KIRKBRIDE
71
KIRKPATRICK
New Jersey, a clear year of farm work
and then he settled down to read
medicine with one Nicholas de Belleville,
M. D. He graduated M. D., 1832, from
the University of Pennsylvania and
was immediately appointed resident
physician to the Friends Asylum for
the Insane at Frankford, and his next
appointment of the kind was physician-
in-chief for the new department for
the insane in connection with Pennsyl-
vania Hospital, in 1840. At that
time there were only ten such special
asylums in the States and the public
conscience had not been aroused to
the evils existing. It was a responsi-
ble post for young Kirkbride, but he
consecrated his whole life to the duty
of raising and defending the helpless
patients under his care and thousands
owed recovered reason to his humane
and studious consideration of their
woe. The terms "keeper" and "asylum"
were changed to " hospital" and " nurse " ;
restraint was avoided wherever pos-
sible and the surroundings made at-
tractive. "Kirkbride's Hospital," as it
came to be called, was known as a
model institution, one worth visiting
by foreign alienists. Dr. S. D. Gross
says Kirkbride had a fine physique,
a well shaped head, a benevolent face
and a gentle voice, which, coupled with
determination and promptness, made
him beloved and obeyed. So gener-
ally were his views adopted that his
book on " The Construction and Manage-
ment of Hospitals" governed largely
in the erection of about thirty other
institutions.
During his forty- three years of un- wearying service 4638 of the 8852 patients were discharged cured or improved — an unprecedented record for that time. One patient, however, nearly cut short Kirk- bride's existence by hiding up in a tree and shooting him, the bullet fortunately not penetrating the skull.
The American Medico-psychological Association, then knovsm by the bulky title of "The Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions
for the Insane, " numbers him among its
thirteen originators, also as vice-presi-
dent, and for eight years, president.
He married, in 1839, Ann West, daughter of Joseph R. Jenks, merchant, but she died in 1862 leaving him a son and a daughter. In 1866 Eliza, daughter of Benjamin F. Butler of New York, attorney-general, became his wife and had four children.
In March, 1883, he was seriously ill for nine months with typhoid pneu- monia and died peacefully on Decem- ber 16.
He did not do much writing in a way that would awaken public interest except on his own specialty and a few medical biographies by request of the College of Physicians, Phila- delphia. A good oil painting of him by Howard R. Butler is in that College,
He was a member of the College of Physicians, the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the American Phil- osophical Society; honorary member of the British Medico-Psychological Association, etc., and an LL. D. of Lafayette College Pennsylvania.
The Hist, of the Pena. Hosp. by Morton and
Woodbury, Phila., 1895. A portrait of him
ia in this biography.
Autobiography, S. D. Gross.
Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, J. B. Chapin,
1898.
Kirkpatrick, Robert C. (1863-1897).
Ptobert C. Kirkpatrick at the time of his death was only thirty-four years old. He was surgeon to the Montreal General Hospital, lecturer in clinical surgery and demonstrator of surgery in McGill University, graduating from McGill University in the faculty of arts in 1882, and from the faculty of medicine in 1886. He acted as house surgeon to the Montreal General Hos- pital, and after a period of study in Edinburgh was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. In 1888 he became superintendent of the Montreal General Hospital in suc- cession to Dr. McClure who had enter- ed the Chinese Medical Mission Service;
