{{Short description|American obstetrician and soldier (1838–1897)}} {{infobox person | image = American gynaecological and obstetrical journal. (1897) (14782437135).jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|1838|05|23}} | birth_place = Norwich, Connecticut, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1897|06|12|1838|05|23}} | death_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | education = Russell's Military School<br>Yale University<br>University of Edinburgh<br>Heidelberg University<br>Humboldt University of Berlin | alma_mater = Bellevue Hospital Medical College | parents = Sylvester Graham Lusk<br>Elizabeth Freeman Adams Lusk | children = 5 (including Anna Hartwell Lusk and Graham Lusk) }}
'''William Thompson Lusk''' (May 23, 1838 – June 12, 1897)<ref name="nyt" /> was an American obstetrician and a soldier who rose to the rank of Assistant Adjutant-General in the United States Volunteers during the first three years of the American Civil War. After he retired from the Union Army, he finished his medical education and became a professor as well as a president of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College. He received much recognition and fame for his 1882 book, ''The Science and Art of Midwifery'', which quickly became a widely referenced text.<ref name="Gifford and Seidman437">{{Harvnb|Gifford|Seidman|1989|p=437}}</ref>
==Early life== Lusk was born and raised in Norwich, Connecticut.<ref name="nyt" /> Lusk, the fifth generation of his family, was the son of Sylvester Graham Lusk and Elizabeth Freeman Lusk (née Adams).<ref name="Luskvii">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|p=vii}}</ref>
Lusk attended a school run by local Reverend Albert Spooner in preparation for attending Yale College.<ref name="Lusk13" /> However, his uncle believed that learning the old version of grammar from Spooner would get Lusk rejected from Yale, and for the winter of 1853–1854, he attended Anthon's Grammar School at Murray Street, Manhattan, New York City. For the winter of 1854–1855, Lusk was sent by his mother to Russell's Military School in New Haven, Connecticut, to gain physical toughness through gymnastics.<ref name="Lusk13" />
In 1855,<ref name="Lusk13">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|pp=113}}</ref> he enrolled at Yale University in the class of 1859,<ref name="Lusk9">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|p=9}}</ref> but left school at the end of his freshman year and studied medicine in Berlin and Heidelberg from 1858 to 1861.<ref name="Yale Obituary37" />
==Career== [[File:Assistant Adjutant-General William Thompson Lusk.JPG|thumb|right|Captain William Thompson Lusk, Assistant Adjutant-General of the United States Volunteers]] When the American Civil War broke out, he joined the 79th New York State Militia.<ref name="nyt" /><ref name="Yale Obituary37">{{cite web|url=http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1859_1924/1896-97.pdf|title=Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased During the Academical Year Ending June, 1897 Including the Record of a Few who Died Previously Hithero Unreported|date=June 29, 1897|publisher=Yale University|page=37|accessdate=July 27, 2009}}</ref> He moved through the ranks from private to Assistant Adjutant General by 1863.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/06/13/102093897.pdf|title=Death of Mr. WM. T. Lusk; He Was President of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College.|date=June 13, 1897|newspaper=New York Times|page=2|accessdate=July 27, 2009 }}</ref> Unusually for his time, Lusk did not practice the usual custom of vilifying of the Southern soldiers; his letters actually indicate that he respected the Southerners and spoke of "Yankee hordes" invading the Southerners' "splendid plantations".<ref name="Watson188">{{Harvnb|Watson|2008|p=188}}</ref><ref name="Lusk97">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|p=97}}</ref> He was promoted to captain on February 24, 1862 (retroactive to January 19, 1862), and resigned from the United States Volunteers on February 28, 1863,<ref name="Yale Obituary37" /> with the intention of going back to New York to take command of a regiment.<ref name="Lusk10">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|p=10}}</ref> He was instead appointed Assistant Adjutant-General (with a rank of Captain) and assigned to the staff of Daniel Tyler on June 26, 1863, but resigned just two months later on September 17, 1863,<ref name="Lusk10" /> after his troops were sent to Delaware and marked as inactive.<ref name="Lusk15" />
Lusk took part in engagements at Blackburn's Ford, First Bull Run, Port Royal, James Island, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and many other minor battles.<ref name="Lusk14-15">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|pp=14–15}}</ref> He was also a staff officer of Isaac I. Stevens until Stevens' death,<ref name="Lusk15">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|p=15}}</ref> and he commanded two companies during the Draft Riots of 1863.<ref name="Lusk15" />
===After war=== thumb|right|A portrait of William Thompson Lusk After he left the war, he returned to Bellevue Hospital Medical College, where he finished medical school and received his M.D. in 1864.<ref name="Yale Obituary37" /> He was the valedictorian of his graduating class. After that he spent one year in Europe studying under various medical professionals,<ref name="Lusk10" /> although his ''New York Times'' obituary lists this time period as having lasted 4 years.<ref name="nyt" /> He studied in Edinburgh with James Y. Simpson, in Vienna with Carl Braun, and then in Prague with Seifert.<ref name="Lusk16" /> Lusk came back to New York in 1868 to establish his practice.<ref name="Yale Obituary37" />
On his return from Europe, Lusk was appointed Professor of Physiology at Long Island College Hospital.<ref name="Yale Obituary37" /> In the winter of 1871{{Clarify|date=April 2011}}, on the invitation of Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Lusk moved to Boston to lecture on physiology at Harvard Medical School.<ref name="Lusk10" /> Lusk was Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Bellevue Hospital Medical College until his death<ref name="Yale Obituary37" /> after the previous seatholder, Dr. George T. Elliot, died.<ref name="Lusk10" />
At the same time as accepting the professorship, he also became co-editor of ''The Medical Journal'', and held that position from 1871 to 1873, and also became a visiting physician at Bellevue Hospital.<ref name="Lusk10" /><ref name="Lusk17" /> Just a few hours later, Harvard offered him a position, which he declined.<ref name="Lusk16">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|p=16}}</ref> In 1890, upon the hospital's consolidation with New York University Medical College, Lusk became President of Bellevue Hospital Medical College.<ref name="Yale Obituary37-38">{{cite web|url=http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1859_1924/1896-97.pdf|title=Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased During the Academical Year Ending June, 1897 Including the Record of a Few who Died Previously Hithero Unreported|date=June 29, 1897|publisher=Yale University|pages=37–38|accessdate=July 27, 2009}}</ref>
On October 5, 1886, Lusk joined New York Commandery of the Loyal Legion of the United States.<ref name="Lusk11" /> He also joined George Washington Post, No. 103, Dept. New York, Grand Army of the Republic on March 17, 1887.<ref name="Lusk11" />
===Medical work=== Lusk wrote many medical papers,<ref name="Lusk17-18">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|pp=17–18}}</ref> including his 1876 paper, ''Nature, Causes and Prevention of Puerperal Fever'', which was one of the first papers to come out in support of germ theory.<ref name="Lusk18">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|p=18}}</ref> In 1882, he published ''The Science and Art of Midwifery''.<ref name="Gifford and Seidman437" /><ref name="Lusk10" /> The book achieved great sales in America and England, and was translated into many languages, including French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic.<ref name="Lusk18" /> It went through four editions,<ref name="Lusk10-11">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|pp=10–11}}</ref> the last of which was practically a rewrite.<ref name="Lusk18" /> Lusk was either planning to or in the process of writing a fifth edition when he died.<ref name="Lusk18" />
Lusk was also one of the first physicians to successfully perform a Caesarean section.<ref name="nyt" /> In March 1887, Lusk performed the second Caesarian section in the United States where both the mother and child survived.<ref name="Lusk31">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|p=31}}</ref> By some time in 1888, he had already performed three fully successful Caesarian sections within the past year.<ref name="Lusk31" /> Lusk was also a recognized authority on gynecology.<ref name="nyt" />
==Personal life== On May 4, 1864, after Lusk finished medical school, he was married to Mary Hartwell Chittenden (1840–1871), the only daughter of U.S. Representative Simeon B. Chittenden. In 1871, his wife and their infant daughter (Lily) both died. Lusk was left with two sons and two daughters to raise. Chittenden Memorial Library at Yale University was built in his wife's honor.<ref name="Yale Obituary38" />
Five years after his first wife's death, Lusk remarried to Matilda (née Myer) Thore, with whom he had one daughter, Alice, who married the Canadian obstetrician and gynecologist John Clarence Webster.<ref name="Yale Obituary38" /><ref name="Lusk19">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|p=19}}</ref> His second wife also predeceased him, with Maltida dying in 1892.<ref name="Lusk19" />
Lusk died, very suddenly and unexpectedly, of apoplexy at his residence, 47 East 34th Street in New York City, on June 12, 1897.<ref name="nyt" /><ref name="Yale Obituary37" /> He was survived by five children; two sons and two daughters from his first marriage and a daughter from his second.<ref name="Yale Obituary38">{{cite web|url=http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1859_1924/1896-97.pdf|title=Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased During the Academical Year Ending June, 1897 Including the Record of a Few who Died Previously Hithero Unreported|date=June 29, 1897|publisher=Yale University|page=38|accessdate=July 27, 2009}}</ref> According to his obituary in the New York Times, he left a fortune of over three million dollars to his estate.<ref name="nyt" /> At the time of his death, his eldest son was a Yale professor, and his younger son had just graduated from Yale in 1890.<ref name="Yale Obituary38" />
===Awards and honors=== Lusk also received many other scientific awards and distinctions.<ref name="Yale Obituary38" /> These include:
* One of the founders of the State's and County's Medical Associations (1884)<ref name="Lusk22">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|p=22}}</ref> * A significant president of the State's Medical Association (1889)<ref name="Lusk22" /> * Honorary fellow of the Obstetrical Society of London<ref name="Obstetrical Society of London">{{Harvnb|Obstetrical Society of London|1896|p=xi}}</ref> * President of Faculty and Professor of Obstetrics and of the Diseases of Women and Children at Bellevue Medical College<ref name="Lusk11">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|p=11}}</ref> * Consulting Physician to Bellevue Maternity Hospital (1870),<ref name="Lusk17">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|p=17}}</ref> Foundling Asylum, Emergency Hospital<ref name="Lusk11" /> * Gynecologist to the Bellevue and St. Vincent Hospitals<ref name="Lusk11" /> * Honorary Fellow of the Edinburgh and London Obstetrical Societies<ref name="Lusk11" /> * Corresponding Fellow of the Obstetrical Societies of Paris and Leipsic and Paris Academy of Medicine<ref name="Lusk11" /> * President of the American Gynecological Society<ref name="Lusk11" /> * President of the New York State Medical Association<ref name="Lusk11" /> * Vice-President of the New York Obstetrical Society (1873)<ref name="Lusk26">{{Harvnb|Lusk|1911|p=26}}</ref> * President of the New York Obstetrical Society (1879)<ref name="nyt" /><ref name="Lusk26" /> * Honorary degree of LL.D. from Yale University (1884)<ref name="Yale Obituary38" />
==References== {{reflist|2}}
===Bibliography=== {{commons category}} *{{cite book |last1=Gifford |first1=Don |last2= Seidman |first2=Robert J. |year=1989 |title=Ulysses Annotated: Notes for James Joyce's Ulysses |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=X1fWCCHReoUC&pg=PA437 |edition=2nd |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-06745-5 }} *{{cite book |last= Lusk |first=William Thompson |year=2007 |orig-date=1911 |title=War Letters of William Thompson Lusk: Captain, Assistant Adjutant-General, United States Volunteers 1861-1863, afterward M.D., LL.D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=we4sAAAAYAAJ |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |isbn=978-0-548-37097-1 |ref={{sfnref|Lusk|1911}} }} **Pages 9–12 by Edward Haight, Andrew D. Braid, Robert Gair, a committee on behalf of the New York Commandery of the Loyal Legion of the United States **Pages 13–20 by Dr. A. Alexander Smith **Pages 21–24 by Austin Flint, M.D. **Pages 25–31 by Henry C. Coe, M.D. *{{cite book |title=Transactions of the Obstetrical Society of London |last=Obstetrical Society of London |year=1896 |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co |url=https://archive.org/details/transactionsobs26londgoog }} *{{cite book |last=Watson|first=Ritchie Devon |year=2008 |title=Normans and Saxons: Southern Race Mythology and the Intellectual History of the American Civil War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uSJkt8Xj5PIC |publisher=LSU Press |isbn= 978-0-8071-3312-5 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lusk, William Thompson}} Category:1838 births Category:1897 deaths Category:Yale University alumni Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Category:Heidelberg University alumni Category:Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Category:New York University Grossman School of Medicine alumni Category:Harvard Medical School faculty Category:New York University faculty Category:People of New York (state) in the American Civil War Category:Union army officers