Reuben Dimond Mussey | |
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| Born | June 23, 1780 |
| Died | June 21, 1866 |
| Occupation(s) | Physician, writer |
Reuben Dimond Mussey, Sr. (June 23, 1780 – June 21, 1866) was an Americanphysician, surgeon,vegetarian and an early opponent oftobacco. He was the fourth president of theAmerican Medical Association.[1]
Mussey was born on June 23, 1780, inRockingham County, New Hampshire.[2] He was ofFrench Huguenot descent, and his father, John Mussey, was also a medical doctor. Mussey studied atDartmouth College and then learned medicine underNathan Smith. He began the practice of medicine inEssex County, Massachusetts. However, he then went to theUniversity of Pennsylvania School of Medicine where he did further medical studies, graduating M.D. in 1809.[2][3] Among his professors at the University of Pennsylvania wasBenjamin Rush. Mussey was elected an Associate Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1811.[4]
He then was a professor at the medical school at Dartmouth College and also atMiddlebury College, as well as serving as a medical lecturer at other institutions. Mussey is credited as the first surgeon to tie bothcarotid arteries in 1829.[5][6] He lectured on anatomy and surgery atBowdoin College (1831–1835) andFairfield Academy (1836–1838).[2] He was professor of surgery at theMedical College of Ohio (1838–1852) and was chair of surgery at Miami Medical College inCincinnati (1852–1857).[2]
Mussey was an advocate of thetemperance movement.[7] In 1828, a temperance society was founded at Dartmouth. In 1850 he served as president of theAmerican Medical Association.[2]
He was awarded anLL.D from Dartmouth in 1854 and an honoraryA. M. in 1806 fromHarvard University.[8]
Mussey died on June 21, 1866, inBoston.[9]
His sonReuben D. Mussey, Jr. was a lawyer and the husband ofEllen Spencer Mussey, the founder of the first law school for females.
Mussey and his first wife Mary Sewall did not have any children. After her death he married Herry Osgood, and they had nine children.[2] Besides Reuben Jr., there was alsoWilliam H. Mussey and Francis B. Mussey who both followed their father into the medical profession.Charles F. Mussey became a Presbyterian minister. Mussey's daughter Maria marriedLyman Mason, and his daughter Catharine marriedShattuck Hartwell.
Mussey was a vegetarian who abstained fromalcohol and tobacco.[2][10] In 1832, Mussey "gave up the eating of flesh as an experiment", he did not eat the flesh of land animals for the rest of his life but occasionally consumed fish in 1850.[11] He was a frequent contributor toWilliam Alcott's vegetarian journalLibrary of Health.[12] His 1862 bookHealth: Its Friends and Foes included chapters on vegetarianism and on the dangers of tobacco.[13] It was positively reviewed in theCincinnati Lancet and Observer andThe New England Journal of Medicine.[14][15]
Mussey was a founding member and vice-president of theAmerican Vegetarian Society in the 1850s.[16]
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