Walter Channing (physician)

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Walter Channing (1786–1876) was an American physician and professor of medicine.

Channing earned his degree from the University of Edinburgh, and was the first Professor of Obstetrics and Medical Jurisprudence at Harvard University (then called Harvard College), a position he held from 1815 to 1854.[1] He was one of the first American physicians to employ anesthesia during childbirth, and wrote a treatise in its favor (Treatise on Etherization in Child-birth, illustrated by 581 cases, 1849), serving as the main American advocate of the practice at the time.[1][2]

He was the brother of preacher William Ellery Channing and of fellow Harvard professor (of Rhetoric), Edward Tyrrel Channing.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Johann Hermann Baas; trans. Henry Ebenezer Handerson (1889). Outlines of the History of Medicine and the Medical Profession. J.H. Vail & Co., p. 1096. 
  2. ^ Claude E. Heaton (1946). "The History of Anesthesia and Analgesia in Obstetrics". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 1 (4): 567–572.