William Potts Dewees

William Potts Dewees (1768–1841) was an American physician, best known for his work in obstetrics.

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Dewees received a Bachelor of Medicine and in 1806 an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he would become Professor of Obstetrics, and Chair of Obstetrics from 1834 to 1841. His fame comes mainly from three books published in quick succession in the mid-1820s, each of which went to at least ten editions: Comprehensive System of Midwifery (1824), Treatise on the Physical and Medical Treatment of Children (1825), and Treatise on the Diseases of Females (1826). Of these, the System of Midwifery had the most lasting influence, introducing ideas from British and continental European physicians (especially Jean-Louis Baudelocque) and becoming the standard reference on obstetrics in the United States for a time.

References

• Johann Hermann Baas; trans. Henry Ebenezer Handerson (1889). Outlines of the History of Medicine and the Medical Profession. J.H. Vail & Co., pp. 1094–1095. 
• "Bachelors of Medicine and Honorary M. D.'s of the University of Pennsylvania", The Alumni Register of the University of Pennsylvania, October 1900, pp. 113–114. 
• John Haller (1981). American Medicine in Transition 1840-1910. University of Illinois Press, p. 153. ISBN 0252008065. 
• T. Gaillard Thomas (1876). "A Century of American Medicine: 1776-1876: III. Obstetrics and Gynaecology". The American Journal of the Medical Sciences 72: 133–170 (p. 140).