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

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

, best known for his work in obstetrics, being described in American Medical Biographies as a "

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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 Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United Ki ...

and in 1806 an

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

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

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. 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) 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. Its ...

. {{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