BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH "*mmmmmmi■ OF GEO. J. ENGELMANN, A.M., M.D., ST. LOUIS —BOSTON. 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 STREET, NEW YORK, N.Y. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GEO. J. ENGELMANN, A.M., M.D., BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. FORGE JULIUS ENGELMANN, A.M., M.D., Boston, Massachusetts, Master in Obstetrics, Vienna, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, July 2, 1847; only son of George Engelmann, who was born in Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1809, and died in St. Louis in 1884, active in the practice of medicine until the time of his death, but most widely known as a botanist. His mother was Dorothea Horstmann, born at Bach- arach on the Rhine in 1804, and died in St. Louis in 1879, the daughter of Phillip Horstmann, one of the legal officers of the Province. The Engelmanns for successive generations had been ministers of the Reformed Church at Bacharach on the Rhine, where, under the altar, the great-grandfather of George J., the last who held this position, lies buried. His father’s mother, Julia Antoinette, was the only daughter of Antoinette Andre and George Oswald May, who in his earlier years was an artist of note at the Court of Weimar. She was descended from a family of Huguenot emigres who fled from the vicinity of Amiens immediately after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and settled at Offenbach near Frankfurt. Her brother was the intimate friend of Goethe, men- tioned in many of his early letters. George’s early education was guided by his mother until 1856, when he was taken by his. parents tp Europe, 2 receiving instruction in the great centres which his father sought in the interest of botanical research. He returned to St. Louis in 1858, and entered Washington University, where he was graduated with the valedictory in 1867. His medical training he received abroad at the University of Berlin, 1867—69, at Tubingen under von Niemeyer and von Bruns, 1869—70. Valuable practical experience was gained as volunteer surgeon under the Red Cross in the Franco-Prussian War, in 1870 and 1871. Resuming his studies in Berlin, under von Langenbeck, Virchow, Traube, Fre- richs and Martin, he was graduated in the spring of 1871, receiving the first medical diploma under the new German empire. The years 1871—72 were spent in Vienna, mainly in the gynaecological wards of Spaeth and Braun, and in the pathological laboratory of Rokitanski. He there received the degree of Master in Obstetrics, and en- gaged in his first important investigation on the u Mu- cous Membrane of the Uterus ” with Dr. Kundrat, later professor of Pathological Anatomy. After a winter in the hospitals of Paris and London, Dr. Engelmann returned to St. Louis in the Spring of 1873, entering at once upon the practice of medicine in his native city, taking the position of Lecturer on Pathological Anatomy in the St. Louis Medical College. He entered with zest upon his work, took an active part in the medical life of the city, and organized the St. Louis School for Midwives and the Maternity Hos- pital in 1874. After recovery from nearly fatal sepsis, acquired in December, 1878, he gave up a laborious general prac- 3 tice, and devoted himself entirely to diseases of women, in which he had been always most interested. Dr. Engelmann spent his summer vacations in study and travel abroad, keeping in touch with his co-workers in his own as well as in foreign countries. He was one of the founders of the American Gynaecological Society, later president; of the International Congress of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, of which he was honor- ary president in 1892 and 1899; of the St. Louis Ob- stetrical and Gynaecological Society; and of the St. Louis Post-Graduate School of Medicine, in which he held the chair of Diseases of Women and Operative Midwifery. Efforts to replace the intra-uterine application, the pessary and the annoying moist tampon by more simple and efficient means led to papers on the “Dry Treat- ment,” “ The Use of Electricity in Gynaecological Practice ” (Transactions of the American Gynaecologi- cal Society, 1887), also to the “Engelmann Faradic, with series of coils and variable interrupters ” (Ameri- can Journal of the Medical Sciences, Philadelphia, 1893); also chapter on “Faradism in American Sys- tem of Electro-therapeutics,” 1891. Dr. Engelmann was among the first to enter upon progressive abdominal work, to follow the lead of Battey and Tait, “The Difficulties and Dangers of Battey’s Operation.” (Transactions of the American Medical Association, Philadelphia, 1878). “Battey’s Operation; three Fatal Cases, with some Remarks upon the Indi- cations for the Operation.” (American Journal of Obstetrics. New York, July, 1878), “Battey’s Op- eration ; A Brief Summary of Results Achieved in the forty-seven Cases as far as Reported.” (St. Louis 4 Medical and Surgical Journal, August, 1878); to urge ovariotomy in early stages and caution against chemical antiseptics, to draw attention to “ Renal Disease follow- ing Utero-ovarian Lesion” (Transactions of the Ameri- can Gynaecological Society, 1889), and to the “ Hystero- Neurosis,” 1878 and 1887, the name under which he grouped the reflex symptoms which accompany pelvic disease, leading to a more general study of those hitherto neglected neuroses. A Peruvian funeral urn, representing an accouche- ment, observed in the course of archaeological investi- gation, led to a study of the “ Posture of Women in Labor,” finally to the work on “ Labor among Primi- tive Peoples, Ancient and Modern, 1882,” which ap- peared in German (Vienna, 1884) and French (Paris, 1886), as did also the “ Hystero-Neurosis, Dry Treat- ment,” and “ Electricity in Gynaecology.” Impressed by the result of vaginal work seen in Brussels and Paris, he brought the subject before the American profession “Vaginal Hysterectomy and Hysterectomy by Morcellement,” “ History of Vaginal Hysterectomy” (Transactions of the Southern Surgical and Gynaecological Society, 1883-84)/ Other papers are “ Medical Education and Legisla- tion,” “Valedictory Address to the Class of 1892, Missouri Medical College ”; “ The Health of the American Girl, Presidential Address ” (Southern Surgical and Gynaecological Society, 1890); “The Menstrual Function as influenced by Modern Methods of Train- ing, Mental and Physical, Presidential Address ” (Ameri- can Gynaecological Society, 1900). Archaeological researches in the interest of St. Louis Academy of Science in the swamp lands of South-east 5 Missouri added much of interest to the society’s mu- seum and formed the basis for his own private collec- tion, one of the most important in the West, to which exchanges with the museums of Washington, Berlin and Vienna added greatly. On removing to Boston in 1895 the larger part, Missouri flints and pottery from the mounds, was given to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology in Cambridge. Dr. Engelmann is a member of the St. Louis and University Clubs, St. Louis; St. Botolph Club, Boston. Professor of Diseases of Women and Operative Mid- wifery, Missouri Medical College; and St. Louis Post- Graduate School of Medicine. President American Gynaecological Society, 1900; President Southern Surgical and Gynaecological Society, 1890; President St. Louis Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society, 1887- 89; Honorary President of the International Congress of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, 1892 and 1899. Fellow London Obstetrical Society, British Gynaeco- logical Society, Boston Obstetrical Society ; Member of the American Medical Association, Massachusetts Medical Society, American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science, St. Louis Academy of Science; Honorary Member of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association, Medical Society of the State of New York, North Texas Medical Association; Corresponding Member of the Obstetrical Society of Philadelphia, Surgical Society of Bucarest, etc. He was married in 1879 to Emily Engelmann who died, after a long and most trying illness, in 1890. He then traveled much abroad, and in 1893 married Mrs. Loula Clark and removed to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1895.