TENNEXT
430
TEWKSBURY
of Virginia," the report of a committee
of which he was chairman, ("Transac-
tions, Medical Society of Virginia," 1S72.)
" Is Drinking Water a Cause of Mahirial Fevers?" (" Virginia Medical Monthly," vol. i.)
|ti,"The Mission of the Physician," Presidential Address. ("Transactions, Medical Society of Virginia," 1874.)
"Case of Intussusception." ("Vir- ginia Medical Monthly," vol. i.)
"Cases in Midwifery." ("Virginia Medical Monthly," vol. ii.)
"Rachiotomy in Transverse Presen- tations." (" Virginia Medical Monthly," vol. iii.) R. M. S.
Trans. Med. Soc. of Va., 1S95.
Tennent, John (Eighteenth Century).
Though he was a distinguished phy- sician and writer, little is known of Ten- nent, and what little we have is chiefly through his contributions to medical literature. He is said to have been born at Port Royal, Virginia, where he prac- tised later. There seems little doubt that he was a well known doctor, and as far as known, was probably the first na- tive physician to make contributions to professional literature.
He was a correspondent, and probably a relative, of Dr. Richard Mead, of London, as his articles were first com- municated to him, with the title " Epistles to Dr. Richard Mead." These epistles were written in the years 1736 to 1738, and in one of them, published in Edin- burgh in 1742, he described the epidemic diseases and climate of Virginia. He was the first to describe the plant polygala Seneca, or the Seneca snake- root, and to make known its therapeutic properties, commending most highly its value in the treatment of pleurisy, pneu- monia and the bite of the rattle-snake. His "Essay on Pleurisy," another of the epistles, was pubUshed at Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1736, and republished in New York in 1842. An epistle "Respecting the Bite of a Viper and its Poison," was published in Edinburgh in 1742, also that on the "Epidemic Diseases of Virginia."
Another paper, " Observations on Seneca
Snake-root," was published in London in
1741. He also published a paper in the
"Medical and Physical Inquiries," of
London, in 1742, condemning the use of
vinegar, as advocated by a Dr. Ward, in
the treatment of the fevers of the West
Indies and other subtropical regions,
which were so fatal to Britons in that day.
It is not known in what year or at what
age he died.
R. M. S.
Tewksbury, Samuel Henry (1819-1880).
Jacob Tewksbury, the father, of Hebron, Maine, was a very clever practitioner for his time, and an active member of the Maine Medical Society. He married Charlotte Nelson, of Paris, Maine, and Samuel Henry was born in Oxford, Maine, March 22, 1819. He studied medicine with his father and at the Medical School of Maine, graduating in 1841. He then attended lectures at the Harvard Medical School and at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York.
He began practice at Frankfort, Maine, but after marrying Miss Diana Eaton, of Paris, Maine, rejoined his father in prac- tice. In 1850 he moved to Portland, where he practised thirty years Among the great things which Dr. Tewksbury did for medicine in Maine was the introduction of the practice of gynecology, resection of the knee-joint, the successful operation for stone in the bladder by the new method, and using the first flexion and extension in the re-setting of a hip-joint dislocation. He was also active in clinical exhibits before the Maine Medical Association as far back as 1855, showing his early knowl- edge of successful surgery especially in cases of resection.
He was t\vice elected president of the Maine Medical Society and in his addresses called special attention to the need of the formation of the Maine General Hospital. It was later on a deep disappointment to him that the rules could not have been made so as to per- mit any reputable physician to put
