American Medical Biographies/Hutchison, Joseph Chrisman
Hutchison, Joseph Chrisman (1827–1887).
Joseph Chrisman Hutchison was born in Old Franklin, Missouri, February 22, 1827, the son of Nathaniel Hutchison, M. D., a native of Armagh, Ireland; and of Mary Chrisman, of Fauquier County, Virginia. He graduated from the University of the State of Missouri, at Columbia, and in 1848 received his M. D. from the University of Pennsylvania, after a partial course in Jefferson Medical College. In 1849 he married Susan H., daughter of Rev. A. and Martha Cowles Benedict, of Farmington, Connecticut.
For a few years he practised medicine in Missouri, but in 1853 removed to Brooklyn, with the interest of which, medical, sanitary, and educational, he became closely and actively identified. In 1854 he had charge of the cholera hospital in Brooklyn, and the successful treatment of cholera patients was in a large part due to his skilful and well organized efforts. His constant interest in the medical work of the city was manifested in the various positions of public medical trust held: attending surgeon to the Brooklyn Hospital, surgeon-in-chief of the Orthopedic Dispensary. The numerous hospitals to which he was attached as consulting surgeon show the confidence of their medical officers in him.
With all his professional work he found time to contribute to medical literature the results of his clinical observations, in clear, concise, and well digested articles, always of a practical character, and bearing evidence of being written from the bedside, rather than from the study. One of the last papers prepared by him was on "Transfusion," read before the New York Medical Association in 1884. He held membership in many societies, local, national, and international, and also added to his labors that of teacher, having held the position of lecturer on the diseases of women, from 1854 to 1856, inclusive, in the University of the City of New York, and from 1860 to 1867, that of professor of operative and clinical surgery in the Long Island College Hospital. From 1873 to 1875 he was health officer of Brooklyn. In 1880 the University of Missouri conferred its LL. D. on him.
He was the author of a work on "Physiology and Hygiene for Schools" (1870), long in use throughout the country. He wrote also: "History and Observations on Asiatic Cholera in Brooklyn, New York, in 1854," and "Contributions to Orthopedic Surgery" (1880).
The suffering and distress that are incident to a weak and failing heart and pulmonary edema were borne with a patience and bravery that were the outcome of a life-long self-control and a reliance on power that is more than human; but the end was quite painless, on July 17, 1887, in Brooklyn.