JOHNSTON
49
JOHNSTON
remained until 1864. The battle of
Gettysburg saw Johnston's aiding on
the field rendering zealous service
to the wounded. On January 1, 1864,
he became professor of anatomy
and physiology in the University of
Maryland, and from 1869 to 1881 he held
the chair of surgery as successor to
Prof. Nathan R. Smith.
Dr. Johnston early manifested a strong taste for scientific study and research, acquiring great expertness as a microscopist and a skilled artist. One of his earliest papers was on the "Auditory Apparatus of the Mosquito" ("London Quarterly Journal of Micro- scopical Science," 1855.) He was a frequent contributor to scientific and medical literature, his largest work being that on "Plastic Surgery" ("Ash- hurst's International Encyclopedia of Surgery," 1881).
He was slow and careful in his op- erations, and ingenious in devising expedients. He was the first surgeon in Maryland to remove the upper jaw complete, 1873. (In Jameson's clas- sical operation — 1820 — the roof of the antrum was left) and to operate for exs- trophy of the bladder (1876). He as- sisted in founding the Maryland Acad- emy of Sciences and the Medical and Chi- rurgical Faculty, and was consulting surgeon to the Johns Hopkins and other hospitals. The Johns Hopkins Univer- sity, its museums and laboratories had much of his thought and he bequeathed to it his medical and surgical instru- ments, his microscopical cabinet, his cabinet of crystals, and his library.
Dr. Johnston's personal appearance was striking with his commanding figure and graceful carriage, his large and classic head. He died October 11, 1891, from an attack of diphtheria contracted in operating.
He married Miss Sallie C. Smith, daughter of Benjamin Price Smith, of Washington, District of Columbia; she died a few years before him. They had four sons; the eldest, Chris- topher, became professor of oriental Vol. II-4
history and archeology in the Johns
Hopkins University. E. F. C.
Cordell's Annals of Maryland, 1903 (port.).
Johnston, William Patrick (1811-1876).
He was the son of Col. James and Ann Marion Johnston, and born Oc- tober 24, 1876 in Savannah. He grad- uated at Yale, and at Philadelphia studied medicine under Prof. William Horner, and while in the drug store of Samuel Griffith acquired a practical knowledge of materia medica and phar- macy. After graduating M. D. in 1836 at the University of Pennsylvania he was appointed a resident physician at Block- ley Hospital, Philadelphia.
In 1837 he was appointed physician to the Philadelphia Dispensary, and took charge of the Southwestern Dis- trict, Ijut in the autumn he went to Europe till 1840; the greater part of the time being spent in Paris hospitals acquiring a knowledge of special diseases.
His marriage to Miss Hool, of Alex- andria, Virginia, induced him to settle, in 1840, in Washington and he was elected professor of surgery in the National Medical College, District of Columbia, but in 1845 was trans- ferred to the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women and children. He joined with the other members of the faculty in establishing the Washing- ton Infirmary. After the close of the war of 1861-5 he resumed his course on obstetrics until he resigned in 1871. He was then made emeritus professor, and on the death of Dr. Thomas Miller, became president of the faculty.
He was one of the originators of the Pathological Society of Washington in 1841 and vice-president of the American Medical Association in 1866.
Dr. Johnston was the first physician in Washington to devote special atten- tion to the diseases of women, but he never abandoned general practice.
He died of chronic heart disease October 24, 1876, and two of his sons followed their father's profession.
D. S. L.
