MEMOIR 
OF 
SAMUEL D. GROSS, M.D., LL.D., D.C.L 
[Extracted from tlie Transactions of the College of Physicians 
of Philadelphia, 3d Series, Vol. VII.] MEMOIR 
OF 
SAMUEL D. GROSS, M.D., LL.D., D.C.L., 
EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF SURGERY IX THE JEFFERSON MEDICAL 
COLLEGE OF PHILADELPHIA. 
Read before the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 
July 2, 1884. 
BY 
I. MINIS HAYS, M.D. 
[Extracted from the Transactions, 3d Series, Yol. VII.] 
PHILADELPHIA: 
1884. COLLINS, PRINTER. MEMOIR. 
In the history of American medicine, in the long list of 
names of men who have been especially distinguished by 
their valuable contributions to the science and art of sur- 
gery, we find two who are conspicuously pre-eminent, and 
upon whom, each alone in his generation, has been con- 
ferred by general assent, the honored title of “The Hestor 
of American Surgery.” Of the two, Philip Syng Physick 
was gathered unto his fathers nearly half a century ago, and 
to-day we mourn the loss of Samuel David Gross. 
Dr. Physick, although a surgeon of great learning and 
brilliant capacity, added but little to the literature of our 
profession, and he left his impress upon American surgery 
chiefly through the fading tradition of his teachings. But 
Dr. Gross was, in addition, an industrious and voluminous 
writer, and has left a precise and imperishable record of his 
profound study and vast surgical experience. 4 
Dr. Gross was born near Easton, Pennsylvania, July 8, 
1805. lie received a classical education at the Wilkesbarre 
Academy and at the Lawrenceville High School, both 
famous institutions in their day, the former having been 
under the charge of Mr., afterwards Judge, Joel Jones, a 
graduate of Yale College, and the latter having been pre- 
sided over by the Rev. Dr. Isaac Y. Brown, an alumnus of 
Princeton College. At the age of nineteen he began the 
study of medicine, first under Dr. Joseph K. Swift, of 
Easton, and subsequently with Professor George McClellan, 
the eminent surgeon of Philadelphia. He graduated from 
the Jefferson Medical College in 1828, and immediately be- 
gan practising his profession in Philadelphia. During the 
first ten months of his novitiate, to fill up the intervals of 
practice, which came but slowly, he translated from the 
French and German, Bayle and Iiollard’s General Anatomy, 
Hildebrand on Typhus Fever, Ilatiu’s Manual of Obstetrics, 
and Tavernier’s Operative Surgery, for which he received 
eight hundred and seventy-five dollars. In 1830, or two 
years after his graduation, he published his “ Treatise on 
the Anatom}’, Physiology, and Disease of the Bones and 
Joints,” in which he called attention to the employment of 
adhesive plaster as a means of extension in fractures of the 
lower extremity, a method of treatment almost universally 
in vogue at the present day. 
After the lapse of eighteen months, having in the mean- 
while married, and his patrimony being almost exhausted, 
Dr. Gross returned to Easton, where he soon acquired a good 
practice; and when he left for Cincinnati, in October, 1833, 
two years and a half afterward, he was regarded as the most 
learned practitioner of the place. To increase his know- 
ledge of practical anatomy he erected at the foot of his gar- 5 
den a dissecting-room, and he brought his first cadaver in 
a buggy from Philadelphia, but he subsequently obtained 
material nearer home, not, however, without incurring great 
risk of detection. He dissected and performed the more im- 
portant operations on the cadaver several hours daily, and in 
this way obtained a vast amount of information which 
proved of the utmost value to him in subsequent years. 
All his leisure hours in the summer were spent upon the 
composition of a work on descriptive anatomy, which was, 
however, never completed. The MS., still in existence, con- 
tains, it is believed, the first effort in the English language 
to change the nomenclature of anatomy from Latin into 
English, a plan which, at his suggestion, was afterward 
adopted by his pupil, Dr. T. G. Richardson, now Professor 
of Surgery in the University of Louisiana, in his work on 
Anatomy, and subsequently by Professor Leidy, of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, in his text-book on Anatomy. 
During his residence at Easton, Dr. Gross made a series of 
observations upon the temperature of venous blood—alto- 
gether fifty in number—mostly of healthy persons, and 
found, the average to be 96° Fahr., the maximum being 104°, 
and the minimum 92°. Hence, he regarded the average of 
98°, as usually stated, as too high. The results of these 
investigations were published at Cincinnati in 1835, in the 
second volume of the Western Medical Gazette. lie also 
noticed in these observations a singular phenomenon, then, 
if not still, unknown, that if the arm be tied firmly for five 
or six minutes before opening the vein, the temperature of 
the blood which flows during the first thirty or forty seconds 
will be several degrees lower than that which issues sub- 
sequently, a fact which is probably due to the stationary 
condition of the blood in the veins. In addition to these 6 
experiments, he conducted others upon excretion to ascertain 
the rapid transit of certain articles, when taken into the 
stomach, through the blood to the kidneys. For this pur- 
pose he selected rabbits, to which, after having tied both 
renal arteries, he administered protoxide of iron. The ani- 
mals were killed within fifteen to thirty seconds, and upon 
applying a solution of cyanide of potassium to the urine in 
the bladder, ureters, and kidneys, well-marked traces of iron 
were invariably found in that fluid. To those who re- 
member the doctrine of solidism, so dominant in the schools 
of those days, these investigations are not without their 
significance. Another experiment which interested him at 
this time very much was the inoculation of a cat with the 
virus of smallpox, the object being to ascertain whether 
Gendrin was right in asserting that the disease could be 
communicated in this way to an inferior animal. With the 
exception of slight suppuration, no ill effects followed. 
In 1833 he performed a series of experiments upon rabbits 
with a view of throwing light upon manual strangulation, 
a full account of which was published in the ninth volume 
of the Western Medical and, Physical Journal, and an abstract 
of which will be found in the second volume of Beck’s 
“ Medical Jurisprudence,” with appropriate comments by 
that distinguished author. Shortly before these experiments 
were made, Dr. Gross was the chief medical witness in the 
case of Goetter, which constituted the most important 
event during his professional life at Easton. Goetter had 
killed, by manual strangulation in the eighth month of her 
pregnancy, a woman whom he had seduced. Dr. Gross 
made the post-mortem examination, but neglected to open 
the skull, and on this account was subjected to considerable 
annoyance during the trial, as the defence partly rested upon 7 
the ground that the woman had died of apoplexy. It was 
evident, however, from the marks upon her neck, and the 
condition of the face and lungs, that she had died from 
asphyxia, and he gave his testimony accordingly. The man 
was convicted solely upon circumstantial evidence, but the 
day before his execution he confessed that he had choked 
the woman to death with his hand. 
In October, 1883, Dr. Gross, after having been offered the 
chair of Chemistry in Lafayette College, Easton, removed 
to Cincinnati to accept the demonstratorship of anatomy in 
the Medical College of Ohio, and here he commenced his 
career with a hundred and fifty dollars in his purse. Ilis 
first class numbered nearly sixty out of a total class of about 
eighty-six. He gave regularly three lectures a week, chiefly 
on surgical and visceral anatomy, kept the rooms well sup- 
plied with subjects, and thus laid the foundation of the 
study of practical anatomy, which up to that time had 
been merely nominal in the Western States. In the spring 
and autumn he delivered private courses to small classes, 
earning little money, but accumulating valuable knowledge, 
and acquiring reputation as a zealous anatomist and a suc- 
cessful teacher. 
Dr. Gross remained in the Medical College of Ohio only 
two sessions ; when, in 1835, he was unanimously elected 
to the chair of Pathological Anatomy in the Medical Depart- 
ment of the Cincinnati College. During the first few years 
after his appointment he abandoned himself almost wholly 
to a special course of study to aid him in the discharge of 
his official duties. His medical friends did all they could 
to obtain for him post-mortem examinations, of which full 
notes were always taken, and the specimens preserved. In this 
way he laid the foundation of a museum of morbid anatomy, 8 
which, when the college was broken up, four years after its 
organization, contained a large number of valuable pre- 
parations. 
It was from these dissections, from an elaborate course of 
reading, and from numerous visits to the slaughter-houses 
of Cincinnati, that Dr. Gross derived the knowledge upon 
which was founded his “ Elements of Pathological Anatomy,” 
issued in 1839, in two octavo volumes of upwards of live 
hundred pages each. The hook was illustrated by numerous 
wood-cuts and several colored engravings, and was the first 
systematic work upon the subject ever published in the 
United States, or, indeed, in the English language. A 
second edition, greatly enlarged and thoroughly revised, 
was issued in 1845, in one large octavo volume of eight 
hundred and twenty-two pages, profusely illustrated, and 
full of marginal references, which greatly enhanced its 
value as a learned work. The third and last edition ap- 
peared in 1857, and in its preparation, especially the micro- 
scopical portion, the author was assisted by Dr. Da Costa. 
The work, in its original form, cost Dr. Gross, who had no 
one to advise or guide him, much labor and anxiety, having 
been written in the intervals of a large and increasing prac- 
tice, during hours often snatched from sleep, and under the 
exhaustion of fatigue, upwards of three years having been 
spent upon its composition. That he had not labored in 
vain was indicated not only by the reputation, both at home 
and abroad, which his researches in this branch brought 
him, but by an incident which was peculiarly gratifying to 
him. In July, 1868, Virchow had invited a number of 
prominent men to meet Dr. Gross at his residence in Berlin, 
among whom were Von Langenbeck, Von Graefe, Donders, 
and Gurlt. Toward the conclusion of the dinner, the host, 9 
availing himself of a lull in the conversation, drew forth a 
large volume from under the table, and, rising, took Di\ 
Gross by the hand, and made him an eloquent address, com- 
plimenting him upon his labors as a pathological anatomist, 
and referring to the book, which happened to be the second 
edition of his “Elements of Pathological Anatomy,” as one 
from which he had derived much useful instruction, and 
one which he always consulted with much pleasure. It 
need not be said that the author was deeply flattered by 
this great honor, so unexpectedly and so gracefully bestowed 
upon him by the great German pathologist. This estimate 
of the value of his work was more than compensation for all 
the toil and anxiety which it had cost him. 
While engaged in the preparation of his “ Pathological 
Anatomy” Dr. Gross contributed numerous papers to peri- 
odical literature, instructed a number of private pupils, 
attended to a large general and consultation practice, and 
never missed a lecture. In 1839 he was unanimously ap- 
pointed Professor of Medicine in the University of Virginia, 
a compliment the more honorable because it was unsolicited 
on his part, and a short time previously he had been offered 
the Chair of Anatomy in the University of Louisiana. 
These offers were promptly declined ; and it was well that 
they were, as a far more important position awaited him. 
During the spring of 1840 he accepted the Professorship of 
Surgery in the Louisville Medical Institute, afterwards the 
University of Louisville, which had been rendered vacant 
by the resignation of Dr. Joshua B. Flint. The most dis- 
tinguished members of the faculty of this school at that 
time were Daniel Drake, Charles Caldwell, John Esten 
Cooke, and Jedediah Cobb. Dr. Gross was the youngest 
member of the faculty; and although he had never taught 10 
surgery, he was thoroughly acquainted with its principles 
and practice, and had no misgivings upon entering upon the 
discharge of the duties of the chair. As a teacher he had 
never known what failure was, and he felt certain that he 
would succeed in his new field of labor. The class, during 
the first winter of his connection with the school, numbered 
two hundred and four, from which it afterwards increased 
to four hundred and six, the largest it ever had. As there 
was no rent to be paid for the building, the net proceeds of 
each chair amounted for quite a number of years annually 
to nearly $5000. 
The government of the University of Louisville was in- 
vested in a board of trustees, who were self-appointing. In 
1849 an attempt was made by the city of Louisville, through 
the Supreme Court of Kentucky, to wrest the control of 
the school from the hands of the men who had so ably 
managed its affairs, and to make the board elective by the 
people. At this particular crisis, being in doubt as to how 
the suit would terminate, Dr. Gross accepted the offer of the 
Chair of Surgery in the University of the City of Kew York, 
rendered vacant by the retirement of Valentine Mott, his 
colleagues being Granville Sharp Pattison, John W. Draper, 
Gunning S. Bedford, Martin Payne, and Elisha Bartlett, all 
men of distinction and ability. Dr. Gross was then forty- 
five years of age, full of ambition, and determined to do full 
justice to his chair. He passed the winter of 1850-’51 in 
Kew York; but, long before the termination of the session, 
he was solicited by his late colleagues at Louisville to resume 
his chair in its University, the suit in the mean time having 
been decided in favor of the board of trustees. Dr. Gross 
found that the University of Kew York was then unpopular 
with the profession of that city, that the college edifice was 11 
ill-adapted to its objects, that living and rents were exorbi- 
tantly high, and, in short, that the prospects of the institu- 
tion were not such as, in his opinion, to render it desirable 
to continue his connection with it. These considerations, 
along with the earnest wish of his family to return to their 
former home, led him to tender his resignation, and resume 
his chair in the University of Louisville, his successor, Dr. 
Paul F. Eve, having withdrawn in his favor. 
The winter passed in New York was the most charming 
he had ever spent. With four didactic lectures and two 
clinics a week, and little private practice, he gave himself 
up to amusements, social intercourse, and visits to the hos- 
pitals. He also attended a course of lectures on the micro- 
scope by Mr. Goadby, an English gentleman, and spent much 
of his leisure upon the composition of his work on the uri- 
nary organs, commenced several years previously, and com- 
pleted a short time before the close of this winter’s lectures. 
Had he remained in New York, he would doubtless have 
obtained a very large practice; but as he had left a more 
lucrative school, and had the most commanding surgical 
practice in the Southwest, he deemed it most prudent to 
retrace his steps. 
Soon after Dr. Gross first went to Louisville, he instituted 
a series of experiments upon dogs, with a view of deter- 
mining, more accurately than hitherto had been done, the 
nature and treatment of wounds of the intestines. These 
investigations, which were commenced in the spring of 1841, 
and continued, with various intermissions, for upwards of 
two years, involved the sacrifice of seventy dogs, and the 
results were originally published in a series of papers in the 
Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery, and finally em- 
bodied in a separate monograph, forming an octavo volume 
of two hundred and twenty pages, illustrated by wood-cuts 12 
and colored engravings, and entitled an “ Experimental and 
Critical Inquiry into the ETature and Treatment of Wounds 
of the Intestines.” The work was an exhaustive one, and 
comprised an account of his own researches, as well as a 
sketch of the literature of the subject. It was most favor- 
ably noticed in a long review in the British and Foreign 
Medico-Chirurgical Review, and was quoted approvingly by 
Mr. Guthrie in his work on “ Military Surgery.” 
Much labor was spent upon these experiments, and they 
involved not a little sacrifice of feeling on his part, as he 
was naturally fond of dogs, and anaesthetics had not yet been 
discovered. In this connection, in view of the attacks on 
the profession now being made in this city by the American 
Antivivisection Society, it will prove interesting to quote 
the language of Dr. Gross, penned ten years ago, on this 
subject. He says:— 
“ I have sacrificed for experimental purposes nearly one 
hundred dogs, and, if I were not thoroughly satisfied that 
the objects had been most laudable, I should consider myself 
as a most cruel, heartless man, deserving of the severest 
condemnation. The results of my experiments will, I am 
sure, eventually receive that attention to which their import- 
ance so justly entitles them. The experiments of Jones on 
hemorrhage, of Smith and Travers on wounds of the intes- 
tines, of Magendie and Charles Bell on the functions of the 
nerves, and of hundreds of physicians upon the action of 
medicines upon the human frame, have shed an immense 
flood of light upon the healing art, putting to flight the 
mawkish sentimentality of the societies for the prevention of 
cruelty to animals, which have made so much ado about this 
matter.” 
His work entitled “ A Practical Treatise on the Diseases, 13 
Injuries, and Malformations of the Urinary Bladder, the 
Prostate Gland, and the Urethra” was published by Blan- 
chard & Lea in 1851, the MS. having been deposited with 
them on his return from Hew York to Louisville. The only 
then existing monographs on these affections of any import- 
ance in the English language were those of Sir Benjamin 
Brodie and Mr. William Coulson, two comparatively meagre 
productions, which, although very valuable, especially the 
former, were unsatisfactory. Hence such a work had long 
been needed, and it was at once accepted as an authority 
upon the subjects of which it treated. He had for some time 
been accumulating the materials, and not less than three 
years were finally spent in arranging them for publication. 
A second edition, greatly enlarged and improved, was issued 
in 1855, and formed a closely-printed octavo volume of 925 
pages, illustrated by 184 wood-cuts. In an appendix of 29 
pages is thefirst and only attempt as yet made to furnish a com- 
plete account of the prevalence of stone in the bladder, and of 
calculous disorders in the United States, Canada, Hova Scotia, 
Europe, and other countries. In 1876 a third edition of the 
work appeared under the editorship of Dr. S. W. Gross, who 
rewrote much of it, introduced considerable new matter, and 
produced a valuable treatise fully up to the existing state of 
the science. 
Dr. Gross’s “ Practical Treatise on Foreign Bodies in tlie 
Air-Passages” was issued from the press of Blanchard & Lea, 
in 1854, in an octavo volume of 468 pages, illustrated by 59 
engravings on wood. Its composition required upwards of 
two years, and as it was the first attempt, in any language, 
to systematize our knowledge upon the subject, it was, 
strictly speaking, a pioneer work. Dr. Morrell Mackenzie, 
the highest authority upon the subject in Europe, in speaking 14 
of it, nearly thirty years after its publication, in his own 
admirable treatise on “ The Diseases of the Throat and 
Rose,” makes the following remarks : “ This invaluable essay 
gives full reports of two hundred cases, and is so complete 
that it is doubtful whether it will ever be improved upon ; 
indeed the excellent articles of Bourdillat and Kuhn subse- 
quently published, the former based on three thousand, the 
latter on three hundred and seventy-four cases, only confirm 
the conclusions previously arrived at by Gross.” It might 
have been added that Kuhn plagiarized much of his material. 
During his residence at Louisville, Dr. Gross was a liberal 
contributor to the Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 
edited by Dr. Drake. Among his earliest papers was an 
account of a case of axillary aneurism, for which he tied the 
subclavian artery. It was accompanied by a statistical no- 
tice of all that had been done in regard to the surgery of 
this vessel up to that period. Another very elaborate paper 
was published in 1852 on the “ Diseases and Operations on 
the Jaws,” and one of his last contributions to its pages was 
a “ Discourse upon the Life and Character of Daniel Drake,” 
embracing nearly one hundred pages. 
In 1851 he prepared a very full and exhaustive “ Report 
on Kentucky Surgery” for the Kentucky State Medical So- 
ciety, and afterwards published in its Transactions. It 
contained a biography of Ephraim McDowell, with a full 
vindication of his claims as the originator of ovariotomy in 
1809. In 1853 he sent to the American Medical Association, 
at its meeting in Richmond, Virginia, an exhaustive report 
on the “ Results of Surgical Operations in Malignant Dis- 
eases.” It comprised one hundred and thirty-seven pages of 
its volume of Transactions, and embodied the experience of 
the principal surgeons of all ages and countries. At the 15 
meeting of the Association at Detroit, in 1856, he read a 
“ Report on the Causes which Retard the Progress of Ameri- 
can Medical Literature,” in which he took strong ground 
against the editing of foreign works by American writers, 
and animadverted in severe terms upon our medical journals 
for their indiscriminate praise of European reprints. During 
the same period he contributed several papers to the American 
Journal of the Medical Sciences. One of these was the report 
of a case, full of interest, of “ Gunshot Wound of the Heck, 
involving the Spinal Cord and Subclavian Artery, and Caus- 
ing Death by Convulsions.” The paper, however, which 
attracted most attention was the report in the October num- 
ber for 1852 of an operation which he performed in 1849 
upon a child three years old, the subject of a congenital 
malformation, consisting in complete absence of the vagina 
and the presence of well-formed testes in the labia. The 
object was to prevent effectually, if possible, the development 
with puberty of sexual desire, as the malformation would 
render intercourse quite impossible. Although the operation 
was severely criticized, Dr. Gross never felt cause to regret 
the course he had adopted. 
In the winter of 1856, Dr. Gross and Dr. T. G. Richard- 
son founded the Louisville Medical Review, a bi-monthly 
journal of medicine and surgery, of which only six numbers 
appeared, since, by a strange coincidence, soon after the 
publication of the first, both editors received and accepted 
appointments in Philadelphia, Dr. Gross to the chair of Sur- 
gery in the Jefferson Medical College, and Dr. Richardson to 
that of Anatomy in the Pennsylvania College. Soon after 
their removal to Philadelphia, they issued the North American 
Medico-Chirurgical Review, one of the peculiar features of 
which periodical was that each department of the sciences 16 
was intrusted to a separate contributor, whose duty it was 
to furnish an abstract of the current literature, so that it 
always fully reflected the latest discoveries and improve- 
ments. The work prospered until the outbreak of the war, 
when all the Southern subscribers dropped off", and the pub- 
lishers, J. B. Lippincott & Co., were compelled to abandon 
it, at the close of its fifth year of publication. To the pages 
of these journals Dr. Gross contributed a number of original 
articles and elaborate reviews, including among others a 
remarkable and curious case of “ Congenital Hypertrophy of 
the Gums,” the “ Nature and Treatment of Tuberculosis of 
the Hip-joint,” “August Gottlieb Richter: his Works and 
his Contemporaries—A Retrospective Sketch,” into which 
he introduced an account of Desault, Benjamin Bell, and 
Antonio Scarpa, and, finally, “ A Sketch of the Life and 
Services of Ambrose Pare.” The journals were also made, 
during the greater part of their existence, the vehicles of 
the reports of his clinics at the University at Louisville, the 
Jefferson Medical College, and the Philadelphia Hospital. 
In 1855 Dr. Gross was solicited by Dr. Rene La Roche, a 
member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Penn- 
sylvania, to allow his name to be placed before that body, as 
a candidate for the chair of Surgery, vacated by the resigna- 
tion of Dr. Gibson. He was assured that the entire medical 
faculty, with the exception of Dr. George B. Wood, had 
pledged themselves to support him, and would use their best 
endeavors to secure his election. Various reasons, however, 
induced him to decline, and he wrote, at the request of Dr. 
D. Hayes Agnew, a warm testimonial in favor of Dr. Henry 
H. Smith, who was elected. 
Dr. Gross remained at Louisville for sixteen years, from 
October, 1840, to September, 1856. He became closely iden- 17 
tified with the people and the interests of that city, and he 
was regarded as the most prominent surgeon of the South- 
west. Hence it is not surprising that when it was an- 
nounced in May, 1856, that he had accepted the chair of 
Surgery in the Jefferson Medical College, universal regret 
was expressed by both the medical profession and the citi- 
zens of Louisville. He received numerous letters from 
medical men in various parts of the valley of the Missis- 
sippi, remonstrating with him against his removal, but he 
did not feel that he could decline the honorable position in 
his Alma Mater, which had been unanimously tendered him 
by its Board of Trustees and the faculty. Moreover, a 
strong motive which impelled him to remove to Philadel- 
phia was the desire to be relieved of a large and annoying 
family practice, so that he might write an elaborate system 
of surgery, for which his leisure in Louisville was not suffi- 
cient, but upon the composition of which he had been en- 
gaged for several years. 
Dr. Gross reached Philadelphia on Saturday, September 
26, 1856, and delivered his first clinical lecture on the fol- 
lowing Wednesday. lie brought with him about one-half 
of his library, which consisted of nearly 4000 volumes, hav- 
ing deposited the remainder in boxes in the University of 
Louisville for safe-keeping. As he was about to go before 
his class on the ensuing 24th of December, the following 
telegram was handed to him: “ The University was totally 
consumed by fire early this morning, including all your 
books and minerals.” This intelligence greatly shocked 
him, his loss being the more keenly felt, as it comprised the 
most complete collection of works on the genito-urinary 
organs ever brought together in this country. Many of the 
books and pamphlets were from the library of the late John 18 
C. Crosse, the eminent lithotomist of Norwich, England, and 
could never be replaced. 
In order that his literary pursuits might not be too much 
interfered with, Dr. Gross, upon his arrival in Philadelphia, 
confined himself strictly to office and consultation practice, 
to patients from abroad, and to surgical operations. He set 
to work vigorously upon the completion of his “System of 
Surgery,” which he had determined to make the most elabo- 
rate, if not the most complete, treatise in the English lan- 
guage. The heads of his lectures served him as a valuable 
guide, and he generally wrote with great facility, as his 
knowledge of the subject, from long study, practice, and 
teaching, -was extensive, and, in the main, very accurate. 
He spent from five to eight hours a day upon his manu- 
script, and, unless greatly interrupted, he seldom wrote less 
than from ten to fifteen pages of foolscap in the twenty-four 
hours, and rarely rewrote anything, although he not un- 
frequently interlined. In this way he worked steadily until 
July 8,1859, when he finally wrote the preface. Soon after, 
the work was issued in two portly octavo volumes, number- 
ing, in the aggregate, 2360 pages, and profusely illustrated 
by engravings on wood. The sixth edition was published 
in October, 1882, and it was so thoroughly changed and so 
greatly improved over the preceding editions, as to consti- 
tute essentially a new production. The review of this work 
which gratified him most was given of the fifth edition in 
the Dublin Journal of Medical Science for 1874. It covered 
nearly fifty pages of that periodical, and was at once able, 
analytical, and critical. The review thus concludes: “His 
work is cosmopolitan, the surgery of the world being fully 
represented in it. The work, in fact, is so historically un- 
prejudiced, and so eminently practical, that it is almost a 19 
false compliment to say that we believe it to be destined to 
occupy a foremost place as a work of reference while a sys- 
tem of surgery, like the present system of surgery, is the 
practice of surgeons.” A Dutch translation, by Dr. Sachse, 
appeared at Nieuwediep in 1863. 
At the outbreak of the war, Dr. Gross wrote a brief 
“Manual of Military Surgery,” a pocket companion for the 
young surgeons who were flocking into the army. It was 
composed in nine days, and published in a fortnight from 
the time of its inception. Under the care of Lippincott & 
Co., it passed through two editions of 2000 copies each, was 
republished at Richmond, and was extensively used by the 
Confederate surgeons, and in 1874 was translated into 
Japanese and published at Tokio. 
In 1861 Dr. Gross edited an octavo volume of upwards of 
800 pages, entitled, “ Lives of Eminent American Physicians 
and Surgeons of the Nineteenth Century,” his own contribu- 
tions being sketches of Ephraim McDowell, the ovarioto- 
mist; Drake, the great Western physician; and John Syng 
Dorsey, the nephew of Physick, and the author of the “Ele- 
ments of Surgery.” 
In 1868, in the address which he read before the Ameri- 
can Medical Association at its meeting at Washington, as 
its President, he called attention, among other matters, to a 
new method of appointing medical witnesses as experts in 
cases involving medico-legal considerations. In 1869, at the 
meeting at JSTew Orleans, an elaborate paper from his pen on 
the “Training of Nurses” was read, which attracted much 
attention. At its meeting at Detroit, in 1874, he read an 
address on “ Syphilis in its Relation to the National Health,” 
which received the highest commendation, Dr. Sims offering 
a resolution for the appointment of a committee to present 20 
the subject to the consideration of the legislatures of the 
different States and Territories. The following year he read 
before the same body, at its meeting at Louisville, “A Dis- 
course on Bloodletting considered as a Therapeutic Agent;” 
and at its meeting in Chicago, in 1877, he read a paper on 
the “Proximate Cause of Pain.” In October, 1875, he de- 
livered two elaborate lectures introductory to his course at 
the College on the “ History of American Medical Litera- 
ture from 1776 to the Present Time,” which were afterwards 
issued in a brochure of 85 octavo pages. 
In the American Journal of the Medical Sciences for April, 
1876, is an article, occupying 53 closely printed pages, from 
his pen on the “ History of American Surgery from 1776 to 
1876,” which is one of several papers prepared by different 
writers illustrative of the progress of the different branches 
of medicine in this country during the century, and which, 
together with those papers, was issued in book form under 
the title of a “ Century of American Medicine.” 
During his residence in Philadelphia, in addition to the 
works and papers already mentioned, Dr. Gross made many 
literary contributions to various journals and societies, among 
which may be mentioned “ Practical Observations on the 
Mature and Treatment of Prostatorriicea,” 1860 ; “Erunon- 
ianism, Toddism, and other Isms,” 1860 ; “ Necrological No. 
ticeof Jedediah Cobb, M.D., formerly Professor of Anatomy 
in the University of Louisville,” 1861; “Biographical 
Sketch of Charles Wilkins Short, M.D., formerly Professor 
of Materia Medica and Medical Botany in the University of 
Louisville,” 1865 ; “Then and Now,” 1867; “The Live 
Physician,” 1868 ; “ A Memoir of Valentine Mott, M.D.,” 
1868; “A Memoir of Robley Dunglison, M.D.,” 1869; 21 
“ Nature’s Voice in Disease and Convalescence,” 1870; “A 
Discourse on Ambrose Pare,” 1878; “ An Oration in Honor 
of Ephraim McDowell,” delivered before the Kentucky 
State Medical Society at its meeting at Danville, at the de- 
dication of the monument erected to his memory, 1879 ; 
“ A Memoir of Dr. Isaac Hays,” late editor of the American 
Journal of the Medical Sciences, 1879 ; “ John Hunter and his 
Pupils,” 1881; “Value of Early Operations in Morbid 
Growths,” 1883 ; and “ The Best Means of Training 
Nurses for the Rural Districts,” 1883. His last contributions, 
composed a few weeks before his death, were one on 
“ Wounds of the Intestines,” read before the American Sur- 
gical Association, by Professor Richardson, April 30, 1884 ; 
and one on “ Lacerations of the Female Sexual Organs, con- 
sequent upon Parturition, their Causes and their Preven- 
tion,” read before the American Medical Association, on 
May 8, 1884, two days after he expired. 
Dr. Gross became a writer early in his professional life, 
lie had hardly received his degree before he began to trans- 
late French and German medical works. During the first 
summer, he assisted Dr. John D. Godman, the anatomist and 
naturalist, in translating the Duke of Saxe-Weimar’s 
“ Travels in the United States,” and the next year he wrote 
his work on the “ Bones and Joints.” He was always a 
hard student and incessant thinker. He accomplished the 
vast amount of writing which he did simply by working in 
an orderly and systematic manner, with a distinct, definite 
aim, and never allowing anything to interfere with the con- 
summation of his labors. As he frequently said, his genius 
was the genius of industry, perseverance, and commonsense. 
He thought out many of the details of his writings while 22 
making his daily rounds, and it was his constant habit, on 
returning to his office, to commit to paper what he had out- 
lined in his busy brain. 
After his graduation, the great ambition of Dr. Gross was 
to become a teacher. Ilis first effort in this direction was 
as Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Medical College of Ohio, 
in which, as previously stated, he delivered three lectures a 
week for t-wo years. In the Cincinnati College he lectured 
for four years on pathological anatomy, after which he 
taught for forty-two years. During all this time he 
invariably spoke extemporaneously with the aid of a few 
brief headings ; but he never appeared before his class with- 
out previous study and meditation, and a thorough compre- 
hension of his subject. Order and system were among his 
more important attributes as a teacher. Those who have 
heard him will never forget his enthusiasm ; the clearness, 
force, and directness of his language ; the marked interest 
he felt in what he was saying and doing ; and the evidence 
of the feeling that he had a solemn duty to perform, and 
that upon what he uttered might depend the future happi- 
ness or misery of thousands of human beings. The opening 
portion of his course on surgery wras devoted to the discus- 
sion of the principles, the topics discussed having been inflam- 
mation and its consequences, syphilis, struma, tumors, and 
wounds. These topics being disposed of, he took up the dis- 
eases and injuries of particular regions, organs, and tissues, 
confining himself as much as possible to matters of fact, and 
not indulging in hypotheses, conjecture, or speculation. His 
knowledge of pathological anatomy was of immense benefit 
to him in these exercises, and he freely availed himself of it 
as a means of illustrating every subject that he had occasion 
to discuss. Indeed, he always asserted, that whatever repu- 23 
tation he possessed as a teacher and a writer, was in great 
degree due to his familiarity with morbid anatomy. What 
added greatly to his charm as a lecturer were his admirable 
diction, his commanding presence, and a resonant and well- 
modulated voice. 
In March, 1882, being in the full possession of his intel- 
lectual and physical powers, but being actuated by a desire 
to spend the remainder of his days in comparative repose, he 
resigned the chair of Surgery in the Jefferson Medical College, 
which he had filled for twenty-six years, and he was there- 
upon unanimously elected emeritus professor. 
Dr. Gross had a great fondness for surgery. After his 
removal to Louisville, his name became widely known as a 
practical surgeon, and after the retirement of Dr. Dudley, 
who had so long wielded the surgical sceptre at Lexington, 
there was no one in the Valley of the Mississippi who did 
so large a practice as he. He possessed all the quali- 
ties of a good operator, a thorough knowledge of regional 
anatomy, quick perception, rapidity in judgment, perfect 
self-control, a steady hand, and an unflinching eye. He 
rarely failed to accomplish what he had set out to do, and he 
never lost a patient upon the table from shock or hemor- 
rhage. He performed many major operations, and had an 
extended reputation as a lithotomist, having cut 165 
patients, with 14 deaths. Of 72 children, all except 2 sur- 
vived, while of 93 operations in adults and old persons, 12 
died. 
Daring the War of the Rebellion, he took great interest 
in gunshot wounds, visiting many battle-fields and hospitals 
to observe their peculiar features, of which he made valuable 
notes. In the spring of 1862, Surgeon-General Hammond 
offered him the post of Surgeon-in-Charge of the George St. 24 
Hospital in this city, hut as in his own opinion he had no 
fitness for the position he promptly declined it, preferring to 
be placed in charge of the surgical ward, so as to be the 
better able to study gunshot injuries. 
In addition to the various experiments already alluded to, 
be made not a few original contributions to surgery. He 
was the first to suggest or perform for ganglia of the band 
and foot subcutaneous section followed by firm compression ; 
high amputation in senile gangrene; the suturing of divided 
nerves and tendons; deep stitches in wounds of the wall of 
the abdomen, to prevent hernia or protrusion of the bowel 
after recovery ; wiring the ends of the bones in dislocations 
of the sterno-clavicular and acromio-clavicular articulations; 
a modification of Pirogoff’s amputation at the ankle joint, 
unjustly ascribed to Dr. Quimby; a mode of operating for 
inverted toe nails; an operation for neuralgia of the jaws in 
old persons; laparotomy in rupture of the bladder; and a 
direct operation for hernia by suturing the pillars of the ring. 
He was also the first to describe prostatorrhoea, pododynia, 
and the use of adhesive plaster as a means of making exten- 
sion in the treatment of fractures of the lower extremity. 
He was the inventor of an enterotome, urethrotome, trache- 
otomy forceps, blood catheter, arterial compressor, tourni- 
quet, an instrument for extracting foreign bodies from the 
ear and nose, and an apparatus for the transfusion of blood. 
In his “ Pathological Anatomy” he has given a description 
of a number of dissections of specimens of false conception or 
uterine moles, as they are termed, the first account in the 
English language. He was also the first to suggest the use 
of ergot in the treatment of diabetes. 
Dr. Gross’s majestic form and dignified presence, his broad 
brow and intelligent eye, his deep, mellow voice, and benig- 25 
nant smile, his genial maimer and cordial greeting, remain 
indelibly impressed upon the memory of all who knew him. 
He was a man of deep mind and broad views, and he was a 
model of industry and untiring zeal. He always had some 
literary work in hand, and he was in the habit of rising early 
in the morning, generally at six o’clock, and accomplishing 
considerable writing before breakfast. His style was vigor- 
ous and pure, and the amount of work he accomplished was 
simply immense. It is safe to say that no previous medical 
teacher or author on this continent exercised such a wide- 
spread and commanding influence as did Prof. Gross. His 
writings have been most learned and voluminous, and his 
classes among the largest that have ever been collected in 
this country. As a citizen he was public-spirited and influ- 
ential, and he always most jealously guarded the esprit de 
corps of his own profession. In every project to advance its 
interests or to protect or honor any of its deserving members 
he "was foremost. On account of the universally recognized 
eminence of hi§ authority as a surgeon he was frequently 
called into court as an expert to testify in malpractice suits, 
and he was ever ready cheerfully to give his time, knowl- 
edge, and influence in maintaining the right, and he never 
thought any trouble too great to aid a professional brother. 
He took a deep interest, too, in the struggles and success 
of young men, born perhaps of his own experience, and 
he was always ready to assist them by his counsel and 
advice. His house was the seat of a wide and generous 
hospitality, and distinguished strangers, professional and non- 
professional, were welcome guests at his table. While fond 
of social life, he never appeared so happy as when surrounded 
by his own family. He was, too, an ardent lover of the 
beauties of nature, with a special fondness for flowers, of 26 
which a few were always to be found at his side on his study 
table. 
Dr. Gross attained unusual eminence in the world of medi- 
cine. He was a member or fellow of numerous medical 
societies and other organizations, both American and foreign, 
including among the former, the College of Physicians of 
Philadelphia, the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the 
Pathological Society of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Aca- 
demy of Surgery, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the 
American Philosophical Society, the Medical Society of 
the State of Pennsylvania, the Medical Jurisprudence 
Society of Philadelphia, the Massachusetts Medical Society, 
the Rhode Island Medical Society, the New York State 
Medical Society, the Academy of Medicine of New York, 
the Cincinnati Medical Society, the Ohio Historical and 
Philosophical Society, the Medical Society of Louisiana, 
the Kentucky State Medical Society, the American Medical 
Association, the American Surgical Association, the National 
Association for the Protection of the Insane,*and the Ameri- 
can Public Health Association. He was the founder of the 
Pathological Society of Philadelphia, of the Academy of 
Surgery of Philadelphia, and of the American Surgical Asso- 
ciation, and one of the founders of the Kentucky State 
Medical Society, and of the Medical Jurisprudence Society 
of Philadelphia, of which organizations, as well as of the 
International Medical Congress, held at Philadelphia in 1876, 
the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the Medical Soci- 
ety of the State of Pennsylvania, the American Medical 
Association, the Medical College Association, and the Penn- 
sylvania College of Dental Surgery he served as president. 
Of foreign societies, he was an honorary member of the 
British Medical Association, the Royal Medical and Chi- 27 
rurgical Society of London, the Clinical Society of London, 
the Pathological Society of London, the Medico Chirurgical 
Society of Edinburgh, the Imperial Medical Society of 
Vienna, the Medical Society of Christiania, the Royal 
Society of Public Medicine of Belgium, and the Medical 
Society of San Luis Potosi. 
On April 3d, 1881, Dr. Gross received a letter from Mr., 
now Sir William MacCormac, Honorary Secretary-General, 
inviting him to deliver the address in behalf of the American 
delegates to the International Medical Congress, which met 
in London, in August of that year. To his great regret, he 
was unable to be present, and therefore was forced to decline 
the honor. 
Dr. Gross was made an LL.D. by the Jefferson College, of 
Canonsburgh, in 1861. In 1872, the University of Oxford 
conferred upon him the degree of D.C.L.; the University of 
Cambridge her degree of LL.D. in 1880 ; and the University of 
Edinburgh and the University of Pennsylvania conferred the 
same degree, in absentia, in April and May, 1884. 
Save an occasional twinge from rheumatic gout during his 
later years, Dr. Gross enjoyed excellent health to within a 
few months of his last illness. During the autumn and 
early winter of 1883, he was troubled with several attacks 
of indigestion, swollen feet, and other signs of weak heart, 
which, however, readily yielded to remedies. Early in 
January, he had a mild attack of bronchial catarrh, which 
confined him to the house. Being thus deprived of out-door 
exercise, signs of dyspepsia again set in, and with the view 
of gaining strength to attend the meetings of the American 
Surgical Association, and of the American Medical Associa- 
tion in May, upon which he had set his heart, he went to 
Atlantic City on the 31st of March. On the following April 28 
6th, he was seized with intense nausea, and reached home 
the next afternoon much exhausted. From this time until 
his decease, May 6th, at twenty minutes to one o’clock, it 
was with great difficulty that he could be induced to take 
nourishment, and death ensued from sheer exhaustion, des- 
pite the unremitting attention of Professor Da Costa, and of 
his son, Professor S. W. Gross, aided by the wise counsel of 
his able and distinguished friend, Professor Austin Flint. 
The post-mortem examination disclosed marked gastric 
catarrh, with irregular thickening of the mucous membrane, 
fatty heart, and a large cyst of the right kidney. The brain 
weighed forty-eight ounces. 
The funeral services were held in the presence of his family 
and attendants, on the afternoon of May 7. llis remains 
were then taken to the crematory at Washington, Pa., where 
they were reduced to ashes. On the following Sunday they 
were deposited in the family vault at Woodlands Cemetery. 
« 
These last rites were strictly in accordance with his ex- 
pressed wishes; and his friends had known for many years 
his desire to be cremated, which he regarded as the only 
decent and correct manner of disposing of the dead. 
The record of such a well-spent life is a valuable lesson 
which we do well to study and reflect upon. It serves as 
both precept and example, and invites us to emulate that 
energy, assiduity, and perseverance through which, aided by 
considerable native ability, the subject of this memoir ac- 
quired widespread distinction as a surgeon, a writer, a teacher, 
and a man. It shows that talent with industry cannot be 
repressed by adverse surroundings, but that it grows stronger 
in overcoming obstacles. Had Dr. Gross after graduation 
supinely waited for his ability to be discovered and for pre- 
ferment to seek him, sheer want would probably have driven 29 
him to other pursuits, and his name would have been un- 
known to surgery. But, as we have seen, from the very 
moment of his graduation he entered upon the restless contest 
for distinction, and he created his own opportunities for 
advancement. When as yet he had had no time to gain ex- 
perience in the practice of his profession, he did useful work, 
and made his name known by translating the books of seve- 
ral Continental authors of distinction. Shortly afterward, 
under all the disadvantages of restricted means and adverse 
surroundings, he undertook original investigations in ana- 
tomy, physiology, pathology, and surgery, which gradually 
gave him a substantial and constantly-growing reputation, 
until finally he reaped, through the force of his own labors, 
all the honors which his own profession could bestow, and 
enjoyed a celebrity extending over both continents. 
In the death of Dr. Gross we have lost one of the brightest 
examples of the skill and learning, the conscientiousness and 
assiduity, the patience and perseverance, the dignity and 
morality by which our profession is truly ennobled. He has 
left us as a heritage a world-wide reputation which, as we 
regard it with conscious pride, cannot but stimulate us to 
a higher sense of our duty to our profession and to our 
fellows.