Richard Hickman Harte / [Astley Paston Cooper Ashhurst].

  • Ashhurst, Astley Paston Cooper, 1876-1932.
Date:
[1929]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Richard Hickman Harte / [Astley Paston Cooper Ashhurst]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ROY MOOiME COLLECTION. Reprint f rom , SURGERY, GYNECOLOGY AND OBSTETRICS January, 1929, pages 135-137 RICHARD HICKMAN HARTE1 By ASTLEY P. C. ASHHURST, M.D., F.A.C.S., Philadelphia RICHARD HICKMAN HARTE was born in Rock Island, Illinois, October 23, 1855. He passed his entire professional life in Philadelphia and died, November 14, 1925, at Vicksburg, Mississippi. Dr. Harte was graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1878, and received his early training in surgery in the Uni¬ versity Hospital as assistant to Agnew and to Ashhurst; and later in the Penn¬ sylvania Hospital, where he became a surgical chief in 1893. He also served as surgeon to the Episcopal Hospital (1889-1904), to St. Mary’s Hospital (1893- 1899), and to the Orthopaedic Hospital (1904-1914). Possessed of an ample fortune, Dr. Harte may be said to have practiced his profession as Johann Sebastian Bach wrote music, “for the glory of God and for a pleasant occupation.” He never had a very large private practice, but delighted in his work in the hospital wards, paying particular attention to the old, the helpless, and the miserable, especially to those unfortunates whose sojourn is long in the dreary dwellings which border on the shades of death. Though never of very robust physique himself, he radiated an atmosphere of cheerfulness and hope among his patients and they cherished his visits and appreciated his neatness and gentleness in dressing their wounds more than his operative skill, of which they knew nothing. Between the ages of 50 and 60 years, Dr. Harte gradually withdrew from practice and resigned, one after another, all of his hospital appointments except that of surgeon to the Pennsylvania Hospital. Elected a Fellow of the American Surgical Association in 1895, he soon be¬ came an active and interested member, rarely missing the annual meetings and contributing a number of valuable papers to its Transactions. From 1900 to 1909, he served as recorder, until his election as president of the association in 1910. Of Dr. Harte’s war service, it is impossible to speak adequately. Feeling very strongly the call of duty to assist the Allies, he left his home and his many engagements in this country early in 1916, and served for many months in the American Hospital at Neuilly-sur-Seine (Paris). Returning to Philadelphia in ^akenfrom the article entitled, “In Memoriam. Richard H. Harte, M.D., C.M.G., Hon. F.R.C.S. (Ire.) 1855-1925. ’ By Astley P. C. Ashhurst, M.D. Transactions of the American Surgical Association, 1926.