{{Short description|American physician}} {{citation style|date=May 2015}} [[File:John Neagle Dr. William Potts Dewees.jpg|thumb|Dewees circa. 1833, portrait by John Neagle]] '''William Potts Dewees''' (May 5, 1768 – May 18, 1841) was an American medical doctor, best known for his work in obstetrics, being described in American Medical Biographies as a "Philadelphian obstetrician [that] was so famous that no parturient woman of the time considered herself safe in other hands."<ref>{{Cite AMB1920|wstitle=Dewees, William Potts}}</ref>
Dewees received a Bachelor of Medicine and in 1806 an M.D. from the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he would become Professor of Obstetrics, and Chair of Obstetrics from 1834 to 1841. In 1819, Dewees was elected to the American Philosophical Society.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1819&year-max=1819&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-05|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> His fame comes mainly from three books published in quick succession in the mid-1820s, each of which went to at least ten editions: ''Compendious System of Midwifery'' (1824), ''Treatise on the Physical and Medical Treatment of Children'' (1825), and ''Treatise on the Diseases of Females'' (1826). Of these, the ''System of Midwifery'' had the most lasting influence, introducing ideas from British and continental European physicians (especially Jean-Louis Baudelocque) and becoming the standard reference on obstetrics in the United States for a time.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Johann Hermann Baas|url=http://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9e8IAAAAIAAJ|title=Outlines of the history of medicine and the medical profession|date=1889|publisher=J.H. Vail|others=unknown library|language=English}}</ref>
==Works== * [https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-2552001R-bk ''An essay on the means of lessening pain, and facilitating certain cases of difficult parturition'' (1806)] <ref>{{Cite web|title=An essay on the means of lessening pain, and facilitating certain cases of difficult parturition - Digital Collections - National Library of Medicine|url=https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-2552001R-bk|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909023148/http://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-2552001R-bk|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 9, 2015|website=collections.nlm.nih.gov|access-date=2020-05-30}}</ref> * ''Compendious System of Midwifery'' (1824) * ''Treatise on the Physical and Medical Treatment of Children'' (1825) * [https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-67011330R-bk ''Treatise on the Diseases of Females'' (1826)] <ref>{{Cite web|title=A treatise on the diseases of females - Digital Collections - National Library of Medicine|url=https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-67011330R-bk|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022012433/https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-67011330R-bk|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 22, 2020|website=collections.nlm.nih.gov|access-date=2020-05-30}}</ref> * ''Practice of Medicine'' (1830)
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== * {{cite book |last=Baas |first=Johann Hermann |authorlink=Johann Hermann Baas | title = Outlines of the History of Medicine and the Medical Profession |author2=trans. Henry Ebenezer Handerson | publisher = J.H. Vail & Co. | year = 1889 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9e8IAAAAIAAJ/page/n1106 1094]–1095 | url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9e8IAAAAIAAJ}} * {{cite news | title = Bachelors of Medicine and Honorary M. D.'s of the University of Pennsylvania | work = The Alumni Register of the University of Pennsylvania | date = October 1900 | pages = 113–114 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=nIwgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA113}} * {{cite book |last=Haller |first=John | title = American Medicine in Transition 1840-1910 | year = 1981 | publisher = University of Illinois Press | isbn = 0-252-00806-5 | pages = 153}} * {{cite journal |last=Thomas |first=T. Gaillard |authorlink=Theodore Gaillard Thomas |year=1876 |title=A Century of American Medicine: 1776-1876: III. Obstetrics and Gynaecology |journal=The American Journal of the Medical Sciences |volume=72 |publisher = Charles B. Slack |pages=133–170 (p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=WQoCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA140 140])}}
==External links== {{Cite AMB1920|wstitle=Dewees, William Potts |short=x}} *[https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/catalog/nlm:nlmuid-55420280R-bk Hodge, Hugh L. ''An eulogium on William P. Dewees, M.D: delivered before the medical students of the University of Pennsylvania, November 5, 1842'', (1842)]. From the Digital Collections of the National Library of Medicine.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dewees, William Potts}} Category:1768 births Category:1841 deaths Category:American obstetricians Category:American medical writers Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni Category:Medical doctors from Pennsylvania