BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
OF 
DR. HENRY 0. MARCY. 
[Reprint from Physicians and Surgeons of America.] HENRY O. MARCY MARCY, Henry Orlando, Boston, Mass., 
was born June 23, 1837, in Otis, Mass.; the son 
of S. Marcy, who was a soldier in the War of 
1812 and a teacher by profession, and Fanny 
(Gibbs) Marcy; grandson of Thomas Marcy, a 
pioneer of Northern Ohio, having settled the town 
of Freedom, Portage county, with a colony of his 
eastern neighbors and friends ; grandson and great- 
grandson of Elijah and Israel Gibbs, respectively, 
both of whom served in the American Revolution 
and were with General Gates at the surrender of 
General Burgoyne. 
Henry Orlando Marcy received a preliminary and 
classical education at Wilbraham Academy and 
Amherst College, and was graduated from the 
Medical School of Harvard University in 1863. In 
April of the same year he was commissioned assist- 
tant surgeon of the Forty-third Massachusetts Vol- 
unteers, and in the following November, was com- 
missioned surgeon of the First Regiment of Col- 
ored Troops, recruited in North Carolina. In 
1864 he was appointed medical director of Florida, 
and served on the staffs of Generals Van Wyck, 
Potter, and Hatch, resigning his commission in 
June, 1865, his last special service being the sani- 
tary renovation of Charleston, S. C. 
After the close of the war, Dr. Marcy returned 
to Cambridge, Mass., and entered upon the prac- 
tice of medicine. In the spring of 1869 he went 
to Europe for further study, entering the Univer- 
sity of Berlin and remaining there one year, as a 
special student of Professors Martin and Virchow. 
After this he familiarized himself with the hospital 
service of the different European cities, spending 
the summer in London and Edinburgh, and then 
became the first American pupil of Professor Lis- 
ter, of the last named city. Convinced of the cor- 
rectness of the, then, new teaching of this great 
master, he immediately, upon returning to this 
country, devoted himself to the introduction of the 
antiseptic methods of wound treatment; equipped 
a laboratory; obtained the services of competent assistants; and devoted ten years to the con- 
tinuous study of the micro-organisms found in 
wounds; their cultivation in various media; their 
reproduction in animals, etc., publishing, from 
time to time, the results of these observations. 
He made a series of investigations upon the repair 
processes of osseous structures, extending over a 
period of two years. Rabbits were used for experi- 
mental study, the animals being injected at selected 
dates, until a complete series was secured, show- 
ing the intermediate processes of repair. He was 
assisted by Surgeon-General Holt, and after many 
experiments, the injection apparatus now generally 
used was devised, in 1878. Under the continuous 
pressure of half an atmosphere, it was found that 
the finest capillary loops in the newly formed tis- 
sue could be filled without breaking. The decal- 
cified specimens were sectioned and mounted. 
Projected upon a screen, they easily taught the 
large audiences before whom they were presented, 
that the repair processes in the long bones were 
due chiefly to a new periosteum, profilerated from 
either side of the injured, often times devitalized, 
structures. 
In 1870, Dr. Marcy familiarized himself with the 
practice of Mr. Lister in the ligation of arteries in 
continuity, by the use of the buried catgut-ligature. 
In the autumn of that year he modified their use 
for the purpose of closing, subcutaneously, wounds 
made for the radical cure of hernia. Finding that 
primary union supervened and that the cicatrices 
were strong and not painful, Dr. Marcy instituted 
a series of laboratory studies, burying sutures in 
various animals and studying the resulting histo- 
logical conditions, He demonstrated that aseptic 
connective-tissue material, e.g., catgut and the 
tendons of animals aseptically buried in aseptic 
wounds, were invariably followed by primary 
union ; that the foreign material thus buried was 
surrounded with leucocytes and invaded by them ; 
that little by little, vascularity followed, thus the 
suture being replaced in large degree by a band of living connective-tissue. The importance of such 
discoveries was at once appreciated and the aseptic 
buried animal-suture was applied for the closure of 
every aseptic wound, the skin included, the latter 
by a light running suture taken from side to side, 
through the deeper layer of the skin only. Trac- 
tion upon it, evenly, coapts the divided edges, 
which are hermetically sealed with iodoform col- 
lodion without drainage. Dr. Marcy published 
the result of these investigations, and a consider- 
able number of new operations were devised, as 
the result of such suturing. 
Having demonstrated the inherent defects of cat- 
gut as a suture material in 1880, after a careful 
study of the connective-tissue structures of a large 
number of animals, his researches in comparative 
anatomy led to the examination of the tendons of 
the tail of the kangaroo. These have been found 
superior to any other material for sutures and are 
in general use. 
In 1880, Dr. Marcy established a private hospi- 
tal in Cambridge for the treatment of the surgi- 
cal diseases of women, in order to demonstrate 
the value of the modern surgical technique. This 
is continued to the present, and it is here that he 
has worked out in the larger share the methods of 
wound treatment contributed to the profession. 
In 1863, Dr. Marcy married Miss Sarah E. 
Wendell, of Somersworth, N. H. They reside at 
180 Commonwealth avenue, Boston. Henry O. 
Marcy, Jr., is a student of medicine. 
To Dr. Marcy is undoubtedly due the credit of 
introducing into America the methods of antiseptic 
wound treatment; his original studies greatly im- 
proved upon the same and contributed largely in 
placing them upon their present scientific basis. 
The introduction and establishment of the value of 
the buried animal-suture is doubtless Dr. Marcy’s 
best contribution to surgery, the importance of 
which is appreciated by every aseptic operator. 
The operations most generally accepted, of his 
especial teaching, are the closure of all aseptic wounds in layers without drainage, and the recon- 
struction of the inguinal canal for the cure of 
hernia, which latter operation was not possible 
until the introduction of the buried suture. 
Dr. Marcy participated in the Seventh Interna- 
tional Medical Congress, London, 1881, and was 
president of the section in gynecology, of the 
Ninth International Medical Congress, Washing- 
ton, D. C., 1887; is a member of the American 
Medical Association, vice-president in 1879, chair- 
man of the section in obstetrics in 1882, a member 
of the judicial council iBB6-’B9, was elected presi- 
dent in 1891, and presided over the Detroit meet- 
ing, June, 1892; is a member of the American 
Academy of Medicine, president in 1884; also of 
various other medical and scientific organizations 
both in Europe and in America. 
The Wesleyan University conferred upon Dr. 
Marcy the honorary degree of LL. D., in 1887. In 
1884 he published, in two volumes, a translation of 
the works of Prof. G. B. Ercolani, of Bologna, 
Italy, upon the “ Reproductive Processes,” besides 
which he has published his own special studies 
of the uterine mucosa during pregnancy. During 
the past twenty years he has written extensively 
for the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, An- 
nals of Anatomy and Surgery, Journal of the 
American Medical Association, and other periodicals. 
His best-known publications are : “ Carbolized Cat- 
Gut Sutures (buried in the tissues,) for the Cure 
of Hernia,” 1871; “Fracture of the Patella,” 
1876; “ Plastic Splints in Surgery,” 1877 ; “Cure 
of Hernia by the Antiseptic Use of Animal Su- 
tures,” 1878; “Aspiration of the Knee-Joint,” 
1879; “The Comparative Value of Germicides,” 
1880; “Histological Studies of the Development 
of the Osseous Callous in Man and Animals,” 
1881 ; “The Best Methods of Operative Wound 
Treatment,” “Fibroid Tumors of the Uterus,” 
their histology illustrated by many sections pro- 
jected upon the screen, annual address in obste- 
trics and gynecology, St. Paul, Minn., June, 1882, American Medical Association; “The 
Relation of Micro-Organisms to Sanitar)- Science,” 
“The Restoration of the Perineum by a New 
Method,” 1883; “The Relation of Micro-Organ- 
isms to Surgical Lesions,” “The Role of Bacteria 
in Parturition,” “The Climatic Treatment of Dis- 
ease,” 1885 ; “The Histology and Surgical Treat- 
ment of Uterine Myoma,” president’s address, sec- 
tion on gynecology, Ninth International Medical 
Congress, Washington, 1887; “The Climate of 
the Southern Appalachians,” Ninth International 
Medical Congress, 1887; “The Surgical Advan- 
tages of the Buried Animal-Suture,” “The Peri- 
neum ; Its Anatomy, Physiology, and Methods of 
Restoration after Injury,” 1888; “Chronic Inver- 
sion of the Uterus: Reduction by a New Method;” 
“Exploratory Laparotomy;” “General Treatise on 
Hernia;” “The Animal-Suture: Its Place in Sur- 
gery;” “The Cure of Hemorrhoids by Excision 
and Closure with the Buried Animal-Suture,” 1889 ; 
“The Surgical Treatment of Non-Pedunculated 
Abdominal Tumors,” “Surgical Relief for Biliary 
Obstruction,” “Plastic Surgery of the Pelvic Struc- 
tures,” Transactions of the Internationa] Medical 
Congress, Berlin, 1890; “ The Scientific Rationale 
of Modern Wound Treatment,” 1891 ; “Femoral 
and Ventral Hernia in Woman;” “Evolution of 
Medicine,” president’s address before the American 
Medical Association, Detroit, June, 1892; “In- 
guinal Hernia in the Male,” Transactions of the 
Southern Surgical and Gynecological Association, 
Louisville, November, 1892; “ The Anatomy and 
Surgical Treatment of Hernia,” large quarto, fully 
illustrated, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1892; 
“The Reconstruction of the Pelvic Structures in 
Woman;” “The Surgical Treatment of Inguinal 
Hernia,” annual address delivered before the South 
Carolina State Medical Society, April, 1893 ; “Ven- 
tral Hernia following Laparotomy: Its Cause and 
Means of Prevention;” “Analysis of One Hun- 
dred Thirty-six Cases of Hernia Operated on for 
the Purpose of Radical Cure,” American Medical Association, 1893; “In What Class of Wounds 
Shall We Use Drainage ?” surgical section of the 
First Pan-American Medical Congress, Washing- 
ton, D. C., 1893 ; “Inguinal Hernia in the Mole,” 
address before the New York State Medical Asso- 
ciation, 1894; “ Modern Wound Technique,” Mis- 
sissippi Valley Medical Association, Medical Record, 
March, 1895; “The Surgical Treatment of Spina 
Bifida,” Southern Surgical Association, The Armais 
of Surgery, February, 1895.