M. D. (University of Pennsylvania) in 1809, receiving also an M. D. from Dartmouth in 1812. While in Ipswich he married Miss Sewall, who survived the marriage only three years. On his return from Philadelphia he settled in Salem, Massachusetts, and in his six years there attained a large practice, chiefly obstetrical, but he had already distinguished himself as a surgeon, and from 1812 to 1838 held the chair of anatomy and surgery and in 1814 also the chair of medical theory and practice at Dartmouth. He was professor of anatomy and surgery at Bowdoin College from 1831 to 1835, and the next year lectured at the Fairfield (N. Y.) Medical College. From three professorships offered him in 1837 he accepted that of the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati and lectured there fourteen years. When the Miami Medical College, founded by him, was opened he lectured on surgery there for six years, resigning in 1857 and going to Boston, where he spent the remainder of his life and died on June 21, 1866. His second wife was Hetty, daughter of Dr. Osgood, army surgeon. Besides some daughters he had four sons—Charles, Reuben B., Francis B., and William H. (q. v.), the last two becoming physicians.
As a man of science he was diligent and deliberate with the most conscientious attention to details. As an operator he was slow and cautious and according to Samuel Gross admitted the human side by praying with and for his patients. He was at issue with Benjamin Rush concerning the non-absorptiveness of the skin and to prove his theory immersed himself in a strong solution of madder for three hours. He had the satisfaction of detecting madder in the urine for two days, the addition of an alcohol rendering it red. But this bold experimenter nearly killed himself in trying to see whether he could not pass ink by immersing himself in a solution of nutgall and subsequently in sulphate of iron. In 1830 and before that Sir Astley Cooper had taught there could be no union after intracapsular fracture, so Mussey set out for England with a specimen showing such a possibility.
Harvard gave him her Hon. A. M. in 1806 and Dartmouth her LL. D. in 1854. Dr. Mussey was president of the New Hampshire Medical Society from 1824 to 1834.
He was fond of music and played on the bass viol and on one occasion played to the New Hampshire Medical Society.
His valuable library is now in the Cincinnati Public Library. His writings included: "Experiments and Observations on Cutaneous Absorption," Philadelphia, 1809; "Animalcula in the Atmosphere of Cholera," Cincinnati, 1849; "Aneurysmal Tumours on the Ear Successfully Treated by Ligation of both Carotids," 1853, and various pamphlets on the subjects of "Drink and Tobacco."
Mussey, William Heberden (1818–1882)
William H. Mussey, surgeon, son of Reuben D. (q. v.) and Hetty Osgood Mussey, was of French descent and was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, September 30, 1818. He went as a boy to Moore's Indian Charity Academy, Hanover, and various other schools, then when twenty-nine gave up a grocery business in Cincinnati and entered the Medical College of Ohio, graduating M. D. in 1848, at the same time studying with his father and practising with him three years.
In 1851 he had a profitable two years in Paris as pupil of Ricord, Trousseau and Bernard, and was elected president of the American Medical Society of Paris, returning to Cincinnati in 1853, and during the war acting as surgeon to St. John's Hospital for Invalids. He with Cincinnati business men organized also what was perhaps the first voluntary military hospital in wartime.
After serving in various positions during those dark days he was associated with Gen. I. F. Wilder and in 1862 became medical inspector in the United States Army and lieutenant-colonel. When a year later his health broke down he went back to Cincinnati and held the chair of operative and clinical surgery in the Miami Medical College (1865– 1882), being also later surgeon-general for the state of Ohio with the rank of brigadier-general.
Most of his writings were published in medical journals, specially the Western Lancet and Medical Observer, of which he edited the surgical columns. But his best gift to Cincinnati was that of 5,000 volumes and 2,500 pamphlets as a nucleus of the Mussey Medical and Scientific Library as a memorial of his celebrated father.
On May 5, 1857, he married Caroline Webster, daughter of Dr. Harvey Lindsay,
