A DISCOURSE 
COMMEMORATIVE OF THE LATE 
WILLIAM E. HORNER, M.D., 
PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY. 
* t 
DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
/nrnlftj nnii Ituiidits nf tljr of 
October 10, 1853. 
BY 
SAMUEL JACKSON, M.D., 
PROFESSOR OF THE INSTITUTES OF MEDICINE. 
PUBLISHED BY THE CLASS. 
PHILADELPHIA: 
T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS. 
1853. University of Pennsylvania, 
October 19, 1853. 
A Meeting of the Class was held for the purpose of requesting for publication the 
Introductory Lectures of the Professors. Robert Stewart being called to the Chair, 
and Mr. R. R. Porter, of Tennessee, being Secretary, a Committee was 
appointed to carry out the intention of the meeting, consisting of one from each State 
or Province, as follows:- 
Thos. S. Easton, Alabama. 
John T. Russell, Arkansas. 
Franklin Vaughn, Delaware. 
C. E. Bellamy, Georgia. 
S. Test, Indiana. 
E. W. Woodson, Kentucky. 
Thomas Kearney, Louisiana. 
George Johnson, Maryland. 
James Budlery, Massachusetts. 
J. R. Hill, Mississippi. 
F. Bates, M. D. Missouri. 
H. J. Priestly, New Brunswick. 
John Bell, New Hampshire. 
S. B. Howell, New Jersey. 
Alfred Grymes, New York. 
S. B. Morisey, North Carolina. 
B. C. Ludlow, Ohio. 
J. Cheston Morris, Pennsylvania. 
F. P. Leverett, South Carolina. 
G. B. Smith, Tennessee. 
T. II. Hollis, Texas. 
John B. Britton, Virginia. 
James J. Eastman, Wisconsin. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
University of Pennsylvania, 
October 20, 1853. 
Dear Sir : The undersigned, a Special Committee to whom the duty has been dele- 
gated of requesting for publication a copy of your able and eloquent Eulogy upon the 
Life and Character of our late lamented Professor, William E. Horner-while com- 
municating the wish of the Class, desire at the same time to add our personal solicita- 
tion that you will accede to the request. A compliance with the wish expressed 
through us will be not only a manifestation of your kindness to us, but a gratification 
to the relatives and friends of him whose merits have been commemorated by you. 
With high esteem, we remain your obedient servants, 
Robert Stewart, 
J. R. Hill, 
J. Cheston Morris, 
T. S. Easton, 
G. Johnson, 
B. C. Ludlow. 
To SAMUEL JACKSON, M. D. 
Philadelphia, October 21, 1853. 
Gentlemen: It is with pleasure I comply with the request of the Medical Class, 
communicated to me in your note of this date. 
I am gratified by this action of the Class: not because it may be regarded as an 
expression of a favorable opinion of my inadequate performance, but, that the life 
and character of my late estimable friend and colleague, offer to the student an ad- 
mirable example of what industry, application and adherence to duty can effect, and 
a strong inducement, under the difficulties and depressions that must be encountered 
by most, to persevere in a conscientious and honorable course of conduct. 
Accept my acknowledgment for the courteous manner in which you have conveyed 
to me the desires of the Class ; and believe me to be very sincerely and truly, 
Your obedient servant, 
SAMUEL JACKSON, M. D. 
To Messrs. Robert Stewart, J. R. Hill, J. Cheston Morris, T. S. Easton, G. 
Johnson, and B. C. Ludlow. A DISCOURSE. 
Another year lias passed: to-day is the annual opening of the 
courses of medical instruction in this Institution. We are assem- 
bled for that ceremonial; but I shall not address you, as on former 
occasions, on matters in connection with my chair. Another topic 
claims attention, not altogether inappropriate, and I hope will prove 
neither uninteresting nor unprofitable. 
As the last session drew to a close, Professor W. E. Horner was 
unable to complete his course, from increasing disability produced 
by serious organic disease, from which he had long been a sufferer; 
and, in the ensuing month of May, closed his useful and highly 
successful life under a complication of disease. For nearly forty 
years that he was connected with the school as assistant or pro- 
fessor, he was not once absent on an occasion like the present. 
To-day we miss him from his "accustomed seat;" we look for the 
long familiar face and form; they have disappeared from among 
men-vanished into impenetrable gloom and void. His voice, that 
at a time like the present, each successive year, greeted the class 
with hearty salutation, warned the inexperience of youth, or ex- 
horted to zealous and industrious application, is stilled in the 
silence of the grave! "He has been gathered to his fathers"-his 
work is finished; the mission he was destined to in this world is 
ended; he has gone to the great account which each one must ren- 
der to his Creator! 
From the great antiquity of the custom, it would appear that 
there is implanted in man's moral nature an innate desire to per- 
petuate the memory of the departed dead by varied monumental 
memorials; to celebrate their virtues, and to record those traits of 
character and qualities which gave them distinction, which won for 
them confidence, respect, and consideration while living. 
The Medical Faculty, immediately after the death of our late 6 
colleague, deputed to me the office of preparing a tribute to his 
memory, for the opening discourse of this session. I could have 
wished it had fallen to one of more graceful elocution, and higher 
qualifications for its performance. 
The death of Doctor Horner was followed in a few weeks by that 
of Doctor Nathaniel Chapman, Emeritus Professor of the Theory 
and Practice of Medicine in this school. It is true that the Univer- 
sity had been deprived for some years of the valuable labors of 
Professor Chapman. It is seen by daily experience that, in the 
ordinance of Providence, we may be struck with premature decay 
while yet in the maturity of manhood and the vigor of our 
powers. It is a sad reflection to know that we are subject to this 
afflicting liability. It is one of the saddest aspects of humanity, 
when we behold the brilliancy of genius and the light of knowledge 
obscured in this dark eclipse, and the usefulness of life ceasing 
before its close. 
The death of Professor Chapman did not fall like a stunning 
blow, as it would have done in the palmy days of his professional 
reputation, and the height of his professional fame; yet it left deeply 
mournful impressions. Elis important services rendered to this 
school; the brilliancy of his social qualities; his great professional 
eminence as a teacher; his discriminating tact, clearness of percep- 
tion, and solid judgment as a practitioner; his generous and disinte- 
rested spirit; his purity of character, free of tainted thought-of 
whatever partook of the disingenuous, mean, or sordid; his admirable 
example, that imparted to the profession of our city its elevated and 
dignified tone-and the courtesies of its intercourse, are yet fresh 
in recollection, and cannot be recalled without profound regret that 
he, around whom they clustered as a part of his being, is no more, 
and they must all die with him! 
A tribute is due to his memory-but who is there to undertake 
it? Few are qualified for the task of delineating the beautiful 
harmony and blending of the varied elements of his nature, his 
gifted intellect and acquirements, and the achievements he accom- 
plished in the field of his action. In him were combined the elo- 
quence of the forum, with the clearness and precision of scientific 
prelection. He reinstated the teachings of practical medicine in 
the scientific form and systematic arrangement, established by 
twenty centuries of observation and experience, in the place of 
hypothetical generalities incapable of application to the innumera- 
ble specialties of details comprised in the practice of medicine. 7 
The animation of his genial spirits; his ever-sparkling wit; his 
kind, frank, and open demeanor, shone out of him as a light that 
spread gayety in the social circle, dissipated the gloom of the sick- 
room, poured into the desponding and fainting heart the inspira- 
tion of hope, dispelling its fears and reinvigorating its energies 
more potently than any cordial of therapeutics. 
The life of Doctor Horner, though devoid of the brilliancy and 
high adornments of his illustrious friend and colleague, is, notwith- 
standing, an instructive lesson to the student, and a most encou- 
raging example to the young aspirant involved in the first difficulties 
and embarrassments that beset the opening of his career. 
He came to this city, like many of you, without friends-it may 
be said without acquaintances, among its inhabitants. He selected 
it as the place of his permanent residence, and the field of his pro- 
fessional exertions, almost unknown, with very limited means, and 
in which he had to contend with a large body of able competitors 
and rivals. Notwithstanding these disadvantages he was pecu- 
liarly successful. He acquired friends, gained the esteem and con- 
fidence of the eminent and influential, secured a prominent social 
and professional standing, and was happy in forming a most esti- 
mable alliance. He attained the highest position in the department 
of science he especially cultivated, and died mourned by a large 
family and circle of relatives, regretted by a host of friends, leaving 
a handsome fortune, the fruits of his industry, economy, and pro- 
fessional labors. 
There are individuals so constituted by nature as to be predes- 
tined to success and eminence. They are so highly gifted with 
intellectual, moral, and physical powers, that, with common pru- 
dence, failure is nearly an impossibility. They are moulded in a 
giant's proportions, and possess a giant's strength. They have but 
to put forth their power, and their object is accomplished. We 
look up to such with admiration, reverence, and awe. All acknow- 
ledge their superiority, yield to them the palm, but despair to imi- 
tate them. They have been called " model men," though it appears 
to me erroneously, for they are inimitable. Doctor Horner did not 
belong to this class. He was like ourselves; he stood on our level. 
There are few of you, gentlemen, who are not endowed with equal 
abilities, and who might not fairly put in a claim, with similar 
opportunities, to an equally successful career. 
While the natural endowments of Doctor Horner were not of an 
exalted order, neither was he indebted to a systematic, well-trained 8 
collegiate course of studies, or grounded in the higher branches of 
education, that, with many, compensate for natural deficiencies. 
He was a self-made man. What he was, was wholly his own; the 
work of a rigid self-training, and a most labored moulding and 
framing of his principles and character, on a high conception of 
duty, and of the just and true, in every transaction of life. Doctor 
Horner was truly in these respects a "model man." His life and 
example are worthy to be held up for imitation, and are within the 
capacity of most to copy. It becomes, therefore, a useful and inte- 
resting matter to know the shackles that embarrassed his efforts 
and impeded his progress; to investigate the sources of the success 
that crowned his actions, and placed him in an enviable position, 
that others, under similar difficulties, may profit by an example of 
so much encouragement. 
Doctor Horner was a native of Virginia, a State that has contri- 
buted largely to the medical capital, character and eminence of this 
city. He was born at Warrenton, Fauquier County, on the 3d of 
June, 1793. His parentage was highly respectable. His grand- 
father, Mr. Eobert Horner, emigrated from England before the 
Devolution. He had visited the colonies previously as an agent of 
his brother on a commercial adventure. From the advantages pre- 
sented to him he was induced to return, and to make it his perma- 
nent home. He settled in Charles County, Maryland, whence, in 
an after-time of life, he removed to Prince William, Virginia. 
Soon after his arrival, he married Mrs. Samuel Claggett, widow of 
the Eev. Samuel Claggett, a minister of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, and father of Bishop Claggett, of the Maryland diocese. 
On his mother's side, he belonged to a medical lineage. This lady 
was the daughter of Doctor Gustavus Brown, a Scotch physician, 
who acquired great professional reputation and accumulated a 
handsome fortune, which he invested in real estate in Scotland. In 
consequence of this step, on his death this property passed, by the 
Scotch law of entail, to his heir-at-law. The elder son, Doctor 
Gustavus Brown, received a medical education in Edinburgh. He 
settled at Port Tobacco, Maryland. lie was highly esteemed, not 
only as a physician, but as an educated gentleman. For a time, he 
occupied the post of Physician-General in the war of the Devolu- 
tion. He enjoyed the respect and esteem of General Washington, 
and was called in as consulting physician at the close of the malady 
which proved fatal to the father of his country, and plunged all 
America in the deepest gloom. 9 
The second son of Doctor G. Brown was a minister of the Epis- 
copal Church, and was father of Doctor William Brown, of Fairfax, 
Virginia, a physician who rose to professional eminence, and who 
also held the position of Physician or Surgeon-General in the army 
of the Revolution. 
Samuel Claggett, the only son of Mrs. Horner by her first hus- 
band, also belonged to the medical profession. He also served as 
an assistant surgeon, either in the Maryland or Continental forces, 
until the close of the Revolution. 
The uncle of Dr. Horner, Dr. Gustavus B. Horner, belonged also 
to the medical profession. He was attached to the medical staff of 
the army, in the hospital department, under Dr. James Tilton, until 
the achievement of independence. 
He subsequently settled in Warrenton, where he pursued his 
profession with great success. 
The father of Dr. Horner was brought up to the mercantile pro- 
fession, in the counting-house of Mr. William Hartshorne, of Alex- 
andria, father of the late Dr. Joseph Hartshorne, of this city. He 
subsequently had charge of a large mercantile establishment on the 
Potomac, and finally settled in Warrenton. 
His mother was the daughter of Mr. William Edwards and Eliza- 
beth Blackwell, and through her, in direct and collateral lineage, 
Professor Horner was connected with a large circle of relatives, em- 
bracing many names of worth and note in various professions and 
conditions of life. 
The parents of Professor Horner were deeply imbued with the 
sentiments and precepts of religion, of the duties of which they 
were strictly observant, commingled with no false austerities, which 
they exemplified in their practice and enjoined on their children. 
It is to this source, in the earliest and most impressible period of 
existence, that may' be traced the strong religious tendencies and 
feelings he exhibited throughout life. 
During boyhood, young Horner's constitution was exceedingly 
feeble ; he had little vigor, and was spare to meagreness. 
He was so light in weight, that his rude companions would fre- 
quently snatch him up unceremoniously, greatly to his annoyance? 
and, in spite of his struggles and resistance, run off with him in bra- 
vado to display their greater strength, or in the mere wantonness of 
mischief. His weight as a boy long remained at 56 lbs.; and 
until the approach of adult age continued at 96 lbs.; at no period 
of life did it surpass 120. He could not join in the athletic sports 10 
of youth. His life was sedentary, devoted to reading and the 
companionship of his elders. 
His grandmother, towards the close of life, made the residence of 
her youngest son, William Horner, her home. Her young grand- 
son, by his quiet manners and amiable disposition, became her favor- 
ite. She nursed him in his ailments, caressed him in health, was 
his earliest instructor. Their daily companionship knit him closely 
in her affections. She was accustomed to predict for him a future 
of usefulness and eminence, and remembered him in her will by a 
legacy. 
There is something touching and beautiful in this mingling and 
communion of the extremes of life. The one in mellow de- 
cline, the affections warm and intelligence clear and mature, with 
youth in its dawn; the just awaking mind receiving its earliest im- 
pressions and its first thoughts, the seeds of its germinant ideas and 
principles that form character, from the wise experience, the ripened 
judgment, and tender piety of age. 
The sedateness and composure of manner, the purity of mind, the 
strong conscientiousness, the deep but quiet religious feelings, the 
habits of sobriety and order, the abiding reverence for whatever he 
regarded as true, just, and sacred, which were the marked features 
of Dr. Horner's character through life, are, doubtless, in a great 
measure, to be attributed to the salutary influences of the affection- 
ate training and plastic influences of his venerable relative. 
The scholastic education of Professor Horner commenced in 
Warrenton, in his twelfth year, under the instruction of Mr. Charles 
O'Neill, a clergyman of the Episcopal Church. This gentleman, 
had been educated at Trinity College, Dublin; he was a fine scho- 
lar, and enjoyed the reputation of an excellent teacher. He re- 
moved from Warrenton to Dumfries, where he opened an academy, 
assisted by his brother. He was followed by his pupil, who re- 
mained under his charge until the completion of his education. 
A private academy, however well conducted, and useful as it may 
be for the preparation for collegiate courses, rarely embraces the 
studies of the higher departments, so important to the development, 
strengthening and training of the intellectual faculties in their 
most important operations, the processes of sound thought, of form- 
ing just ideas, and the ascertainment of truth. 
The mental culture of Dr. Horner was consequently not deep and 
thorough. This was a serious obstacle in the road of his advance- 
ment, but was less felt in the particular department to "'hich he 11 
devoted himself with a kind of instinctive predilection, than it 
would have been in other branches. This defect did not suppress 
or defeat his aspirations and efforts for professional progress and 
preferment. lie gained all that his highest ambition could hope 
for. The work he had to do, was done, and done well; but it 
would have been more artistically, gracefully, and easily accom- 
plished had a higher culture and more extended knowledge fur- 
nished him with more complete instruments and larger appliances 
to work with. His reputation would not only have been solid and 
honorable, but brilliant. 
This defect is common throughout the country, and besets the 
Medical profession. Few of us, or of you, gentlemen, who now 
listen to me, have enjoyed higher advantages of mental training 
and cultivation than Professor Horner. 
The labor of mastering the difficulties of a science like that of 
Medicine, now embracing in its wide expanse all of the physical 
sciences, whose facts are more complex and inscrutable than any 
other, is immensely increased, when it is attempted with inadequate 
preparation. 
Strong intellects, by arduous efforts, may vanquish these difficul- 
ties ; but feebler minds, without the aid of culture, training, and 
discipline, will find the conflict hopeless. 
Cheap colleges and high schools are amongst the greatest defi- 
ciencies and most pressing wants of our country. They should be 
endowed by the State governments. They should be so numerous, 
and within the means of all, that those destined to professional pur- 
suits should have the advantages of finished mental culture, and 
systematic training. 
While at school at Dumfries, young Horner was a frequent visit- 
ant at the mansion of the late Judge Washington, through two of 
his school-mates, the Judge's nephews, and Mrs. Washington, who 
was a distant relative. This acquaintance was renewed in Philadel- 
phia, after Dr. Horner was established here, and ripened into friend- 
ship. In his diary he records a long and interesting conversation 
he had with the Judge, two clays before his death, on a variety of 
public subjects. 
Two days after the death of thp Judge, his widowed lady died 
suddenly in her carriage, a few miles from the city, on her way 
home. She was accompanied by Mrs. and Mr. John Washington, 
who dispatched a messenger for Dr. Horner. Death had been al- 
most immediate. The body was brought to the city and deposited 12 
in the Doctor's house, until the necessary arrangements were made 
for its removal to her residence in Virginia. 
I mention this circumstance, and make the following extract from 
his journal, in which the event is recorded, as exemplifying the 
strong moral sentiments implanted in his nature. 
"In affording this accommodation to her remains, I was forcibly 
struck with the strangeness of the revolutions occurring in indi- 
vidual circumstances. 
" Twenty years before, when in the height of prosperity, she had 
been kind to me as a boy visiting at her house, and from whom she 
could reasonably expect no return; now, those blessings which the 
Almighty, in his goodness, has conferred on me of a good wife, and 
moderately easy circumstances, have enabled me to show some grati- 
tude in giving a quiet and respectful asylum to her remains under 
my roof, and in contributing to the comfort of those relatives who 
accompanied her." 
After the completion of his classical education, Dr. Horner com- 
menced his medical studies in 1809, under the direction of Dr. John 
Spence, a Scotch physician, educated in Edinburgh. 
He was said to be a well-read and intelligent gentleman, and 
acquired reputation and eminence as a physician. Dr. Horner con- 
tinued the pupil of Dr. Spence until 1812. During this period he 
attended two sessions of the University of Pennsylvania. In his 
studies, anatomy was the branch that more particularly interested 
him, and for which he manifested the most decided partiality. 
The following extract from a letter to his father, May, 1811, while 
yet a student, exhibits this feeling, and expresses, for one of his age 
and time of study, exceeding judicious views:- 
"The books you sent to me gave great satisfaction. Instead, 
however, of satisfying my present anxiety to become well acquainted 
with the structure of the human body, they have excited in me an 
enthusiastic zeal to commence practical anatomy. A man, with the 
assistance of maps, may obtain a tolerable knowledge of countries, 
but it is only by traversing them that he becomes the geographer in 
reality. In like manner it is with the anatomist, for no anatomical 
plates can give him that confidence as to induce him to undertake a 
surgical operation, or give him as good an idea of the subject as dis- 
section." 
In July, 1813, during the prosecution of his studies in this city, 
and before he had graduated, he received a commission as surgeon's 
mate in the Hospital Department of the United States army. He 13 
accepted the appointment after some hesitation, having expected a 
surgeoncy, with the privilege of continuing, at a suitable time, his 
studies in the University. In September following, he was attached 
to the 9th Military District, north of the Highlands, State of New 
York. 
At this point commences the active life of Dr. Horner. 
He now makes his first essay in the professional career he had 
adopted, which he is to pursue with all his energies through the 
unknown future before him, in which he is to find obscurity and 
poverty, or to gain distinction, reputation, and fortune. 
Let us pause, and survey his position at this time. He had just 
reached his 20th year, of slender form (his weight about 100 lbs.), 
his pay some thirty or forty dollars per month, and rations. He has 
donned his uniform, made after the regulation of the Surgeon and 
Physician-General, Dr. James Tilton, of Delaware. Whatever may 
have been the professional excellences of the Surgeon and Physi- 
cian-General, his sartorial qualifications were not very brilliant. The 
dress was coal black, which, from the readiness it shows dirt, was 
found in the service of the hospital and camp, the most unfit that 
could have been selected. 
The coat was single-breasted, with standing collar, a gold star on 
each side, short-waisted and pigeon-tailed; the nether garments 
were tight. Picture the slight frame of the new-fledged surgeon's 
mate thus arrayed. 
At first it was thought very fine, but it was soon found to attract 
an attention in the streets that did not consist of admiration; and 
when he arrived in camp, it had acquired for the surgeons, from 
their fellow-officers and soldiers, the soubriquet of "CVows." In a 
short time, the offspring of the Physician and Surgeon-General 
proved an abortion. The surgeons, in disgust, threw it aside, and 
each dressed after his own fashion. 
Such were the outward habiliments of the man. What were the 
internal equipments and preparations, by which are decided the 
battles and struggles of life; by which we suffer loss and defeat, 
or achieve conquests, and are crowned with victory ? 
We have seen that, from his early education, his stock of general 
knowledge was not large; he was well-grounded in anatomy and 
surgery, the branches he preferred, with a superficial acquaintance 
only with the other departments of medicine; but he was conscious 
of his deficiencies, that he was only a student, and determined to 
lose no opportunity for improvement and the acquisition of know- 14 
ledge. Nature had endowed him with a firm heart, that never 
failed him in difficulties; he was armed with a resolute determina- 
tion not easily shaken, and a perseverance and application unwa- 
vering from fatigue. His ardor in the pursuit of knowledge was 
not abated by the labor it cost; he knew the range of his powers, 
and concentrated his efforts within them ; he had in a high degree 
order, method, and economy; there was a time and a place for 
everything; there was no waste of time or means; his probity, 
conscientiousness, and sense of truth were such, that none who 
knew him ever doubted his word, questioned his statements, or 
refused to accord to him the fullest confidence. In conduct, he was 
quiet, unpretending, never acting or talking, or making false displays 
for effect. No one possessed less of the art, as expressed by Sterne, 
" of lifting heavy weights by small wires." He had no gifts of the 
courtier; no glozing speech or flattering words ever passed his 
tongue. Always polite, he was never obsequious. The impres- 
sions he made, and the friends he won, were from the convictions 
of his sincerity, integrity, and worth. 
The moral and religious principles early inculcated and deeply 
rooted, were uncorrupted, though not yet strongly tried by tempta- 
tions. They stood the test and trial of time unscathed and unim- 
paired. 
His aspirations for the attainment of a high moral state, and of 
professional usefulness were ardent and steady. He appears to have 
formed for himself some ideal model, which it was the unceasing 
but unavailing aim of his existence to realize. He was never 
satisfied with what he had done; he lamented over his deficiencies, 
confessed his short-comings, acknowledged the superior claims and 
merits of others. His successes in life he never attributed to him- 
self, or regarded as the reward of his deserts, but with the most 
profound faith and reliance on an Overruling Providence, he 
looked on them with a deep sense of gratitude and an unaffected 
humility, as the undeserved mercies of a Heavenly Father. These 
sentiments and expressions are recorded from year to year, month 
to month, in a kind of journal, which is rather a transcript of his 
moral nature, than a record of events. 
In the preceding statement of the qualities that formed the 
character of Professor Horner, his deficiencies have not been 
extenuated, nor his virtues exaggerated. It was the possession of 
these elevated moral attributes that constituted the strength of Dr- 
Horner; and in them lay the source of his undeviating success and 15 
prosperity. Without them, no efforts for advancement could have 
availed; enveloped in the dead calm of mediocrity, he would have 
remained undistinguished and unknown. 
Their happy auspices carried him through life, like a bark fanned 
by prosperous gales, and driven by a perennial Etesian wind 
through placid seas, tossed by not a single storm, or driven from 
its course by adverse currents. From his first advance in profes- 
sional life to its close, his fortune was a continued flow without an 
ebb ; nothing he undertook failed; not a rational wish was ungra- 
tified, or an aspiration that was not fulfilled. 
It is a moral truth, it may be well you should ponder on deeply, 
that our fortunes come from ourselves; success or failure is our 
own act. The disasters, contentions, conflicts, and storms of life, 
that so often mar its happiness and whelm in ruin its brightest 
prospects, arise from uncontrolled tempers and unbridled passions. 
The most brilliant genius and resplendent intellect, undirected by 
moral and religious principles, cannot insure success in life. They 
serve to render more conspicuous the shame, dishonor, the wreck 
and ruin they have wrought. 
It would not be doing justice to Dr. Horner, or give a correct 
idea of his energy, self-command, and indomitable resolution, or a 
true conception of the disadvantages under which he labored, the 
long unceasing struggles he sustained in his progress, and the 
heavy cost at which his success was attained, did I not reveal a 
peculiarity of temperament, or psychical idiosyncrasy, never 
observed, or suspected to exist, by his most intimate associates and 
friends, or even by a large portion of his family circle. 
While his exterior life appeared clear, bright, calm, and pros- 
perous, his interior life was dark, desponding, agitated with vague 
apprehensions, and every mental effort a conflict, a struggle, and a 
victory. 
Amongst his papers is one entitled, " My own Constitution," 
dated 1838. The following extracts will exemplify the condition 
I have mentioned: " It was considered at school that I learned with 
facility; but I never believed it. I have had headache or dull 
pains in the head three-fourths of my waking life, seldom acute, 
but always such as to make me uncomfortable, and prefer solitude 
to company. 
" Short intermissions of this state of suffering have occurred. I 
have then felt illuminated as the earth is when the sun emerges 16 
from behind a cloud. I have then hoped for a pleasurable exist- 
ence, but it proved delusive, and I quickly relapsed into my ordi- 
nary state. Considering this serious obstacle to mental improve- 
ment, I wonder how I have made any advances, and especially such 
as to have given me an honorable station among men." 
, A little' farther he writes: " My spirits get into so deplorable and 
hypochondriac a state, that I have a thousand times thought death 
would be a most welcome visitor, and have almost envied those 
whom I have just heard to have passed from the bondage and 
anxieties of this life. 
"As I grow older, my system is evidently getting more and more 
under the influence of the preceding causes. From the smallest article 
of food used in the evening, the next morning I am rendered un- 
comfortable in the extreme; my mental faculties are hebetated, and 
I am so vertiginous as scarcely to be able to collect my ideas or go 
on with a demonstration. The latter state has indeed become so 
constant and frequent, that I have frequently thought my labors 
as a public teacher were becoming too imperfect and confused to 
deserve respect, and that it would be better, perhaps, for me to retire 
and seek for some other occupation." 
The journal to which allusion has been made, kept irregularly, 
with long intermissions, is a history of this most remarkable mental 
conflict, of this life-struggle, continued, with but short intervals 
during existence, perverting all its blessings, and overshadowing 
every enjoyment with a sense of desolation. This state of mind 
recalls the fabled Eumenides of the ancients, pursuing their victim 
with relentless persecution. In 1826, in looking into himself for 
a solution of this mystery, he asks: " Does this feeling depend upon 
an act of injustice or of turpitude which I may have committed at 
a former period of life which now, preying upon my conscience, 
destroys its rest ? None such is in my remembrance, but my actions 
have not been perfect. I have attempted to walk faithfully before 
men; but have I walked faithfully before God?" 
On this point he would not acquit himself. Had this desponding 
state of mind been limited to his religious opinions and state, it 
might have been attributed to an excessively sensitive, or to a mor- 
bid condition of conscientiousness, that could not be satisfied with 
any performance of duties or religious services. 
But there was no such limitation. It was not confined to a single 
sentiment, or train of thought, or particular views. It was general, 
embracing every view of life; it was diffused over the whole mind 17 
as a common feeling. It resembled a continued polar night, illumi- 
nated by transient coruscations. 
Almost every page of his journal furnishes evidences of this state 
of mind, of his undaunted courage in sustaining the conflict, never 
yielding, constantly rallying and summoning all his resources to 
resist the assaults of this inexorable and internal foe to his peace and 
happiness, an adversary planted in his path opposing his progress, 
in ceaseless contest. A few extracts will suffice to verify the accu- 
racy of the statement I have made, and to prove what appears to 
me a most extraordinary psychical phenomenon. 
In 1821, Dr. Horner made a visit to Europe. In respect to it he 
says: " I do not remember any period of life more painful, more dis- 
tracting, which seemed to paralyze more completely every power of 
my mind, or to destroy more effectually every capability of pleasure. 
Notwithstanding the diversified and engaging scenes of a European 
tour, I do not think that for a twelvemonth at least, I had a single 
unalloyed sensation of pleasure; all was blended with a fixity of 
mind on distressing subjects, which no effort could dispel or allay. 
In fact, I thought my existence for the future must be under the 
influence of invincible melancholy, if not of fatuity." 
Yet, during this period, the journal of that tour shows him to 
have been active, diligent in observing and investigating every sub- 
ject of professional interest, and that could conduce to his improve- 
ment. It does not show a trace of this unhappy state of mind. 
In February, 1826, he recommenced his journal, after an interrup- 
tion of six years. That period had been one of uninterrupted 
prosperity. He had married the only woman whom he had ever 
loved, and for whom he felt an unabated attachment. He was the 
father of two fine children; he had gained an enviable position, was 
Adjunct Professor to Dr. Physick, whose entire confidence and 
friendship he enjoyed; he had accumulated a sufficiency to secure 
his independence, and had succeeded in advancing, by his industry 
and individual labor, the Anatomical Museum of the University, 
from an insignificant collection, to one of great interest and import- 
ance. After enumerating, dwelling on, and acknowledging with 
gratitude these great blessings, he continues: " In all of these things 
I have achieved what, ten years since, appeared to me so much be- 
yond my ability, so much beyond probability, and at the same time so 
desirable, that, at that time, I should have considered their actual 
accomplishment as a source and means of happiness which would 18 
last through life. Why is it that I still find myself discontented, 
restless, anxious for the future, frequently desponding, and often 
miserable? Why is it that the possession of money does not give 
me the pleasure expected from it ? Why is it that the honors of 
my profession, which, in the rapidity of their coming, have placed 
me before my competitors, are not felt as such, and are become vapid ? 
Why is it, that unquestionably the most precious ties on earth, those 
of husband and of father, which promised so much of solid comfort, 
and such a rallying point in life, do not excite in me an active sense 
of enjoyment?" 
The following record is of date April 26, 1829 :- 
"I go to bed dissatisfied, taciturn, and looking for no greater 
comfort on the day to come, than I have enjoyed during the day 
past. Such is the unprepossessing picture of my life at the present 
time, and such has it been during the last six weeks; enjoyment 
has ceased, happiness has fled ; I am inactive, worthless, lethargic. 
" On former occasions I have been removed from this unworthy 
and degraded condition, by adopting rules of conduct; and now, 
hoping for a renewal of Divine Grace, and submitting to its will, 
I promise to adopt the following as the basis of my conduct." 
Then follow ten rules, modifications of former regulations, that 
had from time to time been adopted with the same intentions. 
During the following month, is recorded a mitigation of his mental 
sufferings, and at the close of it he states: "I now begin to find 
my mind returning to that state of composure and quiet confidence 
in the mercies of God which I have from time to time enjoyed." 
This intermission was of short duration. A week after, June 17, 
he writes: "This week has been one of gloom and heaviness, in the 
midst of the observance of my resolutions. I can attribute it to 
nothing, except the hypochondriac tendency of my mind." 
This " dark fit" hung over him for the two next weeks. On the 
21st of June, he continues his Journal in the same desponding 
tenor: " I find it vain to resist the current of one's nature. I am 
at the present moment, just as I have been for the last four months, 
a confirmed and dissatisfied ennuye. Discontented with myself and 
feeling no pleasure or satisfaction in the things around me, and 
finding every plan abortive, either in study, religion, or amusement, 
from which I hoped to obtain that steady and enduring quietude of 
mind, which I have on former occasions enjoyed. I must now 
make up my mind to move down the current of life on those 19 
terms that destiny, my peculiar nature, and my particular pursuits 
seem to have imposed unchangeably on me. I thank my Creator 
for the many unmerited favors I have received, and am constantly 
receiving at his hands. I ask pardon and forgiveness for the in- 
gratitude of my nature, which prevents my mind from being illu- 
minated with a single ray of joy, in reflecting on all His goodness. 
In the midst of the means of happiness, I am the victim of an 
unhappy destiny; my mind is cast in a mould which makes it 
insensible to the best gifts of Providence; and all that remains for 
me, is to submit resignedly during the remainder of the voyage, 
now drawing to a close, down the everflowing stream of time." 
The unhappy and disabling affliction, revealed in the foregoing 
extracts, was manifested in no exterior sign. The fact must take 
by surprise all acquainted with him, as it did myself, so long 
his associate. With what heroic bravery, with what stoical 
fortitude was it borne! No complaining, no murmur was heard. 
Every engagement was kept, every duty fulfilled, no necessary 
labor avoided, no inattention to what he undertook, earnest and 
zealous in every measure to promote the efficiency of the medical 
instruction of the university; no stinting of himself to the mere 
duty imposed on him as a teacher of Special Anatomy, but adding 
additional lectures, at extra hours, on General and Topographical 
Anatomy. These things and others, all the exertions nearly of his 
life, were done under the pressure of a moral weight that would 
have crushed those endowed with far more vigorous and capable 
mental faculties to the earth. 
We are now acquainted with Dr. Horner. We have taken his 
dimensions, have estimated his capabilities, powers, and means of 
action, in waging the great contest of life, in which he was about to 
engage, and in which we are to accompany him. 
In following him through his course it will be unnecessary to 
dwell on details or events except when having some illustrative 
bearing. 
Our young surgeon's mate, in pursuance of orders from Wash- 
ington, joined the army on the Niagara frontiers, September 25, 
1813. The army was about breaking up quarters, to rendezvous at 
Sackett's Harbor. Doctor Horner received orders on the 25th to take 
charge of seventy-three invalids, ordered to be forwarded to Green- 
bush, from the hospital at Lewistown. They had all been wounded, 
many severely, at the capture of Yorktown and Fort George. The 20 
detachment was under the command of Lieut. Whiting, who was 
directed, in consequence of the wretched state of the roads, to pro- 
ceed as far as practicable by water. The detachment accompanied 
a portion of the army to Oswego, which was not reached until the 
6th of October. 
From the difficulty of procuring the means of transportation, 
they were detained until the 13th. The detachment suffered se- 
verely from exposure and hardships. A large part of the route 
was through the unreclaimed wilderness, the weather was cold and 
tempestuous, with frequent falls of snow. At Utica, where the 
artillery was met on the route to Sackett's Harbor, Lieut. Whiting 
was detached by the order of Col. Winfield Scott, now Major- 
General Scott, and the command of the invalid corps was assigned 
to the young surgeon's mate. Descending the Mohawk near the 
Little Falls, the boats grounded on some rocks in the middle of the 
stream, as the day was closing, endangering the safety of the party, 
particularly of the disabled soldiers. 
The inhabitants in this vicinity, it appears, were opposed to the 
war and the governing administration at Washington. They assem- 
bled on a high bank, overlooking the scene of disaster. The boat- 
men, ignorant of the river, called to them for advice and assistance. 
Both were refused: they were jeered at and insulted; the detach- 
ment was abused as damned soldiers from the lines, and oth'er oblo- 
quies lavished on them. After some detention and great efforts, the 
boats were got afloat, and the detachment landed for the night, about 
a mile below, where they received a hospitable reception at two 
farms, the barns of which were placed at their disposal. 
The soldiers were irritated and indignant at the treatment they 
had received. Unknown to the new medical commander, a party 
of such as had the use of their limbs sallied forth at midnight, broke 
into the houses of those who had acted towards them so inhumanly 
and brutally, and broke up and demolished their furniture and other 
household goods. The party assailed threatened prosecution; but 
on due consideration thought it better to submit to the punishment 
they had deservedly brought on themselves. Dr. Horner, at first, 
felt his position unpleasant, as he would be compelled to appear the 
defender of an act of illegal violence; yet he could not condemn the 
retaliation by his men for the gross outrage and provocation they 
had received. There are circumstances when retaliative or natural 
law can alone reach offenders, and when a resort to it is justifiable. 
This was such a case. 21 
Immediately on delivering up his command at Greenbush, Dr. 
Horner received a furlough, and hastened on to Philadelphia to 
prosecute his professional studies. He attended the courses of the 
University through the winter, and graduated in April, 1814. 
The campaign of 1814 opened on the Niagara frontier, on the 3d 
July, when the army crossed to the Canada side. It is memorable 
for the number of sharp conflicts and sanguinary encounters that 
took place, and the brilliant success of the American arms. 
Dr. Horner reached the frontier June 25th, and was attached to 
the hospital at Buffalo. 
The attack on Fort Erie, on the 4th July, and battle of Chippewa, 
on the 15th, filled the wards of the hospital with wounded. Be- 
tween sixty and seventy fell to the share of Dr. Horner. The battle 
of Bridgewater, on the 25th July, in which the British were defeated, 
swelled his list to 175 wounded and sick. 
An attack was made by the enemy on Black Rock, on the 4th 
August, which endangered the safety of the hospital. All the sick 
and wounded, whose condition would admit of it, were removed to 
the hospital at Williamsburgh, a village eleven miles from Buffalo. 
Those who could not be removed, eighty or ninety in number, were 
left in the hospital, which was placed under the direction of Surgeon 
Horner. 
Under these circumstances, Dr. Horner was subjected at this time 
to the exercise of a capricious tyranny and abuse of power, wholly 
unmerited. On the afternoon of the 7th August, he was arrested 
by the commanding officer of the post for neglect of duty. The 
Doctor felt it as an act of extreme indignity and injustice. He had 
been incessantly engaged in a most laborious business, attended to 
with the utmost punctuality, and in such a manner as to meet the 
unequivocal approbation of those who immediately superintended 
him, a most striking proof of which was his being left in the direc- 
tion of the hospital. 
The next morning the arrest was removed in an unofficer-like and 
ungentlemanly manner, without explanation or apology. The sup- 
posed offence to this captious hero was, that Dr. Horner, having pre- 
scribed for him, and having prepared the medicine, did not send it, 
understanding that a servant would come for it. 
The assault on Fort Erie, the 15th August, by the British forces, 
in which they were repulsed with a very heavy loss, threw an addi- 
tional number of wounded into the hospital. On the next day, one 22 
hundred and forty-three of the wounded English soldiers were sent 
over, most of them dreadfully mangled and severely burnt by the 
blowing up of the bastion. " They exhibited," he remarks, " the 
most hideous aspect I ever beheld." 
To the military surgeon, the blood-stained glories of war are but 
a succession of horrors. Such appears to have been the feelings of 
Surgeon Horner, as expressed in the following extract from his 
Journal, 16th August:- 
" The genius of Humanity weeps over the extremes of human 
misery which the short period of fifty days has produced on this 
frontier. It cannot be truly described: affrighted women and child- 
ren flying from their homes to escape the savage fury of the enemy 
and their Indian allies, the groans of the wounded, the horrid mu- 
tilation of their bodies, the want of comfortable accommodation for 
them, all combine to present a scene terrible beyond description. 
Since the 2d day of July, this frontier has exhibited an uninter- 
rupted scene of bloodshed: two pitched battles have been fought; 
Fort Erie assaulted; this place attacked, numerous skirmishes, and 
as to cannonading and bombarding, they scarcely cease an hour from 
day to day. 
On the 17th, the garrison made the sortie famed in our military 
annals, destroying all the British artillery except two pieces, and 
most of their works, and capturing over four hundred prisoners. 
On the 22cl, the English army, disheartened by so many reverses, 
abandoned the siege of Fort Erie. Active hostilities in this quarter 
ceased, and the troops were dispersed in cantonments for the winter. 
On December 24, Doctor Horner writes, in his Journal: " This day 
concludes my tour of duty on the Niagara frontier, my whole hos- 
pital being removed to Williamsville by a general order of the 23d 
instant. I was first on the ground, and am the last to quit it. I 
am now, by permission, on the eve of setting off for Washington; 
my health is bad, but, I hope, will not interrupt my travelling." 
This campaign was a fruitful field of surgical experience for Dr. 
Horner in his favorite pursuit. It was not neglected. 
Notwithstanding his incessant occupation, with very inadequate 
assistance in dressing the wounded and prescribing for the sick, he 
kept notes and records of his cases, many of them of great interest. 
The results of his observation and experience are published in a 
series of papers in the Medical Examiner, for 1852. 
The intelligence of the signing of the treaty of peace at Ghent was 23 
received at Washington, February the loth, 1815. Dr. Horner found 
his occupation gone. He was stationed at Norfolk, Virginia, surgeon's 
mate to a handful of troops. At this stage, he surveyed the prospect 
before him. Promotion must be tardy; a life, for the most part idle 
and listless, was before him; it gave no opportunity for professional 
experience; there was nothing to animate his zeal, to satisfy the 
earnestness of his character, to gratify his instinctive desires of 
knowledge in anatomy and surgery, or to fulfil his aspirations for 
distinction. His decision was prompt; on the 13th of March he 
sent in his resignation; on the 23d, he received information of its 
acceptance; the next day he left Norfolk for his paternal residence. 
Dr. Horner settled for a time at Warrenton. In his native town 
and the surrounding country, in the midst of numerous relatives, 
of a large family connection and friends, he soon met with an en- 
couragement that would have fully satisfied the expectations of 
most young practitioners. A short time convinced him his true 
destination was elsewhere. He could not complain of the present, 
but the future was uninviting. He heard no voice that called to 
him, no sign to beckon him on. 
On the contrary, there was something that appeared to repel him, 
and drive him away. The idea of remaining became intolerable. 
He writes on this subject: " Flesh and blood could stand it no 
longer; often have I paced with rapid and disordered steps my 
little office, agitating in the most painful state of mind my future 
fortunes." 
As this was a critical epoch of life, and the step he now took 
would influence, probably, his future existence, he deliberated long 
before his final resolution was taken. There is amongst his papers 
one on this subject, which is very characteristic of his mind and 
habits. It is a table drawn up to aid the decision that was then 
agitating him. It is dated July, 1815. Four schemes presented 
themselves to his mind, viz: To remain at Warrenton, to remove 
to Philadelphia, to enter the navy, or engage in the East India 
service. Under each of these heads were arranged, in as many 
columns and in numerical order, the advantages and disadvantages 
of each, the promises held forth, and the attendant risks. 
The India surgeoncy was thought of as a temporary measure, 
but an application to a prominent merchant of that day proved un- 
successful. Philadelphia was ultimately preferred, from its superior 
attractions and opportunities of cultivating anatomy and surgery, 24 
its enlarged field for enterprise and acquiring distinction, though 
the risk of failure and loss was a serious drawback. 
His preparations were made; he realized the legacy of his grand- 
mother, collected what was due him, and the 3d of December bade 
adieu to the home of his birth. In recording this event, he ex- 
presses himself in these terms: "The Rubicon is passed; I have 
forsaken my relations, my friends, and my practice. I am now on 
my way to Philadelphia, where I intend to seek my fortunes. I 
have put all at hazard. 0, thou Eternal Father, the giver of all 
good gifts! may thy blessing attend me." 
The winter was passed in close attendance on the lectures of the 
University, in professional reading, and in the prosecution of prac- 
tical anatomy. At its close, he regarded " his prospects as far from 
being flattering; but patience and perseverance might insure ulti- 
mate success; at all events, he would put his shoulder to the 
wheel." 
But the morning dawn of his professional eminence and success 
was then beginning to break, though unperceived by him. 
His enthusiasm for anatomy, his earnest application to dissection, 
his quiet demeanor, his steadiness of character, the neatness and 
excellence of his preparations, had attracted the notice of Professor 
Wistar, and gained his friendship, confidence, and esteem. 
In March, he offered to Dr. Horner to appoint him his dissector, 
with a salary of five hundred dollars per annum. 
The offer was immediately accepted, though the emolument was 
small. 
This opening, trifling as it appears, "led on to fortune." It 
placed him on the path to which he was predestined by his innate 
taste and inclinations. His progress was uninterrupted. He moved 
foward as on a royal road; no impediment occurred to retard, or 
obstacle to arrest his advance, until he had gained all that fortune, 
ever propitious to him, could bestow. 
An occurrence, in this stage of his life, gives an indication of his 
principles. In the fall, he was oppressed with great despondency 
regarding his future welfare, and assailed by anxious and corroding 
cares, picturing to his mind the dangers of abject poverty and want. 
At this time, an offer was made to him of a surgeon's place on board 
an East Indiaman. 
Several medical gentlemen, from the trading privileges allowed 
them, had found the situation profitable; and it had been a favorite 25 
plan with Dr. Horner. The proposal was immediately declined in 
consequence of his engagement with Dr. Wistar. 
He remarks, in noting down this occurrence: "It is said that 
the fortune of every man depends on some unexpected circum- 
stance; I may have rejected that on which my fortune turned. 
My refusal arose from my sense of obligation and honorable inten- 
tions to Dr. Wistar. There is a maxim that 'honesty is the best 
policy.' I now put it to the test." A note is appended to this 
passage, dated January, 1832, to this effect: "See vote of Trustees 
of the University of Pennsylvania, appointing me Professor of 
Anatomy, November, 1831." 
The connection formed with Dr. Wistar ripened into personal 
friendship and warm regard. In the summer of 1817, Dr. Wistar 
being compelled to visit the interior of the State in reference to 
property he owned, selected Dr. Horner as his companion. 
The demonstrations of the anatomical course were fuller and 
more complete than they had been previously; and the anatomical 
museum was rapidly increased by numerous specimens and pre- 
parations, particularly of fine injections as well as important patho- 
logical illustrations. He worked most assiduously, for it was a 
work of love. 
In speaking of the year 1817, he writes: " It opened on me with 
prospects too appalling for the mind of man to bear." He had, 
about that period, nearly determined on abandoning the world, and 
of devoting himself wholly to a religious life, and in preparation 
for eternity. He continues: " It closed upon me with circumstances 
I had not dared to anticipate. Fortune had pushed me even farther 
than I could have demanded." 
The death of Dr. Wistar, which occurred unexpectedly on the 
22d of January, 1818, appeared to cast a blight on the budding 
fortunes of young Horner. The event was poignantly felt by him. 
" This afflicting dispensation," he records, " has harrowed up my 
mind beyond the manifestation of grief; my friend, my patron, my 
example in life, the good, the illustrious Wistar, is no more. My 
hopes are again destroyed." 
The vacant chair of Anatomy in the University was filled by the 
election of Dr. John Sing Dorsey, the nephew of Dr. Physick, 
under whose auspices he had been carefully educated, and had 
already acquired a distinguished medical and surgical reputation. 
High expectations had been formed of this appointment. 
Nature had largely endowed him with brilliant qualities. He 26 
possessed a capacious intellect, well cultivated and replenished with 
literary stores; he was fluent and apt in discourse, with an excel- 
lent delivery. To these were added a ready wit, generous spirit, 
and a joyous temper. It may be considered doubtful from his 
social habits, whether he could have submitted to the application 
and drudgery of the practical anatomist. 
He probably felt this, and appointed Dr. Horner as his Demon- 
strator, and placed the dissecting class and all its emoluments in 
his hands. 
How vain and unstable are all human calculations. These bright 
anticipations were dashed to the ground. Dr. Dorsey opened the 
Anatomical Course of 1818 with one of the most brilliant intro- 
ductories, as it was generally pronounced, that had ever been deli- 
vered in the University. It excited the highest admiration. That 
night he was taken ill with a disease that assumed in a few days a 
fatal character, and in a week or ten days consigned him to a most 
untimely grave. 
A cloud, it appeared to Dr. Horner, again gathered over and 
shadowed his prospects. The event proved the reverse. 
Dr. Physick, in consideration of his nephew's family, though in 
a very desponding state of mind from the loss of one to whom he 
was much attached, who possessed his entire confidence, and whom 
he looked to as the prop of his declining age, and though in ill 
health, undertook to carry on the anatomical course, as well as his 
own lectures on Surgery. 
He immediately renewed with Dr. Horner the engagement that 
had been made by Dr. Dorsey. The course was completed in a 
manner highly satisfactory to Dr. Physick and the class. The as- 
siduity and zeal of Dr. Horner, and the excellence of his demon- 
strations, by lightening the labor of the course and facilitating its 
progress, contributed in no small degree to this result. 
From some views not easily understood, Dr. Physick resigned in 
the succeeding summer the Professorship of Surgery, to which he 
had given so much illustration by his high reputation, his enlarged 
experience, and his sound surgical principles, and accepted the 
Chair of Anatomy. 
Dr. Physick was so much satisfied with Dr. Horner's services the 
preceding winter, that he at once renewed the connection with him 
on the most liberal terms. Dr. Horner expresses himself to the fol- 
lowing effect:-• 
" I have reason to congratulate myself on the succession of Dr. 27 
Physick to the Anatomical Chair. His views towards me justify 
the hopes I have entertained of professional success. Let the event 
be what it may, I shall always consider as auspicious the moment 
that placed me in contact with a man of his elevated and useful 
character." 
The following spring, March, he again writes:-■ 
"Dr. Physick's conduct savors of the utmost liberality, and I 
have to thank my stars for casting my destiny under his guidance. 
His confidence in me seems unshaken, notwithstanding the atro- 
cious and anonymous attempts to destroy it." 
This alludes to a systematic plan of anonymous attacks upon 
him, and which called forth the following remarks: "I have been 
constantly assured, in a succession of years, that my exertions gave 
satisfaction to Dr. Wistar, Dr. Dorsey, and Dr. Physick; the young 
men placed under my charge have also commonly appeared satis- 
fied, but notwithstanding these evidences in my favor, some anony- 
mous friend of the University assures Dr. Physick and Dr. Chapman 
in his communications, that their patronage of me is doing a serious 
injury to the school, and advises another to be taken in my place." 
The position Dr. Horner had now gained and in which he was so 
firmly intrenched, at once secured and commanded his success in 
his future fortunes. He possessed the entire confidence and had 
won the steadfast friendship of Dr. Physick, the foremost in the 
ranks of the profession, and whose opinion was of great weight in 
society. His income was considerably above his wants, and a com- 
mencing accumulation gave a confidence in a future store. The 
harassing fears of failure and destitution, conjured up by the dark 
despondency to which he was so often a prey, were for the time 
dispelled. So entirely had mind, feelings, and affections, been 
engrossed in the hard struggle he had bravely maintained against 
discouraging odds, that no other consideration could engage his 
attention or make a permanent impression. He had now the assur- 
ance of security and independence: he could indulge in other 
thoughts, and look into other relations of life. 
It is remarkable and characteristic that up to this period he had 
been unconscious of that profound sentiment, of that ideality of the 
moral faculties, the source of our noblest conceptions of moral 
duties, and of our purest enjoyment, the origin of man's highest 
aspirations on this earth, and only awakened into existence by the 
inspiration of woman. He had never loved • nay, he was sceptical 
of the existence of such a passion, certainly as to himself, and 28 
looked upon all that had been said in eloquent prose or sung in 
harmonious verse on the subject, as the illusions of an ardent nature, 
or the exaggerated fictions of a poetic imagination. 
But his hour had arrived, as it comes to all. He felt and 
acknowledged the reality of the sentiment he had denied; and, pos- 
sessed by the passion he had discredited, roused from its dormant 
state, he was thrown into new trains of thought and impelled into 
a new condition of being. In this relation of life he was favored 
as in so many others. His hopes were not thwarted. He was 
affianced, and in October, 1820, was married to Elizabeth Welsh, 
the third daughter of Mr. John Welsh, a prominent merchant of 
this city. 
By this marriage Hr. Horner entered into a highly respectable 
family, largely connected, and became more closely identified, in 
assuming the family relationship, with the citizens of Philadelphia. 
Dr. Horner was happy in this union, in which he found those 
congenial qualities and virtues that form the happiness of domestic 
life. 
There was born of this marriage ten children, six of whom still 
survive. The three elder daughters were eligibly married. The 
last, Josephine, the wife of Dr. Richard Eppes, of City Point, Vir- 
ginia, died suddenly in this city, January, 1852, under peculiarly 
painful circumstances. 
The shock was terrible to her father; and though he rarely spoke 
on the subject, it evidently preyed on his feelings: he never rallied 
from the blow. The last lecture he delivered was on the day pre- 
vious to the first anniversary of her death. He was worn out, ex- 
hausted : " the pitcher, for the last time, had gone to the well." 
The next day he sent for me. The heart, which had long been 
organically diseased, was acting convulsively: he was under high 
moral and nervous excitement. Yet he made no allusion to the 
day or the event. His thoughts locked up in his bosom, and his 
feelings suppressed, were racking his frame: but no outward sign 
betrayed his mental suffering. The face wore its habitual calm, 
sedate, cold, deliberate expression; yet the father's heart was break- 
ing for the daughter's loss. 
In the month succeeding his marriage, at the request of Dr. 
Physick, Dr. Horner was associated with him as Adjunct Professor 
of Anatomy. From this time there is but little more to record in 
the life of Dr. Horner, than the occurrences of a successful profes- 
sional life, and a strict attention to his various duties. 29 
In 1823 he was appointed one of the Surgeons to the Philadelphia 
Almshouse Hospital, which office he held for twenty-five years. 
Dr. Physick, broken down by increasing infirmities, finding the 
task of lecturing beyond his powers, resigned his chair in 1831. 
Dr. Horner, in November of that year, was unanimously elected 
in his place. 
On the approach of the cholera invasion in 1832, the City Coun- 
cils appointed a Sanatory Board composed of the principal physi- 
cians of the city. Dr. Horner was one of those selected; and was 
subsequently placed in charge of one of the temporary district 
hospitals, established during the prevalence of the epidemic. 
He devoted himself to investigate the anatomical lesions that 
occur in the intestinal tube in cholera. For this object he adopted 
an entirely new method of observation. He first made a minute 
injection of the mucous membrane, and then examined it under 
water with large magnifying lenses; and afterwards on the object- 
glass of the microscope. 
In this manner, he demonstrated that the epithelial structure of 
the small intestines is destroyed and desquamated. 
Boehm, of Berlin, subsequently ascertained the same fact, and it 
has been confirmed by numerous observations since then. I claim, 
then, for Dr. Horner, the credit of having first devised the method 
of obtaining an exact knowledge of the pathological condition of 
the mucous membranes and epithelial tissues; that is, by previously 
injecting them, examining them under water with magnifying 
glasses, and the microscope; and, further, of being the first who 
demonstrated, conclusively, that entire desquamation of the epithe- 
lium of the small intestines is a cardinal and especial anatomical 
lesion in cholera. 
This lesion, as a constant symptom or anatomical alteration, is 
met with in no other disease, and is far more intimately connected 
with the pathology of cholera than the lesion of Peyer's glands, 
first announced by Louis as existing in typhoid fever, and for which 
he has received so much credit, is with the pathology of that 
affection. 
Dr. Horner, in a communication published in the American 
Journal of Medical Sciences, for 1834, described his process, and 
stated the results of his examination. A paper made its appear- 
ance, published in Paris, in the Presse Medicale, two years subse- 
quent to the publication of Dr. Horner, in which the author pro- 
posed the same method, but made no allusion to Dr. Horner's paper 30 
on. the same subject. He took great credit to himself, as the first 
to propose that mode, the only correct one for determining the 
pathological alteration of mucous membranes. 
No peculiar circumstances from this period occurred to disturb 
or to change the tenor of his life. He continued to labor dili- 
gently in his various occupations, in illustrating and teaching 
anatomy and clinical surgery, making additions to the Wistar 
Museum, transacting the business of the University, of which he 
was the dean for thirty odd years, publishing new editions of his 
Special Anatomy and Histology, with the illustrations, improvements, 
and additions, adapting the work to the advancing progress of 
science, of making communications to different medical journals, 
and in attending daily to his private practice. These diversified 
engagements were pursued under the constant and disabling pres- 
sure of the moral suffering which afflicted him the greater portion 
of his life. In 18-18, he writes: " I find my nature unchanged ; I 
am now very much as ,1 have been for so many years, and have but 
little prospect of improvement in my habitual state of mind, either 
the result of its own bad organization, or of a body too feeble to 
keep it in anything like tone." 
Nor were his domestic and social ties forgotten or neglected. 
From his system and order, he found time for every duty. 
Amongst other objects that engaged his attention, and excited his 
zeal, was the establishment of an additional hospital for the relief 
of the better classes of our operative population. The want of 
such a charity had long been felt, but no one moved in the under- 
taking. After several ineffectual attempts in general society, Dr. 
Horner directed his efforts to the stirring up of the Catholic church 
and community on this subject. He succeeded; and the founding 
of the St. Joseph's Hospital, in 1849, may be attributed mainly to 
his exertions. 
In June, 1841, Dr. Horner, for the first time, had an attack of 
dyspnoea, while residing in the country. In each succeeding year, 
these attacks were renewed with increased severity and frequency. 
They were most commonly brought on by indigestion, or over- 
exertion, or excitement. In 1844, I saw him in one of his attacks. 
The lungs were violently congested. I succeeded in obtaining a 
slight auscultatory examination, to which he was averse, sufficient 
to ascertain the existence of hypertrophy of the heart, apparently 
without lesion of the valves. He was relieved by a bleeding and 
by a copious expectoration of bloody serum. 31 
In 1847, his constitution appeared to be yielding to the affection. 
The attacks were frequent, either severe or slight, his nights for a 
time, nearly sleepless, and dropsical effusions had commenced. 
He was, in this state, attending daily to practice, sometimes on 
foot, and ascending the staircases of hotels and private residences, 
regardless of his sufferings. It was with difficulty he could be 
persuaded to retire to the country, to find relief in inaction and 
repose. He returned in the fall, so much recruited from this regi- 
men, that he carried on the winter course without interruption, 
though the carotids could be seen from every bench of the anato- 
mical amphitheatre violently throbbing, and it was a daily expecta- 
tion he might drop at the demonstration table. 
In the spring of 1848, Dr. Horner, accompanied by his friend, 
Dr. Leidy, made the tour of Europe. He rallied on the voyage, 
and soon after landing engaged with the ardor of a young medical 
tourist in professional pursuits. In England, Germany, and France, 
he visited hospitals and anatomical museums, and sought out 
eminent anatomists and surgeons. He was in Vienna while the 
revolutionary movements were in progress. He was also in Paris 
during the fierce conflicts of July, when he witnessed in the hos- 
pitals, filled with the wounded, every variety of gunshot wound, 
and the modes of treatment pursued. In passing from one hospital 
to another, our medical travellers found themselves suddenly be- 
tween two parties of combatants, when they had to take refuge in 
a porte cochlre to avoid the deadly missiles. 
From this excursion, Dr. Horner returned much benefited, and 
was enabled to attend to his routine of duties without intermission 
until the winter of 1852-3. 
During 1852, his attacks and sufferings increased, and sad inroads 
were made on his constitution and health. At the opening of the 
course, in October, his situation appeared very precarious, and gave 
serious apprehensions to his friends. He was resolute in his deter- 
mination to lecture; he could not bring his mind to abandon the 
field in which for twenty-one years he had successfully labored. 
But it was early apparent that his career was drawing to a close, 
and the impossibility of his finishing the course manifested. 
Early in November, immediately on my return from Europe, 
where I had been detained, he requested my opinion of his state, 
and the course he should pursue. He was frankly told that lectur- 
ing, or practising, in his then state, was impossible-must not be 
thought of; that rest and tranquillity were indispensable. " Then," 32 
said he, "I must leave the city; I cannot remain and follow your 
advice." He left the next day on a visit to his friends at the 
South, returned in three weeks, temporarily rallied, and resumed 
his lectures, which he continued until January 27. This last lec- 
ture was accomplished with difficulty. His limbs were distended 
with dropsical swellings; for a week he had been lecturing while 
bandaged to the waist; his respiration labored and short, ren- 
dered speech difficult; the heaving heart and throbbing carotids 
seemed threatening every moment an apoplectic hemorrhage, a 
sudden congestion, or fatal effusion on the lungs. At the end of 
the lecture he deliberately walked to his home, at least a quarter 
of a mile, as though he were in perfect health. From this time he 
felt the conviction that his office in life was closed, and he was 
soon to be removed from those duties which he had fulfilled with 
earnestness and integrity. He resigned himself calmly to his fate, 
and awaited its coming without a murmur or with reluctance. 
There was, with him, no parade of preparation for a future state, 
for it had been the ruling thought and aim of his whole life. He 
seldom talked of his death, but, when it was alluded to, it was 
treated and spoken of as any other occurrence of our daily life. A 
circumstance I am tempted to mention, shows his coolness and un- 
concern on this subject. He was lying on a couch-Doctor Henry 
Smith and myself sitting on each side. Doctor Horner was suffer- 
ing some pain, a new symptom that had just commenced. He 
demonstrated with his finger the different regions of the trunk, 
enumerating the organs they contained, and the state of each, and 
indicated the exact seat where he then suffered the most. This was 
done with the interest and earnest manner of a demonstration to 
his class. I was so struck with it as to call the attention of Doctor 
Smith to this display of the "ruling passion strong in death." 
" Look! here is the anatomist dissecting his body-making a post- 
mortem before he is dead." The remark so amused Doctor Horner, 
that he laughed heartily, in which we joined him. At the end he 
said: " Well, I have not had so good a laugh for a long time." 
This occurred on the third day before his death. 
The imperative sense of duty, so conspicuous a trait in Doctor 
Horner, was manifested in the last moments of his life. Towards 
the close of February, finding the most urgent symptoms of his 
case mitigated, and his life prolonged beyond his expectations, he- 
insisted on relieving the Faculty of the University of a portion of 
the labors his incapacitated state might throw on them. He 33 
commenced the anatomical examination of the candidates for gra- 
duation, aided by his son-in-law, Doctor Henry H. Smith, and con- 
tinued this duty until within two days of his death. 
It is somewhat remarkable that the death of Doctor Horner was 
not the immediate result of the chronic affection under which his 
constitution had broken down. He had complained about the 10th 
of March of pain in the abdomen on the left side. The night of 
the 12th it suddenly assumed an intensity that led to the suspicion 
of peritonitis from a perforation. He sank exhausted by unceasing 
and unmitigable suffering the evening of the next day, March 13, 
surrounded by his sorrowing family and relatives. 
Examination after death revealed the existence of entero-perito- 
nitis, with mortification of the small intestines. This new condition 
was the direct cause of death, and had suddenly supervened on the 
original disease. 
In estimating the merits of Doctor Horner in a scientific view, 
he must be judged according to his pretensions. Special anatomy 
was the chief object of his pursuit; it was the department to which 
he devoted himself, and in which he acquired the distinction he 
possessed. He cultivated surgery as a profession intimately asso- 
ciated with anatomy, and also practised medicine. It is not the 
custom in our country to separate these different departments, 
though some one may be a more special subject of attention. As 
an anatomist, he was certainly one of the most eminent and com- 
plete our country has produced. 
The anatomical museum of the University, founded by Doctor 
Wistar, is an evidence of his great anatomical skill and untiring 
application. A very large portion of it, upwards of two-thirds, 
and containing most of its finest preparations, rivalling those of the 
best anatomical museums of Europe, is the result of his labors. 
On his death, he bequeathed the whole of them, together with all 
his instruments and apparatus connected with dissections, to the 
medical department of the University. The valuation of this dona- 
tion is between eight and ten thousand dollars. The Board of 
Trustees have, in consequence of this liberal bequest, bestowed on 
this collection the name of the " Wistar and Horner Museum." 
Human anatomy systematically cultivated for upwards of four 
hundred years, and many hundreds of dissections having been 
annually made during that period, it might be expected that little 
or nothing could be left to be gleaned at this time. But the in- 34 
dustry of Doctor Horner lias proved there still remained some 
portions of structure which, though overlooked, would yield to close 
research. 
Doctor Horner, from observation, felt satisfied that the common 
account of the apparatus of lachrymation did not explain fully the 
phenomena of that function. The constant application of the 
puncta lachrymalia to the surface of the eye, under varying circum- 
stances, by which they are kept bathed in the tears, was unexplain- 
ed. He accordingly sought for the solution of this difficulty, and 
discovered, almost as soon as sought for, a special muscle situated 
on the posterior surface of the lachrymal ducts and sacs. The dis- 
covery of this muscle was immediately verified by anatomists in 
this country and in Europe. He named this muscle "Tensor 
Tarsi." It has also been named after him " Musculus Hornerii." 
Amongst the principal of the European anatomists, who admitted 
this discovery, was Signor Trassmondi, who wrote a pamphlet re- 
specting it, explaining its uses. He discovered, also, the nerves 
distributed to it. The original discovery of this muscle by Dr. 
Horner, was contested by an Italian anatomist, Signor Flagiani, 
who quoted several authorities as having pointed out its existence. 
In a paper published in the ninth volume of the Philadelphia 
Journal of Medical Science, Dr. Horner has completely rebutted 
this allegation, and has shown clearly that none of the quotations 
have any reference to the muscle he discovered. The claim, it ap- 
pears to me, is fully sustained. 
It has been stated to me that Dr. Mosely, of this city, has lately 
discovered the antagonist of this muscle, a circumstance that proves 
positively its existence, which, by some, was at first denied. 
The glands of the axilla in the black race, have been shown, by 
Dr. Horner, to exist in much larger numbers, and are much more 
developed in them than in the white. 
The odor peculiar to both races, far more intense in the black 
than in the white, proceeds principally from these bodies. He 
named them "odoriferous glands." 
He has farther shown some peculiarities in the muscular arrange- 
ment of the rectum, that have interesting connection with its patho- 
logical states, not noticed by former anatomists; and in describing the 
larynx, he has united the observations of Lauth and Dr. Leidy, and 
proposes a new anatomical description of the fibro-elastic membrane 
that lines it interiorly beneath the mucous tissue, and forms the 
vocal cords. He gives to it the very appropriate name of " Vocal 35 
or Phonetic Membrane." The timbre, or peculiarity of musical 
tone of the voice, depends, most probably, on the development and 
physical characters of this ligament. 
Dr. Horner was not fluent, copious in language, nor had he any 
pretensions to elocution, but he was a very excellent teacher of 
anatomy. His plan was, to a certain extent, novel. He composed 
a text-book, which was a most complete but concise treatise on 
Anatomy. 
It was written in "strict reference to the course of study pursued 
in the University of Pennsylvania, and was kept in as compendious 
a state as possible, so that there should be no unnecessary loss of 
time in reading it."* 
It is much to be regretted that few books are written in this spirit, 
and that much time is lost in reading mere words. This book was 
in fact his lectures; it was not costly, and was in the hands of all his 
'students. In the lecture-room, he confined himself chiefly to the 
demonstration of the text of his work, by dissections, preparations, 
drawings, and models. On the value of this method there will be 
different opinions; but it is certain that he made good anatomists. 
I have frequently heard students declare that, plain, simple, and 
unadorned as were the lectures of Dr. Horner, they had learned 
anatomy better from him than from any other they had heard lec- 
ture on that branch. 
That Dr. Horner was a popular teacher with the classes of the 
University is certain. He commanded their respect, their confidence, 
their esteem, and their affection. No one ever spoke unkindly or 
disrespectfully of him. 
The portrait that is suspended before you is an evidence of what 
I state. When it was known, last winter, to the class, that, in all 
likelihood, Dr.Horner would never again lecture, a contribution was 
raised to procure his portrait and present it to the University. The 
work was confided to one of our ablest artists. 
It is a truthful likeness, and a fine picture. When it is considered 
that it was drawn, in a great measure, from memory, it must be re- 
garded as wonderful. 
It presents him, as it should do, not as he appeared in the last 
years of his life, pallid in premature decay, and worn to the bone by 
cares, labor and disease, but as I recall him in early days, rejuve- 
nated, in health, manhood, and strength. That portraiture is his out- 
ward semblance revived in the truthfulness of nature, preserved 
* Horner's Special Anatomy, Preface to 8th ed. 36 
from the ravages and decay of death, and the oblivion of the 
tomb. 
How beautiful, how glorious the art that achieves such a triumph. 
For years to come, in after time, will generations of students look 
on that portrait, and know him whom now we commemorate, whose 
name will designate the enlarged and magnificent museum, as it will 
then be, and from whose fine and admirable preparations they will 
be deriving a knowledge of the mysteries of organic structure. 
Dr. Horner was an able surgeon, sound in his judgment, and ju- 
dicious in his practice. Such I found him in many surgical cases I 
confided to his care. His surgery partook of his general character ; 
it was deliberate and cautious; nothing was done for display; there 
was nothing dashing or boastful about it. 
Danger always attends on the knife. No operation can be per- 
formed, even the simplest, that may not endanger life. I have 
known three deaths, besides several severe injuries to the arm from' 
the operation of bleeding, and two deaths from the removal of small 
adipose tumors, in this city. A capital operation, by the mutilation 
produced or injury inflicted on important organs, becomes itself a 
disease that may entail death with as much probability as the condi- 
tion it is intended to remedy. The shock and consequences of an 
operation are as severe, and task as much the forces and powers of 
the constitution and economy, as the injury for which it is performed. 
Dr. Horner, aware of this fact, in the conclusion of his surgical 
sketches, published in the Medical Examiner, reviewed the import- 
ant surgical question as to the propriety of immediate or delayed 
amputation in serious injuries of the extremities. His criticisms 
appear to me well grounded. Without coming to any positive de- 
cision, he rather dissents from the general decision of the English 
surgeons and those of our own country, in favor of immediate 
amputation. He objects to the statistical tables and observations on 
which this conclusion is founded. Many of them are deficient in the 
precision and exactness of facts indispensable in the rigid canons of 
modern science. " I consider it highly inconclusive," he remarks, 
" to group amputations by the limb, instead of by the region of the 
limb, and still more so to speak of all sorts of amputations in a sum 
without any analysis." 
Amputations below the shoulder and below the knee have a com- 
paratively light mortality, while those above the middle of the thigh 
are always hazardous. " These last are," Dr. Horner considers, " the 
turning point of the inquiry, and the question resolves itself into 37 
the determination, as a general rule, whether, in those cases, imme- 
diate amputation, delayed amputation, or no amputation at all of 
this part is the preferable course." In the other cases, as immediate 
and delayed amputation differ very little in results, the surgeon must 
be governed by the incidental circumstances of each case. Mr. 
Guthrie decides, from comparative experience, in favor of the first 
term of the proposition in opposition to the second. He appears to 
have entirely neglected the third term, which is an important ele- 
ment of the problem yet remaining to be settled. Bilguers, the 
Surgeon-General of Frederick the Great, discouraged by the almost 
uniform fatal termination of amputations in the Russian army, pro- 
hibited a recourse to them altogether. The result of this extensive 
experiment was in favor of the third term, opposed to the first and 
second, or of no amputation. But it is too general in its character to 
be applied absolutely to the proposition formulated by Dr. Horner, 
limited to fractures of the thigh. 
Dr. Horner has proposed an intermediate course, which, it strikes 
me, merits the serious attention of our surgeons. It is, that in ag- 
gravated fractures of the thigh, "when the limb is dangling or hope- 
lessly injured, with the bones comminuted, to resect the limb at the 
point of connection, and simply to square off the protuberant bone." 
This is "scarcely an amputation," "it can do but little harm," there 
is little or no additional shock to the constitution, or reduction of 
the forces of the economy. This proposition is, I believe, original 
with Dr. Horner, and, I repeat, merits the attention of the surgical 
members of the profession. 
I shall have but few words to say of Dr. Horner as a man. 
The preceding narrative, recapitulating the more prominent events 
of his life, thoughts, actions, and mental idiosyncrasies, will have 
made you familiar with him. 
It was in the qualities that constitute character that lay his strength. 
He recognized the great truth, that all men are born into this world 
for the performance of duties; and whoever neglects them lives in 
violation of that law. 
He tasked himself to the highest extent, to improve the faculties 
that God had given him, and to employ them in the performance of 
the duties assigned to him. More than this is not in man's power. 
He acted, always, under a deep religious conscientiousness of this 
sense of duty; and was never satisfied that his work was perfect. 
From these feelings proceeded his assiduity, fixedness of purpose, 
concentration in what he engaged in, his limitation to what he was 38 
capable of accomplishing, his order, method, and truthfulness. What 
he did, was done as a duty, as an end in itself, and not as a means 
for popularity and fame. Gentlemen, I end as I began. I hold up 
to you your late professor, teacher, and friend, as an example and 
for your imitation. If you are endowed with genius and great 
abilities, by acting on his principle you will render them more 
effective, you will secure their availability, and give to them their 
true uses and direction, without which, they may strand the bark 
they guide on quicksands, or on desert shores, or shipwreck it on 
sunken rocks. 
If you do not possess those mental qualifications, they will gain 
for you the respect, confidence, esteem of the good and the wise, and 
insure you success in life. Dr. Horner is to you "A Model Man." APPENDIX. 
It is deemed appropriate to insert in an appendix the following testimonials 
of respect to Dr. Horner, and other documents corroborative and illustrative 
of the statements made in the preceding Discourse. 
A. 
Testimonial of the Medical Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania on 
the Death of Dr. Horner. 
University of Pennsylvania, 
March 18, 1853. 
A Committee having been appointed, at a previous meeting, to prepare a 
testimonial of the feelings entertained by the Medical Faculty towards their 
late colleague, Dr. William E. Horner, and to convey to his family an ex- 
pression of condolence on the afflicting bereavement which has been sustained 
by them; the following was directed to be placed upon the Minutes of the 
Faculty, and a copy to be transmitted to the family of the deceased. 
The Medical Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania are deeply im- 
pressed with the loss they have sustained in the death of their late colleague 
Professor William E. Horner. 
The event was not unexpected. It had been foreshadowed by unmistak- 
able signs of declining health and a broken constitution. But the realities 
of this nature, though anticipated, always come as a shock, and fall as a 
blow. 
It is a duty the Faculty owe to themselves and the deceased, that they 
should express their feelings upon this occasion, and place on record their 
testimony to his many admirable qualities and his solid worth. Few pos- 
sessed ampler opportunities to form a correct estimate of his character; and 
from his long connection with the school, the valuable services he has ren- 
dered by his faithful and accurate instruction, his devotion to his various 
official duties, the perfect equanimity of his temper and unvaried self-control, 
his great love of truth and the conscientious rectitude of his principles and 
actions, he has left behind him an impression of profound respect and esteem 
that will be as lasting as existence. 
The passing away from the scenes and active duties of a useful and well 
spent life of one endowed with so many excellences and virtues, cannot be 
viewed with indifference or regarded with apathy. It will leave in his family 40 
mourning and sorrow, and long years of sad remembrance; with his colleagues 
sincere regrets, and an enduring appreciation of his worth. 
The Faculty, in thus expressing their own feelings and strong convictions, 
would offer their condolence to the family on their bereavement; but if purity 
of life and unstained honor, an unquestioned integrity, a conscientious dis- 
charge of all the various relations of society, and an abiding faith, can insure 
a happy futurity, they must enjoy the full assurance that he whom they 
mourn has been gathered to his great reward, " the inheritance of the just." 
On behalf of the Faculty, 
JOSEPH CARSON, Dean. 
B. 
Resolutions of the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania on the Death 
of Dr. Horner. 
Resolved, That this Board have received with deep regret the news of 
the decease of Professor Horner, whose long-continued services and eminent 
ability and skill have added so much to the welfare, reputation, and useful- 
ness of the University. 
Resolved, That Professor Horner's well known devotion to science has 
been signally manifested by his valuable donation to the Wistar Museum, by 
means of which the opportunities of instruction in his important depart- 
ment have been perpetuated even after his decease. 
Resolved, That the donation so made by the late Dr. Horner be gratefully 
accepted, and that the " Committee on the Wistar Museum" be instructed 
to take measures to classify and identify the specimens which are the gifts 
of Dr. Horner. 
Resolved, That the Wistar Museum hereafter be called the Wistar and 
Horner Museum. 
c. 
Resolutions of the Medical Faculty of the Pennsylvania College. 
Pennsylvania College, 
March 14, 1853. 
At a meeting of the Medical Faculty, held this day, the President having 
announced the death of Dr. Wm. E. Horner, Professor of Anatomy in the 
University of Pennsylvania, Drs. Allen and Wiltbank were appointed a com- 
mittee to express the sense of this Faculty upon the occasion. 
The following preamble and resolutions were reported by the committee, 
and unanimously adopted:- 
When, by the dispensation of an allwise Providence, a friend, a citizen, 
and a co-laborer is removed by death, it is fitting that his departure from 41 
this world should receive from us some manifestation of respect and sorrow. 
But when one, who has for many years occupied among us a high and re- 
sponsible position, and by his faithful and untiring devotion to science and 
the arduous duties of a teacher and physician, has won our respect; who, by 
his many virtues in public and private life has secured our love and esteem, 
no manifestation of sorrow can fill the void caused by his departure from 
among us. 
The loss of such a one we are called upon to mourn in the recent death 
of Dr. Wm. E. Horner. Sincerely deploring the sad event which has called 
him away, therefore, 
Resolved, That we, the Medical Faculty of Pennsylvania College, deeply 
sympathize with the family and colleagues of the deceased, in this afflictive 
dispensation of Providence; and that we will ever cherish the memory of our 
departed friend as an able teacher, a skilful physician, and an honorable 
and upright man. 
Resolved, That, as a token of respect, this Faculty will attend his funeral 
in a body. 
Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions, with the condolence of the Fa- 
culty, be furnished to the family of the deceased, and to the Dean of the 
Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. 
Extract from the Minutes. 
D. GILBERT, Register. 
W. Darrach, President. 
D. 
Resolutions of Managers of St. Joseph's Hospital. 
Resolved, That the Board of Managers of the Saint Joseph's Hospital 
have learned with feelings of deep regret, the decease of their much re- 
spected associate, the late Dr. William E. Horner, Senior Surgeon in this 
Institution. Connected, as he has been, with this Board from its organiza- 
tion, and earnestly devoted to the advancement of this Institution, he emi- 
nently contributed to place it in its present successful position. With him, 
the establishment of an hospital whose advantages should be extended to all, 
on the most liberal principles, without reference to " creed, country, or 
color," had been for years a most cherished object; and he devoted to its 
success all the energies of his character, and all the benefits of his valuable 
experience. With an ardor that never abated-with a perseverance that 
never wavered, and with an attachment to this infant Institution, that only 
terminated with his life, he lost no opportunity of advancing its interests, 
and continued to manifest a deep anxiety in its permanent establishment. 
In his decease we deplore the loss of a most earnest and steadfast friend 
to the Saint Joseph's Hospital, as well as a most zealous and urbane co- 
operator in all works of Christian charity. 42 
Resolved, That this Board will meet in this place on Wednesday next, at 
3 o'clock, to proceed in a body, to attend the funeral of our late and much 
lamented member, Dr. William E. Horner. 
Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing resolutions be transmitted to the 
family of the deceased, and that the Rev. F. J. Barbelin and Messrs. Smith, 
Devereux and Keating, be a committee to convey to them this expression of 
the high appreciation of his character by the members of this Board, and 
their regret and condolence in their bereavement. 
Extract from the Minutes of the Board of Managers of the Saint Joseph's 
Hospital. 
WM. A. STEEL, Secretary. 
Philadelphia, March 14, 1853. 
E. 
i ' 
Resolutions of the Medical Board of St. Joseph's Hospital. 
At a special meeting of the Medical Board of Saint Joseph's Hospital, 
held this day for the purpose of taking action in regard to the death of their 
late President, William E. Horner, M. D., who departed this life on the 
11th inst., it was unanimously 
Resolved, That, in Dr. Horner, this Board have to lament one of the 
founders of the Hospital, a zealous and efficient advocate of its interests, and 
its most liberal benefactor, who spared neither his means, his labor, nor 
his skill in furthering its welfare, and in healing the diseases of its inmates. 
That in him they also mourn a colleague and a friend, who in all his inter- 
course was urbane and considerate, and ever prompt to sustain them by 
his influence and assist them by his counsel; one with whom it was a plea- 
sure to associate, and from whose exemplary candor they could always look 
for a just appreciation of their own acts. 
Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be communicated to the Board of 
Managers of the Hospital, and one also to the family of the deceased as an 
expression of the sincere sympathy of this Board with them in their sorrow- 
ful bereavement. 
J. HENRY SMALTZ, 
Secretary Medical Board St. Joseph's Hospital. 
March 17, 1853. 
F. 
Invitation of Medical Class to sit for Portrait. 
Professor W. E. Horner- 
Dear Sir: In presenting the inclosed signification of the wish of the class 
of the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, allow us to 
express for them the hope that the proposition may meet with your approba- 43 
tion, and that your health will permit you to aid them in the furtherance of 
their request. 
Be pleased to accept of our best wishes for the future, and believe us, dear 
sir, 
Yours respectfully, 
G. P. TERRILL, 
F. H. BABBIT, 
J. BOARDMAN. 
March 2, 1853. 
G. 
Resolution of Medical Class requesting Dr. Horner s Portrait. 
University of Pennsylvania, Medical Department. 
At a meeting of the Medical Class in the Amphitheatre this afternoon, 
Mr. Hiestcr, of Pa., in the Chair, and Mr. Terrill, of Va., acting as Secre- 
tary, the following resolution was adopted :- 
Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to request our Profes- 
sor of Anatomy, Dr. W. E. Horner, to accord to us the privilege of having 
his portrait taken, to be placed in the Wistar Museum. 
On motion, Messrs. Boardman, of N. Y., Terrill, of Va., and Babbit, of 
Miss., were appointed on the Committee. 
F. M. HIESTER, Chairman. 
GEO. P. TERRILL, Secretary. 
II. 
The following shows the energy of character, the resoluteness and indomi- 
table industry of Dr. Horner:- 
Though laboring under serious cardiac disease, that would have driven 
most men from active duties, he voluntarily undertook to divide with Pro- 
fessor Gibson the course of Demonstrative Surgery, or Clinical Surgery, as 
it is often improperly named, assisted by Dr. H. H. Smith. The amount of 
labor he performed is shown in the following table:- 
Session 1850-1. 
Number of surgical cases before the class 128 
" of operations performed 66 
" " " by Dr. Horner - - - - 39 
Session 1851-2. 
Number of surgical cases before the class ------ 182 
" of operations performed 78 
" " " by Dr. Horner - - - - 55 
In January, 1853, about ten days before he was compelled to desist from his 
professional duties, he performed a very difficult and serious capital operation. 44 
I. 
I am indebted to Dr. H. H. Smith for the following list of works and 
papers published by Dr. Wm. E. Horner, and other contributions, some un- 
published, he has made to medical science :- 
A Treatise on Practical Anatomy, published in 1823, pp. 503, 8vo. 5th 
ed. Last edited by Dr. H. H. Smith, as the United States Dissector. 
A Treatise on Pathological Anatomy, published in 1829, pp. 460, 8vo. 
3 editions published. 
A Treatise on the Special Anatomy of the Human Body, published in 2 
volumes octavo in 1826, pp. 998. 
A second edition of the same, pp. 1064, 8vo.; published in 1830. 
The 8th edition, with the title of Special Anatomy and Histology, was pub- 
lished in 1851; 2 vols. 8vo. illustrated. 
A Plate of the Foetal Circulation, with References, published about 1828. 
The following papers embrace some of his more important contributions. 
Besides these, be contributed largely to the American Cyclopedia of Med. 
and Surgery, a work which was not completed :- 
1. Case of Lumbar Abscess, attended with Artificial Anus, opening from 
the Colon into the Groin. (7 pages.) 
Phil. Journ. Med. and Phys. Sciences, vol. i. p. 141. 1820. 
2. On the Treatment of Ruptured Tendo-Achillis, with a Plan of Treat- 
ment. (2 pages.) 
Phil. Journ. Med. and Phys. Sciences, vol. xii. p. 407. 1820. 
3. Cases of Congenital Hydrocephalus, in which the Brain was tapped. 
(2 pages.) 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences, vol. iv. p. 530. 1829. 
4. Case of Ozmna cured by use of Chloride of Lime. (2 pages.) 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences, vol. vi. p. 205. 1830. 
5. Autopsy of a Case of Death from the Bite of a Rattlesnake. (4 pages.) 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences, vol. viii. p. 397. 1831. 
6. Ligature of the Primitive Carotid Artery (in a Court-Room). (2 pages.) 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences, vol. x. p. 403. 1832. 
7. Case of Hepatic Abscess, in which Tapping was performed before Ad- 
hesion of the Liver to the Side had occurred, with the post-mortem appear- 
ances. (4 pages.) 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences, vol. xiv. p. 83. 1834. 
8. On Immobility or Incomplete Anchylosis of the Jaw. 
Amer. Cyclopedia Med. and Surgery. 
9. Two papers on Intestinal Mucous Membrane, as seen in Cholera Patients. 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences of 1834. 
10. Amputation at Shoulder-Joint, with a Description of a new Instrument 
for tying deep-seated Arteries. (3 pages.) 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences, vol. i. N. S. p. 2G6. 1841. 45 
11. Experiments on the Vascular Connection of the Mother and Foetus. 
(U pages.) 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences, vol. xii. p. 353. 
12. On the Direct Communication of the Pulmonary Air Vesicles with 
the Pulmonary Veins. (3 pages.) 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences, vol. v. N. S. p. 332. 1843. 
13. Cases of Aneurism, showing the Importance of placing a Ligature 
above and below the Sac. (4 pages.) 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences, vol. i. N. S. p. 74. 1841. 
14. Case of Aneurism of the Femoral Artery; also of the Brachial. (5 
pages.) 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences, vol. iv. p. 332. 1842. 
15. On thd Treatment of Hemorrhoids by a New Operation. [This is a 
most valuable and practical paper.] (2 pages.) 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences, vol. iv. p. 358. 1842. 
16. Excision of the Upper Jaw-Bone without incising the Cheek. 
riiila. Med. Examiner, vol. vi. N. S. p. 16. 1850. 
17. Case of Lacerated Perineum, with an Account of an Operation for its 
relief. 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences, vol. xx. N. S. p. 329. 1850. 
18. Extirpation of the Parotid Gland. 
Med. Examiner. 
19. Clinical Report of the Surgical Wards of the Almshouse Hospital 
in 1837. 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences, vol. xxi. p. 99. 1837. 
20. Surgical Apparatus invented or modified; a valuable modification of 
Dessault's splint for fracture of the femur, in which the counter-extension is 
made by the upper end of the inner splint, now generally employed at the 
St. Joseph's Hospital. Written out, but not published. 
21. A Sternum Dilator for aiding in injecting subjects. 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences, vol. iii. p. 242. 1828. • 
22. A Bandage Machine or Roller. 
Amer. Journ. Med. Sciences, vol. i. p. 479. 1827. 
23. Instruments for Dilating Strictures of the Urethra. 
24. Nests of Canulae for Dilating Stricture through the Perineum. 
The following have not been published :- 
25. An Aneurism Needle. 
Very many pathological and anatomical preparations were made by Dr. 
Horner, and placed in the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. 
These preparations were bequeath'ed to the school. Their value cannot be 
estimated in money, as time alone can furnish them. But their assessed 
value (as made by Drs. Leidy and H. H. Smith) is upwards of ten thousand 
dollars. All his instruments for dissection were also bequeathed the Uni- 
versity. His large and valuable library and surgical instruments were 
bequeathed under restrictions to the St. Joseph's Hospital. 46 
26. A Knife for Puncturing the Membrana Tympani. 
27. The Introduction of Leaden Catheters, as less irritating when worn 
for a long time. 
28. A New Operation for the relief of Ectropion. 
29. Dilatation of Stricture in the Ductus ad Nasum by Catheterism 
through the Puncta and Lachrymal Sac, being a modification of Anel's ope- 
ration.