Biographical Sketch of Francis Xavier DERCUM, M.D. (b. 1856); Philadelphia Co., PA

Contributed to the PAGenWeb Archives by Diana Smith 
[christillavalley@comcast.net] 

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"Philadelphia, A History of the City and its People; A Record of 225 Years"
Publisher:  S. H. Clark; Philadelphia; 1912    
Author, Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer
Vol. 3, page 472
 
FRANCIS XAVIER DERCUM, M. D.
     Dr. Francis Xavier Dercum, an eminent neurologist and one of the two 
Americans who have been elected to the Societe de Neurologie of Paris—an 
honor regarded by the medical profession as a distinction of the first rank, 
was born in Philadelphia in 1856. His father and grandfather were both of 
German birth and their emigration to America was a consequence of the 
revolution of 1848, in which they were actively allied with the liberal 
party. With few exceptions the ancestors of Dr. Dercum were members of the 
learned professions. Two of them, father and son, were professors in the 
medical department of the University of Wuerzburg in the early half of the 
eighteenth century.
     While spending his youthful days in the home of his parents, Ernest 
Albert and Susana (Erhart) Dercum, he attended the public schools and was 
graduated from the Central high school with the class of 1873. He began 
preparation for the practice of medicine in the spring of 1874 and won his 
degree from the university of Pennsylvania in 1877. He was fortunate in 
coming under the instruction of Professor Henry C. Chapman, the late 
professor of physiology in Jefferson Medical College and one of the most 
eminent authorities upon anatomy in this country. He not only received 
personal instruction from Dr. Chapman in that science but also in general 
biology, and comparative anatomy, and the fact that Professor Chapman was 
prosecutor to the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens gave abundant opportunity 
for the dissection of various animal forms, some of them quite rare. At the 
same time the microscopes and library of Dr. Chapman were generously placed 
at Dr. Dercum's disposal and proved a most valuable aid in giving to him a 
knowledge of animal structure.
     Following his graduation, Dr. Dercum entered upon the general practice 
of medicine in Philadelphia and at the same time continued his scientific 
studies.

He became a member of the Academy of Natural Science and at times made 
original communications to that body. He published his first scientific papers
in 1878, some appearing in the American Naturalists and others in Proceedings 
in the Academy of Natural Science. They included articles on The Sensory 
Organs, Suggestions with a View to Generalization; the Morphology of the 
Semicircular Canals and the Nerve Terminations in the Lateral Sensory 
Apparatus of Fishes. They gave him a public recognition of his ability as an 
anatomist in his appointment in 1878 to the position of assistant demonstrator 
in the histological and physiological laboratories. His scientific 
investigations eventually awakened in him the keenest interest in diseases of 
the nervous system and he turned his attention to this as his specialization. 
He joined with Charles K. Mills, Wharton Sinkler and J. T. Elkridge in 
founding the Philadelphia Neurological Society in 1884, and frequently 
addressed that society and also the College of Physicians of Philadelphia upon 
phases of nervous diseases and their treatment. He likewise became chief of 
clinic and instructor in diseases of the nervous system in the University of 
Pennsylvania and subsequently pathologist to the State Hospital for the Insane 
at Norristown, where he made numerous autopsies and published the first 
pathological reports of that institution. He was likewise made neurologist to 
the Philadelphia Hospital and consultant to several other hospitals. Not only 
in his practice has Dr. Dercum won distinguished honors but also through his 
medical authorship. Among his early contributions to medical literature was a 
paper on the Articicial Induction of Convulsive Seizures, written in 
association with the late Dr. A. J. Parker and published in 1884. It attracted 
widespread interest because of the advanced views upon the pathological 
physiology of convulsions He was also the author of papers on the morphology 
of epileptic brains, idiot and criminal brains, and on the comparative anatomy 
of Chinese brains. His authorship includes papers on various subjects in 
neuropathology and clinical neurology, including the description of a new 
disease, adiposis dolorosa, published in 1892 and now described by French 
writers as the maladie de Dercum.
     Dr. Dercum was appointed in 1892 to the newly created chair of clinical  
professor of nervous and mental diseases in Jefferson Medical College with a 
seat in the faculty. He has been neurologist to the Philadelphia Hospital 
since 1887 and is consulting neurologist to a number of other hospitals. He 
is also honorary president of the F. X. Dercum Neurological Society of the 
Jefferson Medical College. For many years he has enjoyed a special reputation 
as an expert witness and has testified in the courts of Philadelphia and other 
cities in numerous medical legal cases involving questions in nervous diseases 
and insanity.

     Dr. Dercum is a member of various societies, including the American 
Philosophical Society, the Academy of Natural Science, the College of 
Physicians, and many other medical associations. On the 4th of December, 1908, 
he received formal notification of his election to the Societe de Neurologic 
of Paris, whose membership includes the world's foremost specialists in nervous 
diseases. Dr. Charles A. Dana, of New York, is the only other American 
physician who has been elected to membership in the society. Following his 
election, many of the prominent members of the society in Paris addressed 
congratulatory letters to Dr. Dercum, informing him that he was chosen 
unanimously foreign corresponding member.  In France such elections to 
societies of leading professional and scholarly men correspond to the 
conferring of honorary degrees in American and English universities, for French 
institutions do not confer honorary degrees.  Dr. Dercum's comprehensive 
investigation and original research, his broad and practical experience have 
given him knowledge that places him with American authorities on the subject of 
mental and nervous diseases and his contributions to the world's medical 
literature are considered by the profession as most valuable.

 

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