American Medical Biographies/Harlan, Richard
Harlan, Richard (1796–1843).
Richard Harlan anatomist, was born in Philadelphia, September 19, 1796, and previous to graduation at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1818, made a voyage to Calcutta as surgeon of an East India ship. In 1818 Dr. I. Parrish (q. v.) opened a private dissecting room in Philadelphia and placed Harlan in charge of it. He practised in Philadelphia, was elected in 1821 professor of comparative anatomy in the Philadelphia Museum, and was surgeon to the Philadelphia Hospital. In 1832, after the appearance of the Asiatic cholera in Montreal, he was appointed, together with Dr. Meigs and Dr. Jackson, to proceed to that city and obtain information concerning the best mode of treating that terrible disease. In 1838 he visited Europe a second time, and after his return in 1839 removed to New Orleans, and became in 1843 vice-president of the Louisiana State Medical Society. He was a member of many learned societies in this country and abroad. He died of apoplexy in New Orleans, September 30, 1843, at the age of 47. Dr. Harlan was father of the ophthalmologist George Cuvier Harlan (q. v.).
His chief writings were: "Anatomical Investigations," comprising descriptions of various fasciæ of the brain, 10 pt. (8°, Philadelphia, 1824); Observations on the Genus Salamandra," Philadelphia, 1824; "Fauna Americana," being a description of the mammiferous animals inhabiting North America, 1825; "Medical and Physical Researches," Philadelphia, 1835, a collection of previous medical essays; translation of Gannal's "History of Embalming," 1840.