Life Sketch OF M. M. JOHNSON, B.Ph., M.D., HARTFORD, CONN. REPRINT FROM BIOGRAPHY OF EPHRAIM McDOWELL, M.D., WITH LIFE-SKETCHES AND PORTRAITS OF PROMINENT MEMBERS OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. McDowell Publishing Co., 24-26 West 22d Stheet, i New' York, N. Y. ( MARCUS M. JOHNSON, B. Ph„ M.D. Hartford, Connecticut. Marcus Morton Johnson, M.D., was born in Malone, State of New York, April 21, 1844, son of Marvin L. and Polly (Chapman) Johnson, and grand- son of Leonard Johnson, who moved from Rutland to Malone, New York, and was'one of the first persons to locate in that town. Dr. Johnson’s ancestral line has been traced back for seven generations in this country. His paternal ancestors were early settlers in Wethersfield, Connecticut—a branch of the family moved from there to Rutland, Vermont, where many of the descendants still reside. His maternal ancestors were early settlers of Norwich, Connecticut. His great-grandfather, Joshua Chapman, Sr., was born in 1755, and enlisted in the revolutionary war in April, 1775, in Captain Chapin’s Company, at West Spring- field, Massachusetts. Dr. Johnson received his early education, pre- paratory to entering college, at Franklin Academy, Malone, New York, and was graduated from Brown University in 1870. He then became instructor in Mathematics and the Sciences in the Connecticut Literary Institution, at Sufheld, Connecticut. He received his medical degree from the Uni- versity of New York, where he graduated with honor, receiving the “Valentine Mott Gold Medal,” the highest award for excellence in anatomy and dissec- tions. The following year he was house-surgeon in the Hartford Hospital. 2 M. M. JOHNSON, B. PH., M.D. He then pursued his studies abroad for two years. Among the eminent surgeons from whom he re- ceived instruction were Thomas Keith, of Edinburgh, whom he assisted in six ovariotomies, Sir Joseph Lister, of London, and Billroth, of Vienna. In Berlin he received especial instruction from Martin in gynaecology, and in operative surgery under Von Langenbeck. From 1880 until the present time he has resided in Hartford, Connecticut, and practiced medicine, making surgery his special line of work. For several years Dr. Johnson was chief-surgeon in his own Surgical Institute, and within the past year he has opened his newly built sanatorium, situ- ated at 122 Woodland street, in a beautiful suburb of Hartford, Connecticut. This sanatorium is one of the most complete institutions of the kind it has been the writer’s privi- lege to visit. Extreme cleanliness is paramount throughout the building. The operating room is perfect in every detail, containing all the necessary appurtenances to aid in making successful operations and speedy recoveries. The rays of light cast from three large windows and a skylight gives the operator a fine opportunity to do his work. When necessity demands an operation at night a star of five strong electric lamps are suspended over the operating table, which does the same ser- vice, while, by a cord, an electric light searcher is hung at the elbow of the operator, to flash in any direction desired, even inside the body of the patient. In the massage room is a vibrator devised by Dr. Johnson, with a hand or square pad, capable of making seven hundred strokes per minute. A powerful battery, in connection with the vibrator, also gives electrical treatment when beneficial. In M. M. JOHNSON, B. PH., M.D. 3 the same room is another arrangement, the hot air inspirator, by which means air can be inhaled at two hundred or three hundred, and even five hundred, degrees, medicated to suit the doctor’s judgment. The massage treatment is given to ladies by an experienced head nurse in the institution, who has been thoroughly instructed by Dr. Johnson to do this work. Gentlemen receive similar treatment from a male operator. No mention of Dr. Johnson’s professional career would be complete without referring to his perfect mastery of his special line of work, Surgery, he having opened the abdominal cavity eight hundred times with a high percentage of recoveries. As a surgeon he is cool, painstaking and skil- ful, with remarkable success. He is a rapid oper- ator, with such an acute touch, amounting almost to seeing, that he strongly favors making the short incision in many of his abdominal sections, three of which operations were witnessed by the writer, and resulted in the complete T'ecovery of the patients. July 29, 1899, Dr. Johnson operated on an infant, nineteen days old, for strangulated inguinal hernia, at St. Francis Hospital, Hartford, Connecticut. The strangulation had existed about thirty-five hours. The mother stated that the child was born prematurely, and weighed five pounds at its birth. It is probably the youngest on record on whom this operation has ever been performed—at least, it comes within nineteen days of being the youngest. The infant made an excellent recovery. Dr. Johnson has contributed and read before the various medical societies several valuable papers, viz: “Diphtheria; Its History, Etiology and Treat- ment.” Connecticut State Medical Society, May 26, 1892. “The Technique of Removing- the Appendix Vermiformis; with a Report of One Hundred Con- secutive Cases with Two Deaths.” Read in the section on Surgery and Anatomy at the Forty- seventh Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association, held at Atlanta, Ga., May 5-8, 1896. “Treatment of Pus Cases in Operating for Ap- pendicitis.” Connecticut Medical Society, 1897. “Ventral Hernia After Appendictomy.” Pre- sented to the section on Surgery and Anatomy at the Forty-ninth Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association, held at Denver, Colorado, June 7-10, 1898. “History of the First Twenty-three Cases of Gastrostomy; with a Successful Case by the Writer.” Connecticut Medical Society, May, 1899. “Report on the Progress of Surgery.” Con- necticut Medical Society, May, 1899. “Etiology of Hernia of the Ovary; with the Relation of Two Cases.” Hartford Medical Society, June 16, 1899. “ Gastrotomy.” And other papers. Dr. Johnson is a member of the American Medi- cal Association, and of the City, County and State Medical Societies. He is a Fellow of|the New York Academy of Medicine, a member of the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He is surgeon to the St. Francis Hospital, and a Knight Templar. February 14, 1884, Dr. Johnson was married to Mrs. Helen Lyman Jackson, a cultured and estimable lady. They have two interesting children, Helen Gaylord, fourteen years old, and Ethel Chapman, age ten years. 4 M. M. JOHNSON, B. PH., M.D. TH£ WOODLAND SANATORIUM 122 WOODLAND ST. HARTFORD, CONN. M. M. JOHNSON, B. PH., M.D. Surgeon-in-Chief.