William Potts Dewees (May 5, 1768 – May 18, 1841) was an American

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

, best known for his work in

obstetrics Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a su ...

, being described in American Medical Biographies as a "

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

n obstetrician

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was so famous that no parturient woman of the time considered herself safe in other hands." Dewees received a

Bachelor of Medicine A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (; MBBS, also abbreviated as BM BS, MB ChB, MB BCh, or MB BChir) is a medical degree granted by medical schools or universities in countries that adhere to the United Kingdom's higher education tradi ...

and in 1806 an

M.D. A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of physician. This ge ...

from the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he would become Professor of Obstetrics, and Chair of Obstetrics from 1834 to 1841. In 1819, Dewees was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. His fame comes mainly from three books published in quick succession in the mid-1820s, each of which went to at least ten editions: ''Compendious System of Midwifery'' (1824), ''Treatise on the Physical and Medical Treatment of Children'' (1825), and ''Treatise on the Diseases of Females'' (1826). Of these, the ''System of Midwifery'' had the most lasting influence, introducing ideas from British and continental European physicians (especially

Jean-Louis Baudelocque Jean-Louis Baudelocque (30 November 1745 – 2 May 1810) was a French obstetrician who studied and practiced medicine in Paris. He was born in Heilly, in the French region of Picardy. Baudelocque is known for making obstetrics a scientific disci ...

) and becoming the standard reference on obstetrics in the United States for a time.

Works

''An essay on the means of lessening pain, and facilitating certain cases of difficult parturition'' (1806)
* ''Compendious System of Midwifery'' (1824) * ''Treatise on the Physical and Medical Treatment of Children'' (1825)
''Treatise on the Diseases of Females'' (1826)
* ''Practice of Medicine'' (1830)

Notes

References

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External links

Hodge, Hugh L. ''An eulogium on William P. Dewees, M.D: delivered before the medical students of the University of Pennsylvania, November 5, 1842'', (1842)
From the Digital Collections of the

National Library of Medicine The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. I ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dewees, William Potts 1768 births 1841 deaths American obstetricians American medical writers American male non-fiction writers Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni Physicians from Pennsylvania