LIEBERMANN
97
LIEBERMANN
happiness lay in adding to his gift, until
the numbers exceeded 10,000, including
an unequalled collection of the School of
Salerno. It formed part of his holidays,
in Europe, to buy collections adding to
the number, and if any friend craved a
book, to supply the library with it.
Equally generous with his money, he was
friend to manj^ in a delicate way and was
known always as a faithful and sincere
Christian.
In 1890 advancing age began to tell on him and it was also known he had a lesion of the aortic valve. On November 8, after a slight attack, he was able to enjoy his books again, but on the fifteenth slight congestion of the lungs increased and he died, aged seventy-seven years.
He held a fellowship of the College of Physicians, Philadelphia, and was presi- dent in 1884, and was also a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, 1839, and of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, 1840. D. W.
TTniv. M. Mag.,Phila., 1S90, vol. iii.
Tr. Coll. Phys., Phila., 1S90, li s., vol, xii.
(S. W. Mitchell, pt. al.)
Liebermann, Charles H. (181o-lS8(i).
Charles H. Liel)ermann was born in Riga, September 15, 1813, his father a military surgeon who died while the boy was a child. His mother belonged to the Radetzkeys who furnished many famous personages in German and Polish history. The doctor's uncle became his guardian and gave the child a good education. He entered Dorpat University, from which he graduated M. A. in 183G then on to Wilna, where he studied medicine, but after some time returned to Dorpat, and so to Berlin University where he took his M. D. and became a private pupil of Prof. Dieffenbach, serving for some time as his assistant. Dr. Liebermann enjoyed the advantages of the lectures and clinics of the famous ophthalmist von Graefe in his treatment of affections of the eye and also studied physical deformities.
He came to the United States early in 1840 and landed in Boston, but settled to practise in Washington shortly after Vol. II— 7
his arrival, on the north side of Penn.syl-
vania Avenue, between Ninth and Tenth
streets.
Professor Dieffenbach, the originator of the operation for the cure of strabis- mus, said: "Dr. Liebermann, who has been one of my distinguished pupils and for some time after closing his academical course my associate in the practice of medicine and surgery, was, after myself, the third physician in Europe and the first one in the United States, who, as early as October last (1840), performed the operation for strabismus with complete success."
The medical profession of the United States as well as the politicians saw with some regret the rapid immigra- tion of and the prominent positions given in the professions and pul)lic places requiring scientific acquirements, to foreigners. Dr. Liebermann had to contend with a natural objection to foreigners but so well was he equij)- ped, professionally and so discreet and honorable in his intercourse with medical men, that he soon gained not only their high regard but that of the citizens in general. He identified him- self as soon as practicable, with the profession of the city by joining the Medical Society of the District, and was its president from 1865 to 1868. He joined the Medical Association of the District in 1843. He was one of the founders of the medical depart- ment of the University of Georgetown, and filled the chair of professor of surgery from 1849 to 1853, and again from 1857 to 1861, when he resigned and was elected emeritus professor. He was also a member of the first Pathological Society of Washington, organized in 1841. He had much me- chanical ingenuity, which enabled him to succeed in the treatment of cataract, joints and deformities. He was for over twenty years the leading oculist in Washington. He was also a member of the staff and consulting surgeon to the Providence Hospital for a number of years.
