John Warren / [Walter L. Burrage].

  • Burrage, Walter L. (Walter Lincoln), 1860-1935.
Date:
[1925]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: John Warren / [Walter L. Burrage]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ROY MOODIE COLLECTION. Reprint from SURGERY, GYNECOLOGY AND OBSTETRICS June, 1925, pages 881-885 JOHN WARREN By WALTER L. BURRAGE, M.D., Boston JOHN WARREN, surgeon of the Revolution, organizer, orator, practitioner of Boston until after the War of 1812, is to be credited with founding the Harvard Medical School, where he lectured in surgery for over 30 years. He was one of the chief founders and for n years was president of the Massa¬ chusetts Medical Society. He was one of the first to do an amputation at the shoulder joint, not to mention being an advocate of healing by first intention, in the days when the presence of “laudable pus” was thought to be a part of the normal process of repair in all wounds. Of medium stature, well formed and of a military bearing, he had a most pre¬ possessing appearance. Peale’s portrait shows him with a high forehead sur¬ mounted by bushy hair, dark eyes, an acquiline nose, and an expression indic¬ ative of a genial nature which had not been hardened by the stern requirements of surgery in the pre-anaesthetic era. Dr. Warren’s father, Joseph Warren, was a farmer of Roxbury, now a part of Boston, a descendant of John Warren who came fellow passenger with Governor Winthrop in the Arabella, arriving in Salem on June 12, 1630. His mother, Mary Warren, was a daughter of Dr. Samuel Stevens, also of Roxbury. The father was killed by a fall from an apple tree in 1755 when John was 2 years old, for he was born on July 27, 1753. His brother Joseph and he were more or less dependent on their own exertions for their education. John, after taking his A.B. at Harvard in 1771, studied medicine in Boston for 2 years according to the custom of the time, with his brother Joseph, who was 12 years his senior, and then settled in practice in Salem where there was a less crowded field than in the capital. In college Warren, though not a deep student, became a good classical scholar and developed a love of anatomy, helping to form a club for the study of that sub¬ ject, which at that time was given little attention. Though absorbed in an active practice he was said to have taken part in the “Tea Party” in Boston Harbor, December 18, 1773. He joined Colonel Picker¬ ing’s Salem regiment of militia as a private. Toward the close of the battle of Lexington, April 19, 1775, he arrived at Winter Hill, Somerville, with his regi¬ ment, but not in time to be in the engagement. After the battle of Bunker Hill, 2 months later, he left Salem at 2 o’clock in the morning in an attempt to learn 1 Published by Surgical Pub. Co., Chicago, U.S.A.