John B. Deaver surgical instruments

A case containing surgical instruments owned by John B. Deaver.

ohn Blair Deaver, Philadelphia surgeon, was born on 25 July 1855 near Buck, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Joshua Montgomery and Elizabeth Moore Deaver. In 1889, Deaver married Caroline Randall; they had four children, John, Joshua, Elizabeth, and Harriet. John B. Deaver died of a progressive anemia at his home in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, on 25 September 1931.

Deaver received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1878. He then served internships at Germantown Hospital and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. In 1880, he opened his private practice and became Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania. At the University, he was Demonstrator of Osteology and Syndesmology (1883-1884), Demonstrator of Anatomy (18841887), Lecturer on Topographical Anatomy (1889-1891) and Assistant Professor of Applied Anatomy (1891-1899). He resigned from the University in 1899.

In 1886, Deaver also became Surgeon to Lankenau (then German) Hospital. He became Chief of the Surgical Department in 1896 and was noted for his skill and physical endurance as well as his abdominal surgery, particularly his appendectomies.

Deaver returned to the University of Pennsylvania in 1911 as Professor of the Practice of Surgery. In 1918, he became the John Rhea Barton Professor of Surgery and held this post until his retirement in 1922.

John B. Deaver was the author of 248 articles and several books including, Surgical anatomy (1899-1903 and 1926-1927); A treatise on appendicitis (1896); Surgery of the upper abdomen with A. P. C. Ashhurst (1909-1913); and Excursions into surgical subjects (1923).

Deaver became a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1887, was a member and president of the American College of Surgeons and the Post Graduate Medical Association of North America, and a member of the American Surgical Association.

Contributed by anonymous