Jefferson Medical College - Clinic Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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UTI-IE GROSS CLINIC THOMAS EAKINS C1844-19165 R01-'ssson Samuel D. Gross, of distinguished presence, has paused a moment from an operation for the removal of a sequestrum from the thigh bone to explain to the class the details of the procedure. In the foreground, at the left, are the surgical instruments. About the patient are grouped the assistants in pre-antiseptic garb. Dr. Charles S. Briggs, later Professor of Surgery of the University of Nashville, Tennessee, is kneeling at the middle in front of Dr. Gross. In the lower right-hand corner is Dr. Daniel Apple, who holds open the incision with a retractor. Behind Dr. Apple, and using a tena- culum, is Dr. James M. Barton, Chief of Clinic, and later Clinical Professor of Surgery in Jefferson. Next to him is the etherizer, Dr. W. Joseph Hearn, later to become the Clinical Professor of Surgery in Jefferson, holding the anesthetic towel to the patient's face. In the lower left-hand corner sits the mother of the patient, shrinking from the sight of the surgeon's knife, red with the blood of her son. In the background, behind Dr. Barton, is Dr. Samuel W. Gross, son and successor of Professor Samuel D. Gross, the operator. He stands in a characteristic pose, an excellent portrait in spite of the low tones of color to which the artist was limited by the Held of shadow about him. Equally remarkable is the portrait of Hughey O'Donnell, the orderly, who had served the college for many years, dimly seen in the dark doorway. In the left middleground is the clinical clerk, Dr. Franklin West, taking notes at a desk. In the background are seated the students. As the amphi- theatre made a complete circle, some of the crowds of spectators sat behind the operating table which is placed in the center of the arena. The operating table used by Professor Gross may be seen in the upper amphitheatre of the College today. This painting faithfully depicts a scene familiar to Jefferson graduates before the days of antiseptic surgery more than fifty years ago. It is the master-piece of one of America's most famous artists, and was first exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, later at the expositions at Chicago, Buffalo, and St. Louis, being awarded the gold medal at the last named exhibition in 1904. It occupied the place of honor in the loan exhibition of the works of Thomas Eakins at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in 1917. Thomas Eakins studied anatomy at the jefferson Medical College in 1873 and 1874, and While thus engaged, conceived the idea of painting the surgical clinic as it was conducted then. He sat upon the benches of the old amphitheatre where the Jefferson Hospital annex now stands and made his artistic studies and sketches from the point of view of the medical class. R. V. P.