript of a work on surgery he had nearly completed. Gunn was a rare conversationalist and loved the art. Children ranked with his warmest friends; to these he added animals, flowers and all forms of natural beauty.
In 1848 he married Jane Augusta Terry, only daughter of Dr. J. M. Terry, and three of their four children survived him. He died November 4, 1887, after a long illness, from malignant disease of the stomach.
His writings, largely on fractures, may be found in the Surgeon General's Library at Washington, D. C.