DUDLEY 339 DUDLEY erals by the burning of the Custom House at London. In 1815 he was appointed professor of anat- omy and surgery in the medical department oi the Transylvania University. He held both chairs until 1844, after which he retained only that of surgery. His last course of lectures was delivered in the session of 1849-1850, and about this time he also gave up his extensive practice and retired to private life. After the reorganization of the medical de- partment of the Transylvania University in 1817, friction arose between members of the faculty. A duel resulted in which Dudley wounded his opponent in the tliigh or, accord- ing to others, the groin. It is said he would have bled to death but for Dudley, who asked permission of his adversary to arrest the hem- orrhage, which he did by the compression of the vessel with his thumb until it could be delinitely controlled, by this act converting an adversary into a life-long friend. In appearance he was a man of slender frame, but of erect carriage and of most cour- teous and dignified deportment, while as a teacher his popularity was unsurpassed. It was as a practical surgeon his reputation was established. He is credited with having performed lithotomy in the course of his life two hundred and twenty-five times, and it was not until about the hundredth case that he lost a patient. Lithotrity he never adopted, but performed the lateral operation, his favorite instrument being the gorget, invented by Mr. Cline of London. In all his operations he used but two sizes, the smaller seven-tenths of an inch, the latter eight-tentiis of an inch broad in the blade. Although an expert operator, he was cautious rather than bold, and con- servative rather than adventurous, not inclin- ing to operate at all in doubtful cases. He laid great stress upon the prepatory treatment, to which he was more inclined to attribute his success than to his superior skill. The period of preparation varied from a few days to two or three months. The time of operation varied from forty seconds to twenty minutes, although he was opposed to the principle of operating against time, and never allowed himself to be thrown otif his guard. According to Gross, he was the first in Ken- tucky to ligate the subclavian artery. This he performed in 1825 for the cure of an ax- illary aneurysm which was described as "lar- ger than a quart pitcher." The patient left for his home on the twenty-first day, completely cured. In 1841 he successfuly ligated the com- mon carotid artery for an intracranial aneu- rysm, attended with protrusion of the eye, pul- sation noise in the head, and wide separation of the cranial bone on the right side, together with the loss of sight, and hearing on the same side. This was prior to the era of anesthetics. The stress he laid upon the use of boiled or boiling water in surgery at that time is worthy of comment. He was not inclined to write, and %ery likely his contributions to literature were se- cured largely through his kinsman, Dr. Charles Wilkins Short (q. v.) who, with Dr. John Esten Cooke, established the Transylvania Journal of Medicine and the Associate Sciences. His most notable and perhaps all of his contributions follow: "Observations on Inju- ries of the Head" ; "Observations on Hydro- cele" ; "On the Use of the Bandage in Gun- shot Wounds and Fractures." These were in the first volume of the Transylvania Journal of Medicine, 1828. In a later number of the same journal ap- peared his article upon "Calculous Diseases," reports of his operation for stone, and a paper on "Fractures." His article on the treatment of "Aneurysm" was published in July, 1840 ; "On the Treatment of Gunshot Wounds," De- cember, 1849; "On the Treatment of Fractures by the Roller Bandage," in 1850, all of which appeared in the Transylvania Journal of Medi- cine. Also an article on "Treatment of Asiatic Cholera." He married at Lexington June 10, 1821, Anna Maria Short, daughter of Major Peyton Short, and they had three children, William Ambrose, Anna Maria and Charles Wilkins. The latter studied medicine, but did not practise. During the last years of his life, his health was greatly impaired owing to an infection he received during an operation. He died at his suburban house, "Fairlawn," near Lexington, January 20, 1870, in the eighty-fifth year of his age, from apoplexy, after an illness of two hours. There are a number of portraits of Dr. Dud- ley by different artists, in the possession of his family, but the best is the one by Jouett, owned by Mrs. Robert Peter. August Sch.achner. . Memoir of the Life and Writings of Dr. Benja- min W. Dudley, L. P. Yandell AinLncan I'lMcKiunci , 1.S7I). l-il-.,n Cliil, I',,:,.. .o. JO. ?Iistory of Kentucky, Collins, vol. ii. Recollections of Dr. Benjamin V. Dudley, Bed- ford Brown. Southern Surg, and Gynec. Trans., 1894, V. Sketch of Benjamin Winslow Dudlev. by Benja- nrii WiUiuin IHiilUv.
