PRICE, JOSEPH. (1853-1911). Pioneering American abdominal and gynecological surgeon. ALS. (“Joseph Price”). 1p. 8vo. Philadelphia, January 1, 1896. Written on his personal stationery to a doctor.
“Your patient continues to do beautifully. It will give me great pleasure to visit you and help you with your cases. You must give me the choice of two days as I may be in Ohio one day. If you don’t want to do the hysterectomy, I will bring the outfit and you can make your choice of cases. Hunt up all you can find…”
Trained in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Price began his career as a surgeon aboard transatlantic passenger steamers but eventually joined the Philadelphia Dispensary and earned a reputation as one of the country’s foremost surgeons, pioneering advances in abdominal surgery that vastly increased the safety of surgical hysterectomies. “His surgical technique was of the simplest—with a board for a table top and a little fistful of instruments, he brilliantly executed the most difficult abdominal operations… Price never held any regular collegiate teaching position, and yet he taught more men how to do abdominal and pelvic operations and had more grateful followers than any other man in America. His kindness to the poor, and a supreme indifference to the bondage of office hours… kept him from accumulating a substantial bank account,” (American Medical Biographies, Kelly and Burrage). He founded the Philadelphia Gynecean Hospital and served as president of the American Association of Gynecologists in 1895, before which body he presented numerous papers on surgical techniques.
Folded and in very fine condition; scarce.
