John Thomas Metcalfe, M.D.
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U. S. Military Academy, July 1839,
2nd Lieut. Resigned May 31, 1840.
Dr. Metcalfe, who died of old age on
January 30, at his home in Thomasville, Ga., was for many years one of
New York's most noted physicians. The son of a physician, he was born in
Natchez, Miss., on July io, 1818, and was
educated at West Point, where he was
graduated in 1838.
He was, for a time, Lieutenant in the
Artillery Service, but was soon transferred to the Ordnance Department.
He resigned from the army in 1840, and began the study of medicine at
the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, from which he was graduated
in 1844. After graduation he studied in the schools of Dublin,
Edinburgh, Vienna, and Paris, and then returned to practiced his
profession in this city.
He was the first of a line of
Southerners who have contributed so largely to the medical forum of New
York. For many years he was in partnership with Dr. T. G. Thomas;
afterward with Dr. William M. Polk, and still later with Dr. J. S. Ward.
He was prominent as a teacher and expounder of medicine in college and
medical society. He lectured for many years at the College of Physicians
and Surgeons, and to the end held the post of emeritus professor of
clinical medicine there. He was consulting physician to Roosevelt,
Bellevue, St. Luke's and the Woman's hospitals, the Orthopedic
Dispensary, and the Hospital for the Relief of the Ruptured and
Crippled. He was an active member of many medical societies, among which
may be mentioned the New York Medical and Surgical Society, the County
Medical Society, the New York Society for the Relief of Widows and
Orphans of Medical Men, the New York Pathological Society, the Academy
of Medicine, and the Medical Journal Association of the City of New
York. He was one of the earliest members of the academy and gave to it
his large and valuable library upon his retirement from practice about
fifteen years ago. The portrait of him at the academy was presented by
Dr. Thomas, his former associate.
U. S. Military Acad., July 1838—2nd
Lieut. Resigned May 31, 1840, M. D. Univ. of Pa., 1843, Attg. Phys. to
Bell. Hosp. from 1847 to 1859; to N. Y. Hosp. for Lying-in Women from
1850 to 1860 ; to N. Y. City Hosp., 1857. Consulting Phys. to Bell.
Hosp. since 1859 ; to N. Y. Deaf and Dumb Inst. since 1851 ; to St.
Luke's Hosp. since 1853; to Child's Nursery and Hosp., from 1855 to
1860; to Stranger's and Roosevelt Hospitals ; to the N. Y. Inst for
Ruptured and Cripples, and to the Orthop. Disp., N. Y. Prof. Inst. and
Pract. Med. in Med. Dept. Univ. City of N. Y. from 1854 to 1866. Prof.
of Clinical Med. in Coll. Phys. and Surg.
(The personal edited research
notes of Michael Echols, the source of which may or
may not be completely documented)
