William Potts Dewees

Dewees circa. 1833

William Potts Dewees (1768–1841) was an American physician, best known for his work in obstetrics.

Dewees received a Bachelor of Medicine and in 1806 an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he would become Professor of Obstetrics, and Chair of Obstetrics from 1834 to 1841. His fame comes mainly from three books published in quick succession in the mid-1820s, each of which went to at least ten editions: Comprehensive 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) 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)
• Comprehensive 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)

References

• Johann Hermann Baas; trans. Henry Ebenezer Handerson (1889). Outlines of the History of Medicine and the Medical Profession. J.H. Vail & Co.. pp. 1094–1095. http://books.google.com/?id=9e8IAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA1094. 
• "Bachelors of Medicine and Honorary M. D.'s of the University of Pennsylvania". The Alumni Register of the University of Pennsylvania: pp. 113–114. October 1900. http://books.google.com/books?id=nIwgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA113. 
• John Haller (1981). American Medicine in Transition 1840-1910. University of Illinois Press. pp. 153. ISBN 0252008065. 
• T. Gaillard Thomas (1876). "A Century of American Medicine: 1776-1876: III. Obstetrics and Gynaecology". The American Journal of the Medical Sciences (Charles B. Slack) 72: 133–170 (p. 140). http://books.google.com/?id=WQoCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA140. 

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.

Persondata
Name	Dewees, William Potts
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1768
Place of birth
Date of death	1841
Place of death