John H. Packard,
M.D.
John H. Packard,
M.D.,
one of the most prominent American surgeons of the
last part of the 19th Century and a pioneer of
modern American surgery, was born in Philadelphia in
1832. After graduating from the University of
Pennsylvania Medical School in 1853, he spent 1.5 yr
visiting the great Paris hospitals and another 18
months as a resident physician at the Philadelphia's
University Hospital. Until his retirement in 1896,
he practiced surgery in various Philadelphia
hospitals and taught surgery, pathology, and anatomy
at the medical school. He served as acting assistant
surgeon in two Union Army hospitals during the Civil
War. He founded or was an active member of many
prestigious medical, surgical, and pathological
societies, several of which still exist today.
Among Dr.
Packard's numerous publications, two popular
surgical textbooks stand out: A
Manual of Minor Surgery (1863),
15
adopted by the US Army, and a
Handbook of Operative Surgery (1870). Dr. Packard was the
chief editor of the first American edition of Holmes
System of Surgery
published in 1882.
