BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR 
OP 
WILLIAM W. GERHARD, M.D. 
BEAD BEPOBE THE 
COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF PHILADELPHIA, 
MAY 6, 1874. 
BY 
THOMAS STEWARDSON, M.D. 
PHILADELPHIA: 
COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET. 
1874. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR 
OF 
WILLIAM W. GERHARD, M.D 
BEAD BEFORE THE 
COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF PHILADELPHIA, 
MAY 6, 1874. 
BY 
THOMAS STEWARDSON", M.D. 
PHILADELPHIA: 
COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET. 
1874. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. 
Dr. William W. Gerhard was born in Philadelphia on the 23d of 
July, 1809. His great-grandfather, Frederick Gerhard, had emigrated to 
this country from Hesse Darmstadt in the year 1737, and settled in Berks 
County in this State. Educated by his parents in the tenets of the 
German Reformed Church, he in the year 1745 joined the Moravians, 
numbers of whom were settled in that part of Pennsylvania. From Berks 
County his son Conrad removed to Philadelphia, and here William Ger- 
hard, the father of the doctor, was born in 1774. In the year 1808, he 
was married to Sarah Wood, of Salem County, New Jersey, who, like 
her husband, was educated in the Moravian Church, but was not of 
German descent, her ancestors on the mother’s side belonging to the Gill 
family, w7ho had emigrated from the north of Ireland. Their first child, 
the subject of this notice, was born, as above mentioned, in 1809. 
From his earliest years, Dr. Gerhard appears to have possessed a re- 
markable love of books, as illustrative of which, the following anecdote 
has been communicated to me by a member of the family. One day he 
was missing at the dinner hour, and search was made for him through the 
house, but in vain. At last, some one went into an unoccupied room, 
where there was a closet filled with old books, and found him stretched 
out at length on the top shelf, absorbed in reading to such a degree, that 
he had heard nothing of the dinner bell or the repeated calls for him. I 
am also informed that he used to enjoy reading the works of Josephus at 
so early an age, that the large folio edition which he used had to be 
placed on a sofa, which served as a table, whilst he sat on a little chair 
in front. 
In the year 1823 he went to Dickinson College, Carlisle, in this State, 
where he graduated in 1826. During his college life, he was noted as a 
laborious and industrious student. After completing his college course, 
he returned to Philadelphia, where he commenced the study of medicine 
under the direction of Dr. Joseph Parrish, and graduated at the University 
of Pennsylvania in the spring of 1832. The subject of his inaugural thesis 
was the endermic application of medicines, a subject to which attention 4 
had been recently directed by Lembert and Lesieur, of Paris. The mate- 
rials for this essay had been collected by Dr. Gerhard in the Philadelphia 
Almshouse, to the service of which he had been attached as resident for 
some time previous to his graduation. In this, his first essay, was fore- 
shadowed his future career. Instead of general disquisition and loose 
assertion we have here the rigid analysis of a considerable body of facts, care- 
fully observed and recorded. From this analysis is derived a cautious and 
discriminating estimate of the amount and kind of influence produced upon 
the general system by various remedies when applied to blistered surfaces. 
The value of this essay, in which the experiments of Lembert were repeated 
and confirmed, was at once acknowledged, and the attention of the profes- 
sion in this country attracted to a subject of great practical importance. 
After taking his medical degree, Dr. Gerhard still continued to devote 
his time to the observation of disease in the Philadelphia Hospital, and in 
the spring of 1831 repaired to Paris, in order to take advantage of the 
extensive facilities there offered for the pursuit of his profession. 
At that time Broussais was still living, and occupied the chair of 
general pathology and therapeutics in the faculty of medicine, but he was 
lecturing to almost empty benches. It was sad to see the man whose 
genius had so largely influenced medical opinion and practice, whose en- 
thusiasm and impassioned address had but a few years before attracted 
crowds of attendants, now condemned when he entered the lecture-room to 
see the benches vacated, and again, towards the close of his lecture, reoc- 
cupied by those who came to listen to the gentleman who was to succeed 
him. Nor was this the result of any failure in mental or bodily energy, 
as is abundantly proved by the fact, that a few years afterwards he again 
for a short time attracted immense crowds, when a fresh field was opened 
to him for the exercise of his wonted powers. But in the field of general 
medical pathology, he met with no responsive enthusiasm among his 
audience, who no longer felt an interest in the exposition of his views 
upon an exclusive system of doctrine, which at last entirely dominated his 
mind ; a doctrine which was a pure conception of his intellect, based upon 
a priori reasoning, and incapable of demonstration. Nevertheless, 
Broussais had largely contributed to the formation of the then existing 
state of the medical mind. Fully appreciating the important bearing 
which the discoveries of his contemporary Bichat must have in the domain 
of pathology, he laid great stress upon the study of local lesions and the 
just interpretation of symptoms as associated with them. By his impas- 
sioned address, his sarcasm and invective, he gave force to his aggressive 
onslaught upon the doctrines of the day, aroused the medical mind, and 
opened fresh channels of thought. To this warfare, he brought, not so 
much great erudition, as the force of original genius, operating upon 
materials which he had accumulated during many years of active devotion 
to the sick in army hospitals, both in Germany and Spain, during the wars 5 
of Napoleon. The result was that the medical men of Paris, at the period 
of which we are speaking, whilst they felt obliged to discard the exclusive 
system of doctrine which he maintained, perceived, nevertheless, that for 
the determination of the questions which had been raised, it was necessary 
to institute a fresh and impartial examination of facts. Hence had arisen, 
at the period when Dr. Gerhard resorted to the Paris schools, a number 
of careful and conscientious observers, who in the Paris Hospitals were 
devoted to the most careful observation of disease at the bedside, as well 
as its results in the dissecting-room ; content in this way to determine such 
points as could be rigidly deduced from slowly accumulated facts, without 
attempting to launch out into general hypotheses. Among the men who 
were most prominent in this movement in the deparment of pure medicine, 
were Chomel, Andral, and Louis. To the teachings of these men, 
particularly the latter, Dr. Gerhard especially devoted himself; teach- 
ings, to which the practical tendencies of his own mind gave a ready 
and cordial response. The lessons to which he particularly listened were 
clinical, to the exclusion of general lectures. Indeed, he spent a number 
of hours daily in the hospitals, training himself to the observation of 
disease, under the direction of the most able guides. But besides listening 
to the instruction of others, he laboured assiduously in collecting mate- 
rials by which he might himself benefit science. The first-fruits of this 
labour was the publication, in conjunction with Dr. Pennock, of observa- 
tions upon the Asiatic cholera as it appeared in Paris in 1832. After 
the disappearance of this terrible epidemic, he confined himself almost ex- 
clusively to the hospital for sick children, which contained upwards of 
500 beds, the patients ranging from two to sixteen years of age. Here 
he accumulated material for a series of interesting papers, the publication 
of which was commenced whilst still residing in Paris, but not completed 
till some time after his return. The first of these essays contains a most 
minute description of a number of fatal cases of smallpox, which afforded 
him an opportunity of studying its morbid anatomy, to which subject he 
was ever especially devoted. The morbid anatomy of the diseases of child- 
hood had at this time been less extensively explored than that of adults, 
and hence afforded a richer field for investigation. Thus he found that 
inflammation of the glands of I’eyer, which at this time was the subject of 
much discussion as the peculiar lesion of typhoid fever, occasionally ex- 
isted in children in association with affections of an entirely different 
character. 
Another of these essays was on the cerebral affections of children ; and 
here, in his preliminary remarks, he insists upon the importance of ridding 
the mind, as much as possible, of preconceived opinions. Such was his 
desire for impartial observation, that he not only avoided, as he tells us, 
the examination of books, but even abstained from the comparison of his 
own observations with each other, until the series was completed, and he 6 
was prepared to analyze them, and then compare the results with what 
had been related by others. I mention the above to show his great caution 
in arriving at conclusions, and his conscientious endeavour to search after 
truth. But I will not weary you by going over familiar ground, and 
noticing in detail his views upon the proper method of study in medicine, 
which were, in fact, those of M. Louis. 
As a result of careful observation and analysis of all the cases of cere- 
bral affection, in both the boys’ and girls’ wards of the Children’s Hospital, 
which occurred during a certain period, he succeeded in establishing the 
connection between one form, and that by far the most common one, of 
the meningitis of children, and the deposit of tuberculous matter in the 
pia mater. This disease has been since known as tuberculous meningitis, 
and includes a large proportion of the cases previously described under 
the general term of hydrocephalus. It may not be amiss here to observe, 
that, whilst establishing the fact of the tuberculous character of the dis- 
ease, he leaves it an open question whether the tuberculous deposit was 
the cause or the consequence of the meningeal inflammation. 
The last of his essays, based upon his observations at the Children’s 
Hospital in Paris, was that upon the pneumonia of children. In this 
essay he contributed largely towards establishing the distinctive characters 
of this disease as compared with that of adults. He describes with great 
accuracy the post-mortem appearances, so different from those in adults; 
its symptoms, course, etc.; and shows, conclusively, how widely it differs 
in many important features from the pneumonia of later life. This is 
now so well recognized that the affection continues to be known as lobular 
pneumonia. 
In the fall of 1833 he returned to Philadelphia; and such was his 
ardour in the pursuit of his favourite studies that, instead of entering 
upon the practice of his profession, he applied for the position of resident- 
physician at the Pennsylvania Hospital, to which he was elected in the 
spring of 1834 
Having studied with great care the typhoid fever of Paris, he was 
anxious to determine, what was then a matter of much interest, whether 
the typhoid fever of our own country presented the same anatomical cha- 
racteristics, which had been so clearly determined by M. Louis as belonging 
to the former. Accordingly, after carefully studying the cases of fever 
presented to his notice in the Pennsylvania Hospital, he published the 
results ; clearly establishing the fact that our common continued fever 
was identical with that which prevailed in Paris, both in symptoms and 
post-mortem appearances. At the same time he pointed out the absence, 
in our remittent fevers, of the peculiar anatomical characteristic of typhoid 
fever, viz., disease of the glands of Peyer. During the next tw'o years, 
viz., 1835 and 1836, he published a number of papers, containing reports 
of cases, with the results of his observations on various diseases, particu- larly in reference to their morbid anatomy. He also published at this 
time a short essay on the importance of clinical instruction, to the estab- 
lishment of which, in this country, as a regular branch of medical educa- 
tion, he devoted much of his time and energy. I should mention that 
this, as well as all the essays previously noticed, was published in the 
American Journal of the Medical Sciences, so long and ably edited in 
this city by Dr. Hays. In this year, also, he published in a small octavo 
volume a treatise on the diagnosis of diseases of the chest, a subject to 
which he had devoted especial attention ; having in Paris rendered himself 
perfectly familiar with auscultation and physical exploration, which, at 
the time of his return to Philadelphia, was but just beginning to command 
the attention of the profession generally, although Prof. Samuel Jackson 
had for some years previously urged it upon their notice. To facilitate 
the study of the physical signs was the principal object of this treatise, by 
presenting to the American public a condensed view of what was then 
known in reference to the physical exploration of the chest, including 
wiiat he had gathered in the Parisian hospitals, as well as some original 
matter. 
His next, and, perhaps, the most important paper which has proceeded 
from his pen, was on the typhus fever which prevailed in Philadelphia in 
the spring and summer of 1836. To understand the value of this paper, 
at that time, it must be recollected that the diagnosis of fevers, and espe- 
cially the continued fevers, was not then determined with the precision 
which at present obtains. At that time, indeed, typhoid fever, as described 
by Louis and Chomel, was the only one whose history had been given 
with the precision and completeness which the advanced science of the day 
required. The ordinary typhus of Great Britain and Ireland did not, in 
the majority of cases, present the peculiar anatomical lesions of typhoid 
fever as described by Louis ; and, when they were found, the affection was 
regarded by most English physicians at that time, as a mere modification 
or complication of their ordinary typhus. This typhus Dr. Gerhard had 
had an opportunity of observing, for a short time, on a visit to Edinburgh. 
Under these circumstances it was very gratifying to him to be able to 
observe an epidemic of fever which appeared identical with English typhus, 
and that in so large a number as two hundred cases. Having by previous 
observations, corroborated by those of others, particularly Dr. Jackson of 
Boston, satisfied himself of the identity of our ordinary continued fever 
with the typhoid fever of Paris, he now felt warranted in announcing that 
the present epidemic was no mere modification of it, but a distinct dis- 
ease; distinct not merely in the absence of the anatomical lesions of 
typhoid fever, but by presenting positive features, in its symptoms and 
other points of its history, which clearly entitled it to take rank as a dis- 
tinct disease. We see clearly then that this paper did much towards the 
settlement of a then very interesting and much agitated question. 8 
In this same paper, also, he informs us that further observations had 
confirmed what he had previously announced in reference to remittent 
fever, viz., that in this affection the glands of Peyer were not the subject 
of any lesion ; and at the same time expresses the belief that the anatomi- 
cal characters of remittent fever are to be looked for in the spleen, liver, 
and stomach. The epidemic of typhus fever above mentioned persisted 
with more or less severity for several years, as we learn from a report, in 
the first number of the Medical Examiner, of a clinical lecture delivered 
at the Blockley Hospital in December, 1837. In this lecture Dr Gerhard 
alludes to the fact that his account of the disease had been admitted by 
English and Irish physicians, particularly Dr. Graves, of Dublin, as 
accurately descriptive of the disease as it occurs in England and Ireland. 
This admission shows the wide applicability of the conclusions arrived at 
by Dr. Gerhard, and their important bearing on the settlement of the 
general question of the essential distinction between typhus and typhoid 
fevers. 
The publication of the Medical Examiner, in which the above lectfire 
was reported, was commenced in January, 1838, Dr. Gerhard being one of 
its editors ; and here, for a number of years, were reported his clinical lec- 
tures, as well as those of other gentlemen connected with the Philadel- 
phia and Pennsylvania Hospitals. In this year, also, Dr. Gerhard was 
appointed assistant to Dr. Jackson in the University of Pennsylvania, for 
the purpose of relieving the latter in his duties as clinical lecturer at the 
Philadelphia Hospital. From this time forth, most of Dr. Gerhard’s 
contributions to science appeared in the form of reports of his clinical lec- 
tures, which afforded him an opportunity of presenting, from time to time, 
additional evidence of the correctness of his views upon points already 
alluded to, as well as of promulgating whatever facts might present them- 
selves to his notice, bearing upon topics of interest. In fact, for the 
remainder of his life, his time was principally occupied in private practice 
and clinical instruction. As a clinical teacher, he was remarkably success- 
ful, and exerted a powerful and commanding influence. Without any pre- 
tension to eloquence, he nevertheless riveted the attention of his hearers, 
and stimulated their enthusiasm. Himself deeply interested in his subject, 
he communicated this interest to his audience, by the sheer force of truth. 
Students saw that truth was his object, not display ; the advancement of 
science, and not the gratification of personal feelings, whether of vanity 
or ambition ; in short, that in his mind, a deep interest in his subject, and 
a thorough conscientiousness in the pursuit of it, were the over-mastering 
motives. In an easy and conversational style, he presented to his hearers 
a graphic portraiture of the case before them, bringing into relief its most 
important symptoms ; impressing upon their minds the most striking fea- 
tures in its history; pointing out, by a few clear and practical expressions, 
the bearing of any particular fact upon interesting medical questions, but 9 
avoiding long and laboured arguments, or general disquisitions upon the 
nature of diseased action. He neither stimulated the fancy by the flowers 
of rhetoric, nor amused the intellect with episodes upon theoretical ques- 
tions, but confined himself to drawing such practical conclusions as were 
clearly deducible from the facts presented. No man of his day enjoyed so 
high a reputation as a clinical teacher, and not only did he succeed in an 
eminent degree in arousing the enthusiasm of students and putting them in 
sympathy with himself, by infusing into them his own ardour in his favourite 
study ; but he produced an influence upon the profession here, which is felt 
still, which has fostered the establishment of clinical teaching among us, 
and done much to give it that rank which it now occupies here as a branch 
of medical instruction. So highly were his services appreciated by his 
pupils that, in the spring of 1840, a portion of the medical class of the 
University of Pennsylvania, who had attended his lectures at the Philadel- 
phia Hospital, presented to him a series of resolutions adopted at a meet- 
ing held for the purpose, in which, after expressing their high estimate of 
the value of clinical instruction, they compliment the Doctor upon his 
eminent qualifications for imparting such instruction, and particularly upon 
his truly scientific and practical manner of elucidating disease. They con- 
clude by expressing their sense of “his unequalled skill in illustrating the 
diseases of the thoracic organs.” Doctor Gerhard had indeed devoted 
especial attention to diseases of the chest, and besides his general reputa- 
tion as a diagnostician, his opinion was regarded as of particular value in 
those diseases. He had early devoted h:mself to the study of auscultation, 
and having naturally a very delicate and accurate ear, he acquired great 
skill in its application. This, added to his great and almost intuitive per- 
ception of the value of symptoms, justly entitled him to a reputation, which 
he maintained throughout life, for especial skill in the diagnosis and man- 
agement of diseases of the chest. 
Upon the institution of the Pathological Society of Philadelphia in 1838, 
Dr. Gerhard was, by common consent, chosen as its president. This cir- 
cumstance clearly shows the commanding position which he held among 
his associates, as a pathological anatomist. 
In 1842 he published a work on the diagnosis, pathology, and treat- 
ment of diseases of the chest, which was so highly esteemed that it reached 
a fourth edition in 1860. 
In the early part of 1831, he suffered from a very severe attack of typhoid 
fever, contracted at a time when his constitution was debilitated by his 
long-continued and arduous labours in the Philadelphia Hospital. In the 
winter of 1843-4, his health was still further impaired by another attack 
of illness which left him with a slight loss of power in the lower limb of 
one side, from which he never entirely recovered, and which he was him- 
self inclined to believe was the consequence of a slight apoplectic effusion. 
By this last attack, his general health suffered so much, that it was deemed 10 
advisable for him to make a trip to Europe, which he accordingly did in 
the summer of 1844. After an absence of some months he returned to 
Philadelphia with health much improved, and resumed the active duties of 
his profession, both as clinical lecturer and private practitioner and teacher. 
His lectures, which in one form or other were continued by him till near 
the close of his life, were delivered partly at the Philadelphia, and partly 
at the Pennsylvania Hospital, or else in the University building itself, in 
connection with its dispensary clinic. These clinics were first adopted by 
the University in the year 1841, and conducted under its auspices, by Dr. 
Gerhard and Dr. Wm. P. Johnston, in the building of the Medical Insti- 
tute, but at the expiration of two years were transferred to the University 
building, and carried on under the immediate supervision of the professors, 
with the assistance of the gentlemen just mentioned, as we learn from Dr. 
Carson’s complete and elaborate history of that institution. 
His connection with the Pennsylvania Hospital, above alluded to, com- 
menced in the year 1846, when he was elected one of its attending phy- 
sicians. Although Dr. Gerhard returned from Europe, as above mentioned, 
with much improved health, yet he never altogether recovered his original 
vigor. Indeed, from this time forward, his contributions to science through 
the press were comparatively few. This may, in part, have been owing 
to the fact that his time was much more occupied in private practice, of 
which he enjoyed a large share. In diseases of the chest particularly, his 
reputation was such that his advice was much sought after by strangers 
from different parts of the United States, to whom he was extensively 
known through the reports of the many students who had attended his 
lectures. He inspired confidence in his patients, as he did admiration and 
enthusiasm in his pupils, by his evidently profound and practical acquain- 
tance with disease, and his earnestness and truthfulness in its application. 
As, in his lectures, he owed nothing to the art of oratory, so in his private 
practice he owed nothing to commanding address, imposing self-assertion, 
or other adventitious qualities. His advice was also often sought as con- 
sulting physician, and that frequently by his medical brethren, who highly 
appreciated his nice discrimination, and accuracy of diagnosis, particularly 
in diseases of the chest; and who, besides, felt fully assured that in inviting 
his counsels they introduced to their patients one in whose integrity, 
honour, and freedom from petty selfishness, they could most fully and 
absolutely rely. 
In the year 1850 he married Miss Dobbyn, the daughter of Major Win. 
A. Dobbyn, formerly of the British Army, who had come to this country 
in 1836, and then resided in Philadelphia. By this marriage he had three 
children, who, together with his widow, still survive him. 
To complete the account of his writings, we must now allude to a paper 
read before this college in 1863, on the subject of “spotted fever.” This 
disease first made its appearance in Philadelphia in the spring of that year. 11 
The number of cases was, however, but few, and only in one case had the 
Doctor an opportunity of witnessing a post-mortem examination. Never- 
theless, he made out its distinctive characters with great clearness, par- 
ticularly in reference to the diagnosis between it and typhoid fever. He 
congratulates himself, in this paper, that, after having, more than a quarter 
of a century before, been led to the study of typhus, and thus been able 
to lay down the distinctive characters separating it from typhoid fever, 
and which are, “now,” he says, “adopted by all the physicians of the 
French school, and by a large number of English observers,” “acci- 
dent afforded him an occasion for establishing the characters of another 
variety of febrile disorder.” At the time when the Doctor wrote, he was 
comparatively ignorant of the history of the previous epidemics of this 
disease, which have since been so thoroughly investigated, and the results 
laid before us in the exhaustive treatise of our colleague, Dr. A. Stille. 
Nevertheless, in the absence of this knowledge, and with but limited means 
of observation, Dr. Gerhard was able to make out its characters with 
great clearness, and assign it to its true place as a blood disease. He 
preferred continuing to designate it as spotted fever, the spots in his 
opinion being entirely different from those of typhus, or of the exanthemata. 
Now, however, since its history and anatomical lesions are so much better 
understood, it is more generally known as cerebro-spinal meningitis. Here, 
unlike the subjects formerly investigated by him, he had no opportunity 
of making post-mortem examinations. Had this been otherwise, he would 
probably have been among the first to recognize, at least, the very great 
importance of the cerebro-spinal lesion. 
The last paper we shall notice is one on the treatment of continued 
fevers, from clinical lectures delivered by him at the Pennsylvania Hospital 
in the winter of 1867-8, and published in the first volume of the reports 
of that institution in the year 1868. After an admirable account of the 
treatment of fevers, particularly typhoid and typhus, he alludes to his 
early investigations establishing the essential distinction between these two, 
and observes that this distinction is now fully recognized in France, where 
true typhus had of late years prevailed to a large extent, particularly since 
the Crimean war, and, of course, had afforded opportunities which had 
not previously existed there, for the examination of the subject. What 
we wish, however, to notice particularly here, are a few remarks which he 
makes upon the pathology of fevers. “We find,” he says, “in every 
variety of fever, that the lesions which exist after death are insufficient to 
account for the symptoms.” Thus, in typhoid fever, although the char- 
acteristic intestinal lesions exist in every case, and may attract attention 
from the local symptoms to which they give rise, “yet they do not con- 
stitute the disease, for we find that the only evidence of real disorder 
consists in the altered condition of the blood.” The general group of 
symptoms by which the disease is ushered in, he views as associated with 12 
a general disorder of the system, which gives rise to, instead of being 
produced by, the local structural changes found after death. Besides, he 
says that in typhus “there is no local lesion of importance,” and that 
“ with the exception of the blood disease ... it is impossible to arrive 
at the cause of the disease by reference to any particular physical change.” 
In intermittents and remittents, he says, the alteration of the blood 
becomes still more obvious and tangible. He concludes by expressing the 
opinion, that, whereas, at one time, fevers had been studied more particu- 
larly in reference to their symptoms, the ardent pursuit of pathological 
anatomy, of late years, “ had induced physicians to pay too much atten- 
tion to structural changes,” and to erect into a cause, what in fact is the 
consequence of a general disorder, with which the symptoms are associated, 
and which constitutes the starting-point of the disease. Similar views are 
expressed in reference to some other diseases, particularly phthisis. The 
above extracts form a fitting conclusion to the cursory sketch which I have 
given you of Dr. Gerhard’s medical career. They show us, that, although 
trained in the school of pathological anatomy, and ardently devoted to its 
pursuit, his practical insight into disease was too profound to permit him 
to so exaggerate the value of these local lesions, as to see in them the 
starting-point and exclusive cause of all the morbid phenomena ; notwith- 
standing that this view was in opposition to a good deal of his early 
training, as well as to the general tendency of the pursuit to which he had 
been most especially devoted. 
Shortly after the period at which we have now arrived, Dr. Gerhard 
resigned his position as attending physician to the Pennsylvania Hospital, 
and from that time gradually retired from the active duties of his profes- 
sion. In the summer of 1868 he made a short visit to Europe, where he 
had the pleasure of renewing his intercourse with a few of his early asso- 
ciates in Paris, particularly M. Louis, who was then still living at a very 
advanced age. Shortly after his return, in December, he met with 
an accident, by which his right ankle was fractured, and from the conse- 
quences of which he nearly lost his life. He recovered, however, and was 
able, for a time, to resume his professional visits, but the gradual failure 
of his health incapacitated him more and more for active duty. Finally, 
on the 28th of April, 1872, he died from an attack of apoplexy, of which 
he had had premonitions for some months. 
In looking back, over the life of Dr. Gerhard, one is particularly struck 
with the uniform steadiness with which he devoted himself to clinical 
teaching, from a very early period of his career, until near the close of 
his life. For this duty, his natural endowments and early training espe- 
cially qualified him, and he knew it. But, at the same time, his modest, 
or rather, I should say, his discriminating estimate of his own powers, led 
him to doubt his fitness to assume the position of a general lecturer. He, 
therefore, never allowed himself to become a candidate for any of the 13 
higher honours of the profession. Unallured by false glare, he never per- 
mitted himself to be swerved for a moment from the quiet pursuit of what 
he believed to be his special allotment. The same just discrimination char- 
acterized his estimate of others. Conceding to all, what was justly their 
due, he commanded the respect and confidence of all. Throughout his 
life he was never involved in controversy. Charitable to the failings of 
others, even when suffering under injustice or harsh judgment, he did not 
dwell upon his grievances; and, if occasionally he did refer to them, he 
indulged in no harsh or violent expressions of animosity towards the au- 
thors of them. Placid in temper, kind and generous in his feelings, genial 
and gentle in his manners, he won the affection as well as the respect of 
his associates, and has left a void which will be long felt in the circle of 
his intimate friends.