Elisha De Butts | |
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 portrait by Rembrandt Peale | |
| Born | 1773  |
| Died | 1831 (aged 57–58) |
Elisha DeButts (1773–1831) was an American physician.
DeButts, a physiologist and a founder of theUniversity of Maryland School of Medicine, was born inDublin, of a family among the "landed gentry," in 1773. His father, John De Butts, was an officer in the English army. In his youth his family emigrated to America and settled atSharpsburg in Western Maryland. He attended school nearAlexandria, where lived his uncle,Dr. Samuel De Butts, under whom he studied medicine. Later he entered Pennsylvania University and took his M. D. in 1805, the subject of his thesis being "An Inaugural Essay on the Eye and on Vision." After practicing for several years on thePotomac, opposite Alexandria, he settled inBaltimore and was appointed professor of chemistry in the College of Medicine of Maryland in 1809, and held it until his death. He also held the same chair inSt. Mary's College, Baltimore.
In 1821, DeButts was elected as a member to theAmerican Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.[1]
In 1830 he was sent to Europe by the Board of Trustees to procure chemical apparatus for the University. While abroad he lectured with great éclat before theRoyal Institution in London, a copy of his address being requested. He died April 3, 1831, of pneumonia, due to exposure in attending a friend to his door on a cold day in his slippers.
Professor De Butts was tall and spare, his health never robust, and he had a cast in one eye.
Besides his graduating thesis, only two short articles are known: "An Account of an Improvement made on theDifferential Thermometer ofMr. Leslie" (1814),Transactions of American Philosophical Society, 1818, pp. 301–306, with plate. "Description of Two New Voltaic Batteries."Silliman's Journal, viii. 1824, pp. 271–274.The Baltimore Federal Gazette mentions a highly important discovery in electricity made by him during the session of 1823-24.
His friend,Bishop Henshaw, of Rhode Island, wrote: "As a teacher of chemistry, whether we look at the learning and perspicuity of the lectures in which he inculcated the lessons and doctrines of philosophy or at the brilliancy and success of the experiments by which he illustrated them, he was perhaps, unequalled, certainly unexcelled."
Dr. De Butts had a son, John De Butts, who became a physician ofQueen Anne County, Maryland, and died in 1894. There are said to be several oil portraits of the father extant. One of these is reproduced in Cordell's "History of the University of Maryland," 1891 and 1907.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.| International | |
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