PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 173 



to the subject of ophthalmic surgery, and accordingly he attended 

 with great diligence the clinics and didactic lectures of Desmarres, 

 but he found the attractions of general operative surgery too strong 

 to permit exclusive attention to this chosen branch, and he contin- 

 ually watched the operations, and listened to the lessons of such 

 surgeons as Nelaton, Civiale, Malgaigne, Jobert (de Lamballe), 

 Roux, and Velpeau. Moreover, the popular excitement which 

 preceded the coup d'etat of December 2, 1851, and the probability 

 of bloodshed, directed his attention to the subject of military surgery. 

 Already, November 4th, his note-book records a morning spent at 

 the library of l'Ecole de Medecine in the study of Baron Larrey's 

 " Memoire," with which he was so well pleased that he at once pur- 

 chased a copy for closer study. After the coup d'etat a considerable 

 number of those wounded at the barricades were carried to the 

 hospitals for treatment, and Otis was thus enabled to take his first 

 practical lessons in military surgery from Velpeau, Roux, and 

 Jobert (de Lamballe). 



Meanwhile, however, his diligence in medical studies did not 

 prevent him from spending many pleasant hours in the art galleries 

 and museums, where he found much to gratify his assthetic nature. 

 Moreover, he took a deep interest in the stirring panorama of French 

 politics, as is shown by a series of letters he took time to write to 

 the Boston Evening Transcript. 



In the spring of 1852 Otis returned to the United States, reaching 

 New York in the latter part of March. Immediately after his 

 return he established himself at Richmond, Virginia, where he 

 opened an office for general medical and surgical practice, and 

 where his tastes and ambition soon led him to embark in his earliest 

 enterprise in the domain of medical literature. In April, 1853, 

 he issued the first number of The Virginia Medical and Surgical 

 Journal. Dr. Howell L. Thomas, of Richmond, was associated 

 with him as co-editor, but the financial risk was assumed entirely 

 by Otis. The journal appeared monthly, each number containing 

 over eighty pages octavo, the whole forming two annual volumes, 

 commencing respectively with the numbers of April and October. 

 It was handsomely printed, and contained from time to time a fair 

 share of original articles, chiefly by physicians residing in Richmond 

 and other parts of Virginia ; but its most striking chax*acteristic 

 was the number of translations and abstracts from current French 

 medical literature which appeared in its pages. Dr. Thomas, like 



