College of Physicians and Surgeons of London, who taught for a time in the Philadelphia school. Here he obtained the foundation for his later skill and success as a surgeon.
Wythe continued his work as a clergyman for some time, but was forced to give it up because of ill health, and become surgeon to several collieries at Port Carbon, Pennsylvania. He practiced medicine here and in several other towns in the coal mining region until the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion.
His practice was extensive and he acquired much skill in surgery. He was apparently especially interested in and very successful with ovarian tumors, for he describes several operations of this sort as early as 1860.[1] In a paper on "Cystic Ovarian Tumors," published in the Pacific Medical Journal[2] in 1870, he describes ovariotomy and refers to the use of disinfectants as follows: "In the last case (Case of Mrs. Swan, multilocular cyst, operated by Dr. Wythe at San Francisco, June, 1865) I found it beneficial to inject through the opening into the peritoneal cavity a dilute quantity of Labarraque's Disinfecting Solution, and if another case should come into my hands I should in all probability resort to carbolic acid, largely diluted. I am satisfied that the disinfectant contributed largely to a successful issue." He describes another case which he had in November, 1858, while he was still in Pennsylvania, in which he performed paracentesis on a patient with enlarged abdomen, drawing off four gallons of fluid, and which he afterward operated. In discussing the diagnosis of this type of tumor, he states, "As any case of abdominal enlargement may be mistaken for ovarian disease the utmost care is necessary in diagnosis," and refers to "one patient who came a hundred miles to be operated on (for ovarian
