PANCOAST
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PANCOAST
and loosening any attachment it may
have made to the pharynx. He per-
formed four times with success a lumbar
operation for large abscesses, lying in the
connective tissue between the colon and
the cecum and the front of the quadra-
tus lumborum muscle. He originated
an abdominal tourniquet, first used in
1860, which, by compressing the lower
end of the aorta and by shutting off the
arterial blood from the lower Umbs,
prevented death by loss of blood in
amputations at the hip-joint, or even
high up on the thigh. In 1862, before
the class of the Pennsylvania Hospital,
Dr. Pancoast performed for the first time
his cure for certain cases of tic douloureux,
dividing the trunks of the fifth pair of
nerves as they come out of their foramina,
at the base of the skull. In January,
1868, he performed for the first time an
operation, original with him, for the
relief of extrophy of the bladder, by
turning down cutaneous flaps from the
abdomen and groin over the hollow raw
surface of the open bladder.
Dr. Pancoast was a voluminous con- tributor to the "American Journal of Medical Sciences," the "American Intelli- gencer," and the "Medical Examiner;" and the author of pathological and surgi cal monographs; essays and introductory lectures to his class, one of these being "Professional Glimpses Abroad" (1856). He edited "Manec on the Great Sympa- thetic Nerve," and on the "Cerebro- spinal System in Man," and "Quain's Anatomical Plates;" and pubhshed an anotated translation from the Latin of Lobstein's "Treatise on the Structure, Functions and Diseases of the Human Sympathetic Ner ve " ( 183 1 ) ; " Treatise on Operative Surgery" (1844, third edition, 1852), his chief work; and a revised edi- tion of Dr. Caspar Wistar's "System of Anatomy for the Use of Students" (1844). He was a member of the American Philo- sophical Society; the Medical Society of Pennsylvania, and other scientific organ- izations.
Dr. Pancoast was married at Phila- delphia in 1829 to Rebecca, daughter of
Timothy Abbott. He died in Phila-
delphia, Pennsylvania, March 7, 1882.
C. R. B.
S. D. Gross, AutobioRraphy.
Nat. Encyclo. Amer. Biog., vol. ix.
Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 1882.
Med. Bull , Phila., 1882, vol. iv.
Med. News, Phila, 1882, vol. xl.
Phila. Med. Times, 1881-2, vol. xii.
There is a portrait in the Surg.-gen. Lib. at
Washington, D. C.
Pancoast, William Henry (1835-1897).
WilUam Henry Pancoast was the son of Joseph and Rebecca (Abbott) Pancoast. He was educated at Haverford College, Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1853. Following in the footsteps of his father, a leading member of the medical profession of Philadelphia, he entered Jeff'erson Medical College, where he was graduated M. D. in 1856. He then studied two and a half years in London, Paris, Vienna and Berlin Upon his return he settled in Philadelphia and soon acquired a reputation as a brilliant diagnostician, a bold and skillful yet conservative operator. In 1859 he was elected visiting surgeon to the Charity Hospital, a position which he held for ten years, during which time he established a large surgical clinic. On resigning, he was elected consulting surgeon, and placed on the board of trustees. During the Civil War he was appointed surgeon- in-chief and second ofiicer in charge of the Mihtary Hospital, Philadelphia. In 1862 he was appointed demonstrator of anatomy at Jefferson Medical College; this position he held until 1874. He was also a lecturer on surgical anatomy in the Summer School. In 1866 he was elected one of the visiting surgeons to the Philadelphia Hospital. When his father went to Europe in 1867 he was appointed adjunct professor of anatomy in Jefferson College. He also occupied the same position in 1873 and 1874, and upon the resignation of his father in the latter year, he was elected his successor.
Dr. Pancoast was a member of the National Academy of Science; fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia;
