Horwitz, Phineas Jonathan

views updated

HORWITZ, PHINEAS JONATHAN

HORWITZ, PHINEAS JONATHAN (1822–1904), U.S. physician. Horwitz was born in Baltimore, son of a physician, Jonas Horwitz (d. 1852). He graduated from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and became a naval medical officer, serving as an assistant surgeon at the Naval Hospital in Tobasco during the Mexican War. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Horwitz was promoted to the rank of surgeon general (equivalent to lieutenant commander), and was commended by Congress. In 1865 he was appointed chief to the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, and while serving in this position made a complete tabulation of medical and surgical statistics during the war. He was appointed medical director of the Bureau in 1873.

[Abram Kanof]