1918.1 NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 127' 



DOCTOR DIXON'S WORK IN SANITARY SCIENCE. 



BY B. FRANKLIN ROYER, M.D. 



Acting Commissioner of Health, Commonwealth of Pennsj-lvania. 



The foundation of Samuel Gibson Dixon's unprecedented accom- 

 plishments in sanitary science was laid the day he took up the study 

 of laAV in the offices of his brother, Edwin Saunders Dixon; and 

 the erection of the superstructure began with his matriculation in 

 the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania. It was 

 probably because of his scientific bent of mind and his interest in 

 chemistry and in physiological processes, in good part brought 

 about by a break in health and search for recovery in 1881, that he 

 gave up law and studied medicine. So far as his intimate friends 

 in the medical class of 1886 know, he did not, as a student, give 

 any indication, either that he was especially qualifjdng for or antici- 

 pating a career in preventive medicine. While a student, however, 

 he, did show unusual interest in chemistry and in the scientific side 

 of physiology' and before the completion of his course he had received 

 an appointment from the University Trustees as Assistant Demon- 

 strator in Physiology, the main chair being so ably filled by the late 

 Harrii-on AKen. Throughout his life Dr. Dixon repeatedly referred 

 to this pleasant association and to the stimulation for research work 

 given him by his early master in physiology. 



The major Medical Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania 

 during the years when Dr. Dixon was a student (1882-1886) included 

 a number of intellectual giants. The Professors in 1885 and 1886 as 

 listed in the annual catalogue of the School of Medicine were as follows :: 



Alfred Stille, M.D., LL.D., Emeritus Professor of Theory and 



Practice of Medicine. 

 Harrison Allen, M.D., Emeritus Professor of Physiology. 

 Joseph Leidy, M.D., LL.D., Professor of Anatomy. 

 Richard A. F. Penro.se, M.D., LL.D., Professor of Obstetrics and 



Diseases of Women and Children. 

 D. Hayes Agnew, ALD., LL.D., John Rea Barton Professor of Surgery 



and Professor of Clinical Surgery. 

 William Pepper, M.D., LL.D., Professor of Theory and Practice of 



Medicine and Professor of Clinical Medicine. 

 William Goodell, M.D., Professor of Clinical Gynecology. 

 James Tyson, M.D., Professor of General Pathology and Morbid 



Anatomy. 

 Horatio C. W^ood, M.D., LL.D., Professor of Materia Medica, 



Pharmacy and General Therapeutics. 

 Theodore G. Wormley, M.D., LL.D., Professor of Chemistry and 



Toxicology. 

 John Ashhurst, M.D., Professor of Clinical Surgery. 

 William Osler, M.D., Professor of Clinical Medicine. 



