GIBBONS 436 GIBSON from the University of the Pacific in 1863. after which, until 186S, he was acting assist- ant surgeon, United States Army, at the Gen- eral Hospital, Washington ; in 1870 he re- turned to CaHfornia and was dean and pro- fessor of materia medica in Cooper Medical College; in 1882 he was appointed profes- sor of obstetrics, gynecology, and diseases of women and children. From 1870 to 1873 he was health officer of San Francisco; 1880-1883, member of the Board of Health; 1889-1890, of the Board of Education. In 1875 he was president of the San Francisco Medical Society. 1867-1883 he was co-editor of the Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal. Gibbons married Marie Conger, daugliter of S. A. Raymond, in 1871. He died from senile debility, September 27, 1911, at his home m San Francisco. Tour. Amer. Med. Asso., 1911, vol. Ivii, 1300. Who's Who in America, 1912, vol. vii. Physicians and Surgeons of the United States, V. B. Atkinson, 1880. Gibbons, William Peters (1812-1897) William Peters Gibbons was born April 9, 1812, at Wilmington, Delaware, and died at his home at Alameda, CaHfornia, May 17, 1897. He was a son of Dr. William Gibbons (1781-1845), long the Nestor of the medical profession in Delaware, and a younger brother of Dr. Henry Gibbons (1808-1884) (q. v.), editor for years of the Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal and president of the Cali- fornia state board of health. In his youth he learned the printing trade, but he was also in- terested in science, and he combined the two in the Advocate of Science, a short-lived journal edited and published by him at Philadelphia in 1834 and 1835. Later, he removed to Pough- keepsie. New York, where he had charge of a boarding school for young ladies. He had been studying medicine for some years, even attending medical lectures while still in Phila- delphia, but finally received the degree of M. D. in 1847 from the University Medical College of New York City. He sailed from New York for California in 1852, by way of Panama ; was delayed on the Isthmus and nearly lost his life by an attack of cholera; in January, 1853, land- ing in San Francisco, where he entered at once upon the practice of his profession. Later he spent several years in various parts of the Californian Sierras and in Nevada, but finally, about 1862, settled at Alameda, where he spent the last thirty-five years of his life. He was chairman of the committee on indig- enous botany of the State Medical Societv from 1872 until his death, and was president of the society for the season 1885-86. Soon after his arrival in San Francisco, the California Academy of Sciences was established, and he was one of its charter members. At this time his chief scientific interests seemed to center in ichthyology and Gibbonsia, which, perpetuating his name in the nomenclature of natural science, is a genus of fishes; but he was always keenly interested in botany as well, and most of his work for many years, outside of that demanded by his professional duties, was in this branch of science. Dr. Gibbons married, in 1835, Mary Robin- son, of New York, and they had eight chil- dren, of whom three survived him. J. H. Barnhart. Physicians and Surgeons of the U. S., W. B. Atkinson, 1878, 696. Erythea, W. L. Jepson, 1897, vol. v, 74-76. Trans. Med. Soc. Calif., 1898, vol. xxviii, 296, 297. Gen. Alumni Cat. N. Y. Univ., Med. Alumni, 1908, 17. Gibson, Charles Bell (1816-1865) This surgeon was born in Baltimore, Mary- land, February 16, 1816, the son of Dr. Will- iam Gibson, professor of surgery in the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, and Sarah Hollings- worth of Baltimore. He was named after his father's preceptor, Sir Charles Bell. He was a student in the academic depart- ment of the University of Pennsylvania from 1829 to 1830, and his professional education was received at the University of Pennsyl- vania, where he graduated in 1836, the sub- ject of his thesis being "Apoplexy." In 1848 he was elected professor of sur- gery in the medical department of Hampden- Sidney College, later the Medical College of Virginia. In 1861 Gov. Letcher appointed him surgeon-general of the state of Virginia, a position he held until the military affairs of the state were merged into those of the southern Confederacy. Dr. Gibson was a noted and skilful sur- geon and a teacher of marked ability. He was one of the first in Virginia to make use of anesthetics, and in 1848 reported five cases of the successful employment of chloroform or ether, the former being used in three cases and the latter in two (Transactions American Medical Association, vol. i). In 1851 he was one of a committee of the Medical Society of Virginia appointed to report upon anesthetics, which they did in a full" and valuable paper entitled "Report on the Utility and Safety of Anesthetic Agents" (The Stethoscope, vol. i, April, 1851). He was an extensive contributor to medical literature and published
