DAVIDSON 288 DAVIDSON He died at his house in Lexington street on August 23, 1829, of malignant disease of the antrum of Highmore. His most important writings were : "Treatise on Yellow Fever," 1798; "Nosologia Metho- dica" in Latin), two editions, 1812 and 1813; "Physical Sketches," two volumes, 1814 and 1816; "Treatise on Amputation," 1818. He edited "Bancroft on Fevers," 1821, and a quarterly journal entitled, Baltimore Philo- sophical Journal and Reviezv. 1823, of which only one number appeared. His important operations were amputation at shoulder-joint soon after 1792 (Reese) ; liga- tion of the gluteal artery for aneurysm ; liga- tion of the carotid artery for fungus of the antrum; total extirpation of the parotid gland, 1823. He invented a new method of amputa- tion which he called the "American." Eugene F. Cordell. Historical Sketch of the University of Maryland, Cordell, 1891. Medical Annals of Maryland, Cordell, 1903. Portrait. His greal-great-grandson. 'alter D. Uavidge, an attorney of Washington City, has an oil painting of him. Davidson, John Pintard (1812-1890). John Pintard Davidson was born in Pinck- neyville, Mississippi, December 8, 1812, the son of Dr. Richard Davidson, of Virginia, a surgeon in the United States army, who came to New Orleans in 1804. John Pintard took his M. D. at the Universitj' of Pennsylvania in 1832 and returned immediately to New Or- leans and entered the Charity Hospital. At the outbreak of hostilities between the North and South, he went out as captain of the Alexander Rifles, Crescent Regiment, com- manded by Col. Marshall J. Smith. During the epidemic of yellow fever in 187S at Shreveport, he was one of the experts selected with Drs. Bruns (q. v.) and Choppin (q. v.) to be sent to that place. He was also sent to Brunswick, Georgia, as an expert on fever and also sent to the plantations below New Or- leans, when the National Board of Health pronounced an epidemic prevailing to be yel- low fever. Dr. Davidson declared the fever at both places to be "rice fever," a fever pe- culiar to those living on rice and cultivating rice plantations. He was president of the State Board of Health in 1880 and chairman of the Board of Medical Experts on yellow fever. One remarkable trait was his forgetfulness of himself when the lives of others were con- cerned. About the year 1848 or 1849 Asiatic cholera broke out on the plantation of Mr. Calhoun, some miles above Alexandria, on Red River. He was called in and upon in- vestigation found that a large number of the slaves were being fed on rotten meal; he at once separated the well from the sick, and moved all to the pine woods and changed their food and water, after which he lost not a single case, but came near losing his own life. He was stricken with the disease, and in trying to reach the house of a friend was found on the roadside by a faithful servant, who took him to Dr. L. Lucketts, where he was for several days at death's door. During the epidemic of yellow fever in 1853, he sent all his children out of town and filled his house with sick, and was, during the greater part of the time, the only physician about. He was prominent in all the state medical societies and once served as president of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Associa- tion. New Orleans Med. and Surg. Jour., 1891-2, n. s., vol. xix. Davidson, WiUiam (1810-1875). William Davidson, counted one of the most learned men of his time in southern Indiana, was born in 1810 in Wick, Caithness, Scotland, and went as a boy to the parish school and afterwards to Edinburgh University, becom- ing a licentiate of the Royal College of Sur- gens there in 1833 and taking his M. D. in 1835. While a student he became acquaint- ed with Sir James Simpson and the friendship lasted through life. In 1835 Davidson came to the United States, landing in New York provided with letters of introduction to James Gordon Bennett and other prominent Scotsmen who advised him to practise in New York, but, preferring a western home, he settled first in Kingston, Ohio, where he married Malinda Griffiths, whose people had come from Wales to Penn- sylvania with William Penn, then, finally, in 1837 moved to and remained for the rest of his life in Madison, Indiana. During the Civil War he acted as surgeon to an India regiment and to a military hos- pital at Munsfordsville, Kentucky. It is a matter of record that the claim to priority in the use of chloroform in labor west of the Alleghany Mountains should be ac- corded either to Dr. Davidson or Prof. Miller of the University of Louisville, but I, as pupil of Davidson, can confidently give him the credit. Apart from his diagnostic skill and ability as a lecturer Dr. Davidson was a thorough classical scholar and book-lover who wrote a little for the medical journals; a good scientist too, particularly in geology and botany. The Orthis Daz'idsonia was named after him. A courtly, good-looking man, he was welcomed as guest or friend. He had four children, Vic-
