DABNEY
DA COSTA
D
Dabney, William Cecil (1849-1894).
This physician of Huguenot descent, the name originally D'Aubign6, was born in Albemarle County on July 4, 1849. His father was a planter in that county and had married a Miss Gordon of Scotland.
His early education was obtained at home from private tutors, then he enter- ed the University of Virginia in 1866, and studied medicine for two years, graduat- ing in 1868. For one year he was in a Baltimore hospital as resident physician; and for another at Big Lick, now Roa- noke, Virginia. On account of his health he then returned to Albemarle County and farmed for two years, after which he resumed practice in Charlottesville.
He was a member of the Medical So- ciety of Virginia, the Association of American Physicians, and, the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Association. In 1886, professor of the practice of medicine and obstetrics in the Univer- sity of Virginia, which chair he filled with benefit to the university until his death.
He married Jane Belle Minor in 1869, and had nine children, seven of whom, three sons and four daughters, survived him. One son, William M., became a physician.
Dr. Dabney died at his house in the University of Virginia, of typhoid fever, August 20, 1894.
A prolific writer, he contributed many translations from French and German medical journals, and original articles to medical literature, of which the following are a few of the most important:
"The Value of Chemistry" to the "Medical Practitioner," Boylston prize essay, 1873. "Maternal Impressions" (" Keating's Cyclopedia of the Diseases of Children," 1889). "An Abstract of a Course of Lectures on the "Practice of Medicine." A syllabus of lectures on
"Obstetrics" and one on "Medical Juris-
prudence" for the use of his students.
"The Physiological Action and Thera-
peutic Uses of the Water of the
Greenbriar White Sulphur Springs"
("Gaillard's Medical Journal," April,
1890). During his professional life he
contributed more than thirty articles to
medical journals. These are to be found
in the volumes of the " American Journal
of Medical Sciences," "Philadelphia Med-
ical News," " New York Medical Record,"
the medical journals of North Carolina
and Virginia, and in the " Transactions of
the American Medical Association" and
the medical societies of Virginia and
North Carolina. R. M. S.
Trans. Med. Soc. of Va., 1S94.
Alumni Bulletin of the Univ. of Va., vol. i,
No. 3.
Da Costa, Jacob Mendez (1833-1900).
One of the best claims of the American medical world to notoriety is the fact that so many foreigners have not only studied but stayed in the States. One who did good work here was Jacob Men- dez Da Costa who came of an old Portu- guese family long resident in London. But Jacob was born on St. Thomas Is- land, West Indies, February 7, 1833 and educated in Europe, chiefly in Dresden. In 1849 he came on to Philadelphia be- cause his mother was there and shortly after began to study medicine in Jefferson College and also under Prof. Mutter. He must have been a good worker as, during his second year, he was, with his friend John H. Brinton, appointed demonstra- tor of the tumors and other specimens removed by Dr. Mutter at his clinics.
In 1S52 he took his M. D. at Jefferson Medical College and after that spent over a year in the universities and hospitals of Paris and Vienna, finding time also to cultivate his talent of painting, an art
