GIBSON, WILLIAM. 



GILLESPIE, WILLIAM M. 323 



reflecting as it did this disaffection, and teeming 

 with bitter complaints about the mismanage- 

 ment of certain royal functionaries, was treated 

 with the utmost severity^ so that the Schleswig- 

 Holstein papers declared they had met with 

 more lenity even during the most oppressive 

 period of the Danish regime. Appeals made 

 to the central Government in Berlin elicited 

 only vague promises, to the effect that a more 

 liberal course should be pursued in the future ; 

 and the earnest protests of the opposition mem- 

 bers in the Prussian Parliament bore no im- 

 mediate fruits. The whole number of prose- 

 cutions instituted for violations of the press 

 laws in Prussia, from the 1st of January to the 

 1st of July, 1868, was ninety-seven. Owing 

 to the heavy fines imposed by the courts upon 

 their editors and printers, seven papers were 

 compelled to suspend publication. 



In Mecklenburg-Schwerin, where the condi- 

 tion of the political press was the effect of the 

 oppressive laws adopted in the reactionary 

 period succeeding the revolutionary events of 

 1848 and 1849, the editors and publishers of the 

 daily papers called, in November, 1868, upon 

 the grand-duke, and requested him to in- 

 struct his Minister of Justice to prepare a more 

 liberal press code. They assured him that the 

 press laws prevailing in the grand-duchy were 

 even more oppressive than those of France, and 

 hardly more liberal than those of Kussia. No 

 satisfactory response was made to this appeal. 



In the German provinces of Austria, espe- 

 cially in Vienna, the press enjoys almost com- 

 plete liberty, only four journals having been 

 prosecuted for violations of the press laws in 

 the course of 1868. In Bohemia, however, 

 owing to the intense state of hostility prevail- 

 ing between the Czechs and German Bohe- 

 mians, the Austrian Government deemed it 

 necessary to prosecute most of the extreme 

 organs of the former with extraordinary vigor, 

 and the courts, especially those of Prague, not 

 only passed unusually severe sentences on a 

 number of prominent Bohemian editors, but 

 compelled several of the most influential Czech 

 organs to suspend publication. 



GIBSON, WILLIAM, M. D., LL. D., an emi- 

 nent American surgeon and author, born in 

 the city of Baltimore in 1788 ; died at Savan- 

 nah, Ga., March 2, 1868. His classical educa- 

 tion was obtained in St. John's College, An- 

 napolis, and the college of New Jersey, at 

 Princeton, and he graduated at the latter in 

 1806. He had already given some attention 'to 

 the study of medicine, having entered the office 

 of Dr. John Owen, of Baltimore. In 1806 he 

 went abroad, and continued his medical and 

 surgical studies in the University of Edinburgh, 

 enjoying the special instruction of Sir Charles 

 Bell. He received his medical diploma from 

 the university in 1809, and soon after pub- 

 lished the Latin thesis which he had defended 

 on that occasion. On his return he settled in 

 practice in Baltimore, and was one of the early 

 professors of surgery in the University of 



Maryland. In 1812 he took up the common 

 iliac artery, and rendered essential service in 

 the memorable Baltimore riots. He was fond 

 of military surgery, and managed to be present 

 at some very important battles in Europe, 

 especially at Corunna and at Waterloo. At 

 the latter he was slightly wounded. After his 

 return from this second visit to Europe he was 

 called to the chair of surgery in the University 

 of Pennsylvania, and for more than thirty 

 years filled that important post with great ac- 

 ceptance. He was a fine operator, and during 

 his long practice in Philadelphia had the op- 

 portunity of performing repeatedly all, or 

 nearly all, of the great operations of the 

 profession. Among others of them he per- 

 formed the Csesarean section twice on the 

 same woman, and both times with success- 

 ful result to mother and children. He made 

 frequent visits to Europe, and, having an 

 ample fortune, indulged in his fondness for 

 travel by visiting nearly every country of 

 Europe, and considerable portions of Asia and 

 Africa. After reaching the age of seventy he 

 retired from practice, and removed to New- 

 port, E. I., for a summer residence, usually 

 spending his winters in Savannah or its vicinity. 

 Dr. Gibson was the author of numerous works, 

 mostly professional, of which his " Principles 

 and Tractice of Surgery " is the most widely 

 known, having passed through many editions. 

 He also published, in 1841, a volume of "Ram- 

 bles in Europe in 1839," being sketches of 

 prominent surgeons; and in 1841 a lecture, 

 embracing a short account of eminent Belgian 

 surgeons and physicians. He had kept a daily 

 journal for over sixty years, and at the time of 

 his death it included about one hundred and 

 fifty volumes. 



GILLESPIE, WILLIAM MITCHELL, LL.D., 

 an American civil engineer, professor, and 

 author, born in New York City in 1816 ; died 

 there, January 1, 1868. He was a graduate of 

 Columbia College, in the class of 1834, and 

 after leaving college spent about ten years in 

 Europe, partly in the further prosecution of 

 his studies, and partly in extensive travel and 

 observation. During his residence in Europe 

 he was an occasional correspondent of some 

 of the New York daily papers, and his letters 

 were subsequently collected into a volume, with 

 the title " Rome, as seen by a New-Yorker in 

 1843-'44." He returned to New York in 1845, 

 an accomplished civil engineer, and his volume 

 entitled "Roads and Railroads," published 

 soon after his return, has become a work of 

 standard authority, and has passed through 

 numerous editions. He received and accepted 

 the appointment, in 1845, of Professor of Civil 

 Engineering in Union College, which he held 

 till his death. He was very popular as a pro- 

 fessor, and the care and research he bestowed 

 in perfecting his lectures and instructions were 

 never abated to the day of his death. In 1855 

 he published an admirable treatise on land-sur- 

 veying, which passed through a half-dozen 



