“During the early years of dermatology a century ago, many of the physicians who contributed to its growth were general practitioners or even specialists form other fields. Although their interest in cutaneous medicine was often limited, their influence could be considerable. Such was the case of Francis Fontaine Maury, a Philadelphia surgeon.”

 CUTIS Vol. 6 No. 1 January 1970Lawrence Charles Parish, MD

Dr. Frank Fontaine Maury• Pioneer teacher of Dermatology in

Philadelphia• Born in Danville, Kentucky on August 9,

1840• Lived on a farm near Danville, the son of

Eliza Chipman of Vermont and an Episcopal clergyman Matthew Fontaine Maury from Virginia (a descendant of a noble Huguenot family)

• B.A. Degree Centre College, Kentucky in June 1860; in fall of 1861 entered the study of medicine at the University of Virginia

• Completed his medical course at Jefferson Medical College in 1862

• Married to Katherine Ingersoll in 1868• Katherine died in 1879, only nine weeks

before Dr. Maury’s death at 39, leaving two boys ages 9 and 10

• Early member of the American Dermatological Association

• Pathological Society of Philadelphia--1865

• College of Physicians of Philadelphia--1866

• Academy of Natural Sciences--1868

• Philadelphia County Medical Society—1877

• Consulting Surgeon to the State Hospital for Women and Children

• Surgeon to the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry

• Appointed surgeon to the Philadelphia Hospital at 26 years old following the retirement of Professor Samuel D. Gross

• Dermatology Instructor (Lecturer in Venereal and Cutaneous Diseases) at Jefferson Medical College but did not regard himself as a dermatologist (dermatology in 1866 was not a recognized specialty); primarily a surgeon and general practitioner

Noted cases and accomplishments

• According to Dr. Samuel Gross (Maury’s surgical assistant) Maury was as “cool and dexterous in execution as he was sound in judgment” and “Possessed of indomitable energy, of powers of close observation, and of a retentive memory.”

• First American gastrotomy on June 25, 1869 on a man dying from a syphilitic esophageal stricture (the tenth recorded case)

• Excised the left brachial plexus to relieve suffering from multiple neuromata of old Davy the janitor in October 1873 and reported with Dr. Louis A. Duhring

• Reported in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences (with C.W. Dulles) a series of cases on “Kelly the Bum” a tramp and professional tattooer who had infected large numbers of men by mixing his pigments with his saliva as he injected them under the skin during his decorative efforts “Tattooing as a Means of Communicating Syphilis”

• Mentor of Duhring, who later is considered the foremost dermatologist in Philadelphia

• Co-editor (with Duhring) of the Photographic Review of Medicine and Surgery in 1870-1872 which was a unique venture in medical journalism but was too expensive

“It should not make the slightest difference to you whether your patient is rich or poor; a sick

person deserves all the consideration and kindness that you can possibly give him, and if

poor he needs it all the more.” 

Francis Fontaine Maury

References

• Memoir of Francis F. Maury, M.D. by Samuel W. Gross read before the Philadelphia County Medical Society February 18, 1880

• Dr. F.F. Maury: Pioneer Teacher of Dermatology in Philadelphia by Reuben Friedman, MD Journal of the Philadelphia General Hospital January 1952

• Dictionary of American Medical Biography by Kelly and Barrage 1928

• Lawrence Parish, MDCUTIS Vol. 6 No. 1 January 1970