BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

DR. HENRY 0. MARCY.

[Reprint from Physicians and Surgeons of America.]

HENRY O. MARCY

MARCY, Henry Orlando, Boston, Mass.,was born June 23, 1837, in Otis, Mass.; the sonof S. Marcy, who was a soldier in the War of1812 and a teacher by profession, and Fanny(Gibbs) Marcy; grandson of Thomas Marcy, apioneer of Northern Ohio, having settled the townof Freedom, Portage county, with a colony of hiseastern neighbors and friends ; grandson and great-grandson of Elijah and Israel Gibbs, respectively,both of whom served in the American Revolutionand were with General Gates at the surrender ofGeneral Burgoyne.

Henry Orlando Marcy received a preliminary andclassical education at Wilbraham Academy andAmherst College, and was graduated from theMedical School of Harvard University in 1863. InApril of the same year he was commissioned assist-tant surgeon of the Forty-third Massachusetts Vol-unteers, and in the following November, was com-missioned surgeon of the First Regiment of Col-ored Troops, recruited in North Carolina. In1864 he was appointed medical director of Florida,

and served on the staffs of Generals Van Wyck,Potter, and Hatch, resigning his commission inJune, 1865, his last special service being the sani-tary renovation of Charleston, S. C.

After the close of the war, Dr. Marcy returnedto Cambridge, Mass., and entered upon the prac-tice of medicine. In the spring of 1869 he wentto Europe for further study, entering the Univer-sity of Berlin and remaining there one year, as aspecial student of Professors Martin and Virchow.After this he familiarized himself with the hospitalservice of the different European cities, spendingthe summer in London and Edinburgh, and thenbecame the first American pupil of Professor Lis-ter, of the last named city. Convinced of the cor-rectness of the, then, new teaching of this greatmaster, he immediately, upon returning to thiscountry, devoted himself to the introduction of theantiseptic methods of wound treatment; equippeda laboratory; obtained the services of competent

assistants; and devoted ten years to the con-tinuous study of the micro-organisms found inwounds; their cultivation in various media; theirreproduction in animals, etc., publishing, fromtime to time, the results of these observations.He made a series of investigations upon the repairprocesses of osseous structures, extending over aperiod of two years. Rabbits were used for experi-mental study, the animals being injected at selecteddates, until a complete series was secured, show-ing the intermediate processes of repair. He wasassisted by Surgeon-General Holt, and after manyexperiments, the injection apparatus now generallyused was devised, in 1878. Under the continuouspressure of half an atmosphere, it was found thatthe finest capillary loops in the newly formed tis-sue could be filled without breaking. The decal-cified specimens were sectioned and mounted.Projected upon a screen, they easily taught thelarge audiences before whom they were presented,that the repair processes in the long bones weredue chiefly to a new periosteum, profilerated fromeither side of the injured, often times devitalized,structures.

In 1870, Dr. Marcy familiarized himself with thepractice of Mr. Lister in the ligation of arteries incontinuity, by the use of the buried catgut-ligature.In the autumn of that year he modified their usefor the purpose of closing, subcutaneously, woundsmade for the radical cure of hernia. Finding thatprimary union supervened and that the cicatriceswere strong and not painful, Dr. Marcy instituteda series of laboratory studies, burying sutures invarious animals and studying the resulting histo-logical conditions, He demonstrated that asepticconnective-tissue material, e.g., catgut and thetendons of animals aseptically buried in asepticwounds, were invariably followed by primaryunion ; that the foreign material thus buried wassurrounded with leucocytes and invaded by them ;

that little by little, vascularity followed, thus thesuture being replaced in large degree by a band of

living connective-tissue. The importance of suchdiscoveries was at once appreciated and the asepticburied animal-suture was applied for the closure ofevery aseptic wound, the skin included, the latterby a light running suture taken from side to side,through the deeper layer of the skin only. Trac-tion upon it, evenly, coapts the divided edges,which are hermetically sealed with iodoform col-lodion without drainage. Dr. Marcy publishedthe result of these investigations, and a consider-able number of new operations were devised, asthe result of such suturing.

Having demonstrated the inherent defects of cat-gut as a suture material in 1880, after a carefulstudy of the connective-tissue structures of a largenumber of animals, his researches in comparativeanatomy led to the examination of the tendons ofthe tail of the kangaroo. These have been foundsuperior to any other material for sutures and arein general use.

In 1880, Dr. Marcy established a private hospi-tal in Cambridge for the treatment of the surgi-cal diseases of women, in order to demonstratethe value of the modern surgical technique. Thisis continued to the present, and it is here that hehas worked out in the larger share the methods ofwound treatment contributed to the profession.

In 1863, Dr. Marcy married Miss Sarah E.Wendell, of Somersworth, N. H. They reside at180 Commonwealth avenue, Boston. Henry O.Marcy, Jr., is a student of medicine.

To Dr. Marcy is undoubtedly due the credit ofintroducing into America the methods of antisepticwound treatment; his original studies greatly im-proved upon the same and contributed largely inplacing them upon their present scientific basis.The introduction and establishment of the value ofthe buried animal-suture is doubtless Dr. Marcy’sbest contribution to surgery, the importance ofwhich is appreciated by every aseptic operator.

The operations most generally accepted, of hisespecial teaching, are the closure of all aseptic

wounds in layers without drainage, and the recon-struction of the inguinal canal for the cure ofhernia, which latter operation was not possibleuntil the introduction of the buried suture.

Dr. Marcy participated in the Seventh Interna-tional Medical Congress, London, 1881, and waspresident of the section in gynecology, of theNinth International Medical Congress, Washing-ton, D. C., 1887; is a member of the AmericanMedical Association, vice-president in 1879, chair-man of the section in obstetrics in 1882, a memberof the judicial council iBB6-’B9, was elected presi-dent in 1891, and presided over the Detroit meet-ing, June, 1892; is a member of the AmericanAcademy of Medicine, president in 1884; also ofvarious other medical and scientific organizationsboth in Europe and in America.

The Wesleyan University conferred upon Dr.Marcy the honorary degree of LL. D., in 1887. In1884 he published, in two volumes, a translation ofthe works of Prof. G. B. Ercolani, of Bologna,Italy, upon the “ Reproductive Processes,” besideswhich he has published his own special studiesof the uterine mucosa during pregnancy. Duringthe past twenty years he has written extensivelyfor the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, An-nals of Anatomy and Surgery , Journal of theAmericanMedical Association, and other periodicals.His best-known publications are : “ Carbolized Cat-Gut Sutures (buried in the tissues,) for the Cureof Hernia,” 1871; “Fracture of the Patella,”1876; “Plastic Splints in Surgery,” 1877 ; “Cureof Hernia by the Antiseptic Use of Animal Su-tures,” 1878; “Aspiration of the Knee-Joint,”1879; “The Comparative Value of Germicides,”1880; “Histological Studies of the Developmentof the Osseous Callous in Man and Animals,”1881 ; “The Best Methods of Operative WoundTreatment,” “Fibroid Tumors of the Uterus,”their histology illustrated by many sections pro-jected upon the screen, annual address in obste-trics and gynecology, St. Paul, Minn., June,

1882, American Medical Association; “TheRelation of Micro-Organisms to Sanitar)- Science,”“The Restoration of the Perineum by a NewMethod,” 1883; “The Relation of Micro-Organ-isms to Surgical Lesions,” “The Role of Bacteriain Parturition,” “The Climatic Treatment of Dis-ease,” 1885 ; “The Histology and Surgical Treat-ment of Uterine Myoma,” president’s address, sec-tion on gynecology, Ninth International MedicalCongress, Washington, 1887; “The Climate ofthe Southern Appalachians,” Ninth InternationalMedical Congress, 1887; “The Surgical Advan-tages of the Buried Animal-Suture,” “The Peri-neum ; Its Anatomy, Physiology, and Methods ofRestoration after Injury,” 1888; “Chronic Inver-sion of the Uterus: Reduction by a New Method;”“Exploratory Laparotomy;” “General Treatise onHernia;” “The Animal-Suture: Its Place in Sur-gery;” “The Cure of Hemorrhoids by Excisionand Closure with the Buried Animal-Suture,” 1889;“The Surgical Treatment of Non-PedunculatedAbdominal Tumors,” “Surgical Relief for BiliaryObstruction,” “Plastic Surgery of the Pelvic Struc-tures,” Transactions of the Internationa] MedicalCongress, Berlin, 1890; “ The Scientific Rationaleof Modern Wound Treatment,” 1891 ; “Femoraland Ventral Hernia in Woman;” “Evolution ofMedicine,” president’s address before the AmericanMedical Association, Detroit, June, 1892; “In-guinal Hernia in the Male,” Transactions of theSouthern Surgical and Gynecological Association,Louisville, November, 1892; “The Anatomy andSurgical Treatment of Hernia,” large quarto, fullyillustrated, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1892;“The Reconstruction of the Pelvic Structures inWoman;” “The Surgical Treatment of InguinalHernia,” annual address delivered before the SouthCarolina State Medical Society, April, 1893 ; “Ven-tral Hernia following Laparotomy: Its Cause andMeans of Prevention;” “Analysis of One Hun-dred Thirty-six Cases of Hernia Operated on forthe Purpose of Radical Cure,” American Medical

Association, 1893; “In What Class of WoundsShall We Use Drainage ?” surgical section of theFirst Pan-American Medical Congress, Washing-ton, D. C., 1893 ; “Inguinal Hernia in the Mole,”address before the New York State Medical Asso-ciation, 1894; “Modern Wound Technique,” Mis-sissippi Valley Medical Association, Medical Record,March, 1895; “The Surgical Treatment of SpinaBifida,” Southern Surgical Association, The Armaisof Surgery, February, 1895.