Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/359

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RICHARDSON


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RICHARDSON


broken twig. Nothing happened for a long time until pain set in and an opera- tion became imperative. Rich did the operation, and removed the calculus. In it was the missing leather thong. This calculus was exhibited by Dr. William Brown, of Bangor, who was then at Dublin. He had assisted at the opera- tion, and with the consent of Dr. Rich took the calculus to Europe for exhibi- tion. It was composed of triple phos- phate and phosphate of lime and fusible in the blow-pipe.

His first capital operation was an amputation of a leg in 1809. His last was a couching for cataract June 27, 1865, when he restored to a man older than himself a good amount of sight.

On August 14, 1855 he was taken ill with what was to be his only and last illness, for he passed away slowly, week by week, dying finally January 30, 1866.

J. A. S.

Trans. Maine Medical Assoc, Portland, 1S66- 1868.

Richardson, Alonzo Blair (1852-1903).

Alonzo Blair Richardson, eminent as an alienist and neurologist throughout the United States, and superintendent of the Government Hospital for the Insane at Washington, District of Columbia, died in that city on the evening of June 27, 1903, after but a few hours' illness. Dr. Richardson was born near Harrison- ville, Scioto County, Ohio, September 11, 1852. Entering the Ohio University at Athens, Ohio, he remained two years, going thence to the Ohio Wesleyan Uni- versity at Delaware, Ohio. In the fall of 1874 he attended his first course of lectures at a medical college in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the next year entered the Bellevue Hospital Medical College at New York City, where he graduated in 1876. Returning to Ohio he accepted a position as assistant physician at the State Hospi- tal, Athens, Ohio. In 1880 he was ap- pointed superintendent. He was succes- sively superintendent of the State Hos- pital, Columbus, Ohio ; the State Hospital, Massillon, Ohio, and when occupying the


same post at the Government Hospital, Washington, he obtained government grants for the enlargement and improve- ment of the latter. In 1892 he was, without solicitation or suggestion on his part, unanimously elected to the super- intendency of the State Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and retained this posi- tion until the completion of the new State Hospital at Massillon, Ohio, in 1898. He had been one of the board of constructors of that institution from its first inception, and had largely shaped its plans.

Amid the multiplied demands of his position he continued an enthusiastic student. He must be counted among the foremost of those who have led in the notable amelioration and improvement in the treatment of the insane that has taken place. Despite his busy life in other respects, he found time to contrib- ute to some of the leading journals of the time. Insanity and its causes among the American troops in the Philippines and Cuban campaigns formed some of the sub- jects from his ready pen. Dr. Richard- son was a member of the Columbus, Ohio, Academy of Medicine, the Ohio State Medical Society, the New York Medico- Legal Society, the American Medico-psy- chological Association, of which he was elected president.

Dr. Richardson was professor in mental diseases in both Columbian and George- town Universities, in Washington. He was survived by a widow, Julia Dean Richardson, and four children. Dr. Wil- liam W., Mrs. W. G. Nefi^, Edith Harris, and Helen. C. H. C.

Amer. Jour, of Insanity, vol. Ix, 1903.

Richardson, Tobias Gibson (1827-1892). Tobias Gibson Richardson, son of William A. and Symia Higgins Richard- son of Louisville, Kentucky, was a student of Samuel D. Gross, and gradu- ated M. D. from the medical department of the University of Louisiana, 1848, where for some years he was professor of anatomy and later professor of surgery. He was also a member of the College of