staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital. He had a high degree of mechanical dexterity and ingenuity which he directed towards the treatment of fractures. He devised the figure of eight bandage for the head, dispensing with the clumsy devices in vogue in dealing with fractures of the lower jaw. It was he who introduced bran dressings so extensively used in the treatment of compound fractures (and in the writer's experience a breeding place for myriads of bed bugs).
He published a paper (North American and Surgical Journal, 1827) "On the Treatment of Anchylosis by the Formation of Artificial Joints, a New Operation, devised and executed by J. Rhea Barton, M. D.;" in this he gives an account of a sailor who had a complete disorganization and anchylosis of the hip joint, following a fall, with a resultant position of the thigh at almost a right angle. Barton operated in public, assisted by Drs. Hewson and Parrish, making a crucial incision over the trochanter, and isolating and sawing through the neck of the femur to make the new joint. In the course of time the patient was able to walk freely with a cane, whereas he had previously gone about with crutches and a steel frame shoe, with the utmost difficulty. The operation was done in seven minutes! and "not one blood vessel had to be secured."
Barton's brother, W. P. C. Barton (q.v.), was at one time head of the United States Naval Bureau.
His widow Susan R. gave the University $50,000 to endow the professorship of the principles and practice of surgery in the University, in his memory.
Barton, William Paul Crillon (1786–1856)
William Paul Crillon Barton, a navy surgeon, was descended from a distinguished family of physicians of Philadelphia. He was born in Philadelphia, November 17, 1786. He graduated A. B. at the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1805 and M. D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1808 and entered the navy as assistant surgeon in the following year. While in college each member of the class assumed the name of some celebrated man. Barton took that of Count Paul Crillon. A man of untiring energy, with a high sense of duty, the Medical Department of the Navy owes to him some most valuable reforms. He held the position of professor of botany in the University of Pennsylvania from 1816 to 1828, and professor of materia medica and botany in the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, from 1828 to 1830. He was also a writer of ability and a noted botanist. Among his more valuable writings may be mentioned: "A Treatise containing a Plan for the Organization and Government of Marine Hospitals," 1814; "Vegetable Materia Medica of the United States," 1818; "Compendium Floræ Philadelphiæ," 1818; "A Flora of North America" (with colored plates), 1821.
In 1842 Barton was appointed chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery of the Navy Department, a position he held until 1844 when he was retired. He died in Philadelphia, the city of his birth, March 27, 1856. His bust in life size is shown in the Army Medical Museum at Washington.
Bartram, John (1699–1777)
In his own words John Bartram of Philadelphia shall tell how he was first led to study that science which made him in after years America's leading botanist.
"One day," he says, "I was very busy in holding my plough (for thou seest that I am but a ploughman) and being weary I ran under a tree to repose myself. I cast my eyes on a daisy; I plucked it mechanically and viewed it with more curiosity than common country farmers are wont to do and observed therein very many distinct parts, some perpendicular, some horizontal. What a shame, said my mind, that thee shouldst have employed thy mind so many years in tilling the earth and destroying so many flowers and plants without being acquainted with their structures and their uses.… I thought about it continually, at supper, in bed, and wherever I went, … on the fourth day I hired a man to plough for me and went to Philadelphia. Though I knew not what book to call for, I ingenuously told the bookseller my errand, who provided me with such as he thought best and a Latin grammar. Next I applied to a neighboring schoolmaster who in three months taught me Latin enough to understand Linnaeus, which I purchased afterwards. Then I began to botanize all over my farm. In a little time I became acquainted with every vegetable that grew in the neighborhood.… By steady application of several years I acquired a pretty general knowledge of every plant and tree to
