BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

DR. SIMON BARUCH.

[Reprint from Physicians and Surgeons of America.]

BARUCH, Simon, New York city, son ofBernard and Theresa (Green) Baruch, was bornJuly 29, 1840, at Schwersenz, Prussia. He waseducated in the Royal Gymnasium at Posen, Prus-sia, and commenced the study of medicine at Cam-den, S. C., in 1859, Drs. Workman andDeas ; attended lectures at the Medical College ofthe State of South Carolina, and the Medical Col-lege of Virginia, and received the degree of M. D.from the last named institution, March 6, 1862.Dr. Baruch served as surgeon in the held inGeneral Lee’s army, C. S. A., i862-’65 ; was inthe private practice of medicine at Camden, S. C.,from April, i865-’Bi ; then removed to New Yorkcity. He is a fellow of the New York Academy ofMedicine; member of the Medical Society of theCounty of New York; of the Northwestern Medi-cal Society; was president of the South CarolinaMedical Association in 1873; acting chairman ofthe State Board of Health of South Carolina in1880; physician to the Northeastern Dispensary,for diseases of the eye, ear, and throat, Dew Yorkcity, 1880-83; gynecologist to the same dispen-sary from 1883-86; physician to the New YorkJuvenile Asylum, iBBi-’94; chief of the medicalstaff of Montehore Home, for chronic invalids,iBB4-’92, and president of the medical boardsince 1892; has been visiting physician to Man-hattan General Hospital since 1892.

Dr. Baruch makes a specialty of the treatment ofchronic diseases by physiological remedies, diet,rest, exercise, baths, and restricted medication.He discovered the decolorizing effect of the hypo-sulphites upon Tr. lodine, Medical Record , 1867;he diagnosed the first recorded case of perforatingappendicitis successfully operated upon, New YorkMedical Journal, 1889, and for his contributionsto the early diagnosis of this affection, Dr. J. A.Wyeth stated before the New York Academy ofMedicine that “The profession and humanity owemore to Dr. Baruch than to any other one man forthe development of the surgery of appendicitis,”

American Medical and Surgical Bulletin , March,1894.

Dr. Baruch has endeavored to win the professionover to a more methodical use of “physiologicalremedies,” such as diet, rest, exercise, and baths,not, however, to the exclusion of well-establishedmedicinal agents. He published articles on thissubject in the Therapeutic Gazette , 1893, and inthe Medical Record , 1894. He made the first pleain this country and England for the “Brand Bathsin Typhoid Fever,” Transactions of the Medical So-ciety of the State of New York, 1889. By requestof Dr. Austin Flint, he instructed the house staffof his division in Bellevue Hospital in the detailsof this measure, and by persistent defence has sofar overcome prejudice, that it is now practised infive New York hospitals, taught in three of itscolleges, by Professor Wilson at Jefferson Medi-cal College, and by Professor Osier at the JohnsHopkins Medical School, Baltimore, Md.

Dr. Baruch is also the pioneer of scientific hydro-therapy in this country, having first demonstratedits value in the desperate cases at the MontefioreHome, and reported upon it to the county medicalsociety in a paper entitled: ‘ ‘Application of Waterin Intractable Diseases,” Medical Record, 1893.

As chairman of the committee on hygiene, ofthe Medical Society of the County of New Yorkin 1890, he made a report on public (rain) bathswhich gave the impetus to the erection of the Peo-ple’s Bath, and others in the city of New York,which afforded 170,000 baths in 1893. His per-sistent advocacy of this hygienic measure since1890 has resulted in the passage of a lawr inApril, 1895, making the establishment of freewarm and cold water baths to be open fourteenhours daily at all seasons, mandatory upon all■cities in New York state having over fifty thousandinhabitants. In consequence of his advocacy ofbathing in health and in disease. Dr. Baruch hasbeen termed “The Apostle of Bathing.” He isthe author of a work on “The Uses of Water in

Modern Medicine,” George L. Davis, publisher,1892, which is being translated into German, andwhich is an endeavor to sever the scientific method“ Hydrotherapy,”from the empirical method “Hy-dropathy.” This work was favorably reviewed inthe American Journal of the Medical Sciences ,November, 1892, and is commended as the “firstAmerican original work on hydrotherapy, beingbrief and yet so rich in information ” and worthyof a German translation, by Professor Winternitzin his journal for January, 1893.

Dr. Baruch has written papers upon “Subinvo-lution of the Uterus;” “Ligation of the CommonCarotid Artery;” “Diagnosis and Etiology of Ma-larial Fevers,” Medical Record, 1883—84; “Man-agement of the Third Stage of Labor,” AmericanJournal of Obstetrics, 1885; “Therapeutic Sig-nificance of the Cervical Follicles,” New YorkMedical Journal, 1885; “Oil of Turpentine inDiphtheria,” Medical Record, 1888; “Antisepticand Aseptic Midwifery,” Transactions South Caro-lina Medical Association, 1889; “The SuccessfulTreatment of Chronic Diseases,” Transactions ofthe Medical Society of the State of New York,1892; “Relation of Peripheral Irritation to Dis-ease;” “Causes and Treatment of Summer Diar-rhoea of Infants,” Medical News , 1890; “TheStatus of Water in Modern Medicine,” SocialScience Association, 1890; “The Rationale ofHydrotherapy,” Medical Record, 1894; and thearticle on “Hydrotherapy and Mineral Springs,”in Hare’s System of Therapeutics.

Married, in 1867, Miss Isabel Wolfe, of Winns-boro, S. C. Children: Four sons, Hartwig, Ber-nard, Saling, and Herman Baruch, the latter amem’ber of the house staff of Mount Sinai Hospi-tal,' in New York city.