Ohio County WV Archives Biographies.....Hullihen, Simon P. December 10, 1810 - March 27, 1857
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Connie Burkett marionwvusgwarch@gmail.com April 24, 2010, 10:10 pm

Source: American Medical Biographies (1920)
Author: Howard A. Kelly and Walter L. Burrage

Pages 575-576
Hullihen, Simon P. (1810-1857). 

Simon P. Hullihen, pioneer plastic surgeon and dentist, was born in Point
Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, December 10, 1810. His father was
Thomas Hullihen and his mother, Rebecca Freeze; his grandfather came from
Ireland. Young Simon's early education at the township district school ended at
seventeen. 

When about nine years old he fell through a limekiln and badly burned his heels,
putting him to bed for two years, after which he walked on his toes until boots
were made from accurate plaster casts furnished by himself. 

He began extracting teeth at his home, and commenced practice as a surgeon and
dentist at Canton, Ohio, in 1832. In April, 1835, he married Miss E. Fundenburg
at Pittsburgh, and went to Wheeling, Virginia, to remain the rest of his life.
His M. D. degree was given by the Washington College, Baltimore; he practised
surgery and dentistry exclusively. 

Hullihen established a private hospital in Wheeling, and with the co-operation
of Bishop Whelan, founded a hospital under the auspices of the Roman Catholic
Church, chartered March, 1850, as the "Wheeling Hospital"; his associate being
Dr. M. H. Houston. 

An item from his notes covering the last ten or twelve years of his life cites
these memoranda as to the operations he had performed: 

Cataract                200 times 
Cleft-palate             50   "
Antrum cases            200   "
Making new noses         25   "
Making new under-jaws    10   "
Hare-lip                100   "
Cancers                 150   "
Strabismus              100   "
Making new lips          50   "
General surgery         200   "

In 1839 he wrote an "Essay on Odontalgia"; in 1844 on Hare-Lip and its
Treatment; 1845 "An Essay on the Cleft-Palate and its Treatment; 1846 "An Essay
on Abscess of the Jaws and Treatment"; 1849 "Distortion of the Face and Neck,
Caused by Burn, Successfully Treated." 

He declared that "The dentist must carry upward the standard of his profession
and plant it upon the broad platform of medical science." 

"Hullihen's operation" consisted in the treatment of a nerve cavity exposed by
decay by "perforating the fang through the gum and alveolar process into the
nerve before packing the metal." He died in 1857 from pneumonia. 

Howard A. Kelly. 


Additional Comments:
Death Register, Ohio County WV, 1857 Page 24, Line 172
Hullihen, S. P. died March 27, 1857 at age 46
Cause: Typhoid Pneu.
Occupation: Physician
Marital Status: Married


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