View source for Reuben D. Mussey

{{short description|American physician and writer}}
{{Infobox person
| name       = Reuben Dimond Mussey
| image      = Reuben Dimond Mussey.png
|birth_date  = June 23, 1780 
|birth_place = [[Rockingham County, New Hampshire]]
|death_date  = June 21, 1866 
|death_place = [[Boston]]
| occupation = Physician, writer}}

'''Reuben Dimond Mussey, Sr.''' (June 23, 1780 – June 21, 1866) was an American [[physician]], surgeon, [[Vegetarianism|vegetarian]] and an early opponent of [[tobacco]]. He was the fourth president of the [[American Medical Association]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Hamilton, John B.|year=1896|title=Life and Times of Doctor Reuben D. Mussey|journal=Journal of the American Medical Association|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924098557790&view=1up&seq=669|volume=26|issue=14|pages=649–652}}</ref> 

==Biography==

Mussey was born on June 23, 1780, in [[Rockingham County, New Hampshire]].<ref name="Capace">Capace, Nancy. (2000). ''Encyclopedia of New Hampshire''. Somerset Publications. pp. 250-252. {{ISBN|0-403-09601-4}}</ref> He was of [[French Huguenot]] descent, and his father, John Mussey, was also a medical doctor.  Mussey studied at [[Dartmouth College]] and then learned medicine under [[Nathan Smith (physician)|Nathan Smith]]. He began the practice of medicine in [[Essex County, Massachusetts]]. However, he then went to the [[University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine]] where he did further medical studies, graduating M.D. in 1809.<ref name="Capace"/><ref>[https://digital.libraries.uc.edu/exhibits/winkler/mussey/doctor.html "Reuben Dimond Mussey"]. Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions. </ref> Among his professors at the University of Pennsylvania was [[Benjamin Rush]]. Mussey was elected an Associate Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1811.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter M|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterM.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=September 9, 2016}}</ref>

He then was a professor at the medical school at Dartmouth College and also at [[Middlebury College]], as well as serving as a medical lecturer at other institutions. Mussey is credited as the first surgeon to tie both [[Common carotid artery|carotid arteries]] in 1829.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/harpersnew53various/page/76/mode/2up/ ''The First Century of the Republic'']. ''Harper's New Monthly Magazine'', 1876. p. 76</ref><ref>[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn5vvp&view=1up&seq=567 ''Supplement to Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 4'']. Hubbard Brothers, 1889. p. 453</ref> He lectured on anatomy and surgery at [[Bowdoin College]] (1831-1835) and [[Fairfield Academy]] (1836-1838).<ref name="Capace"/> He was professor of surgery at the [[University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center|Medical College of Ohio]] (1838-1852) and was chair of surgery at Miami Medical College in [[Cincinnati]] (1852-1857).<ref name="Capace"/>

Mussey was an advocate of the [[temperance movement]].<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Granite State of the United States: A History of New Hampshire from 1623 to the Present - Vol. 1|last = Squires|first = James Duane|publisher = American Historical Association|year = 1956|oclc = 3549431|page = 310|url = https://www.questia.com/read/9892294/the-granite-state-of-the-united-states-a-history|access-date = 2015-07-08|archive-date = 2015-07-09|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150709050620/https://www.questia.com/read/9892294/the-granite-state-of-the-united-states-a-history|url-status = dead}}{{ISBN?}}</ref> In 1828, a temperance society was founded at Dartmouth. In 1850 he served as president of the [[American Medical Association]].<ref name="Capace"/>
[[File:Health Its Friends and Foes.png|thumb|''Health: Its Friends and Foes'', 1862]]
He was awarded an [[Legum Doctor|LL.D]] from Dartmouth in 1854 and an honorary [[Master of Arts|A. M.]] in 1806 from [[Harvard University]].<ref>[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/American_Medical_Biographies/Mussey,_Reuben_Dimond ''Mussey, Reuben Dimond (1780–1866)'']. American Medical Biographies, 1920. pp. 842-843</ref>

Mussey died on June 21, 1866 in [[Boston]].<ref>Moulton, Charles Wells. (1905). [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000099709952&view=1up&seq=162 ''A Biographical Cyclopedia of Medical History'']. The Saalfield Publishing Co. p. 150</ref>

==Family==

His son [[Reuben D. Mussey, Jr.]] was a lawyer and the husband of [[Ellen Spencer Mussey]], the founder of the first law school for females.

Mussey and his first wife Mary Sewall did not have any children. After her death he married Herry Osgood, and they had nine children.<ref name="Capace"/> Besides Reuben Jr., there was also [[William H. Mussey]] and Francis B. Mussey who both followed their father into the medical profession. [[Charles F. Mussey]] became a Presbyterian minister. Mussey's daughter Maria married [[Lyman Mason]], and his daughter Catharine married [[Shattuck Hartwell]].

==Vegetarianism==

Mussey was a vegetarian who abstained from [[Alcohol (drug)|alcohol]] and tobacco.<ref name="Capace"/><ref>McGrane, Reginald Charles. (1957). [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013218659&view=1up&seq=35 ''The Cincinnati Doctors' Forum'']. Academy of Medicine of Cincinnati. p. 21</ref> In 1832, Mussey "gave up the eating of flesh as an experiment", he did not eat the flesh of land animals for the rest of his life but occasionally consumed fish in 1850.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Health: Its Friends and Foes|publisher = Gould and Lincoln|last = Mussey|first = Reuben|year = 1862|pages = [https://archive.org/details/healthitsfriend00mussgoog/page/n348 340]-342|url = https://archive.org/details/healthitsfriend00mussgoog}}</ref> He was a frequent contributor to [[William Alcott]]'s vegetarian journal ''Library of Health''.<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Vegetarian Crusade|last = Shprintzen|first = Adam|publisher = The University of North Carolina Press|year = 2013|location = Chapel Hill|pages = 43}}</ref> His 1862 book ''Health: Its Friends and Foes'' included chapters on vegetarianism and on the dangers of tobacco.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://medicolegal.tripod.com/mussey1862.htm|title=Health: Its Friends and Its Foes (1862) by Reuben D. Mussey, M.D., LL.D.|first=Reuben D. |last=Mussey |date=1862|website=medicolegal.tripod.com}}</ref> It was positively reviewed in the ''[[Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic|Cincinnati Lancet and Observer]]'' 
and ''[[The New England Journal of Medicine]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|year=1862|title=Health: Its Friends and Foes|journal=The Cincinnati Lancet & Observer|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hc3y6e&view=1up&seq=626|volume=5|pages=614–615}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|year=1862|title=Health: Its Friends and Foes|journal=The New England Journal of Medicine|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.59198242&view=1up&seq=472|volume=1|issue=66|pages=466–470}}</ref>

Mussey was a founding member and vice-president of the [[American Vegetarian Society]] in the 1850s.<ref>Puskar-Pasewicz, Margaret. (2003). ''"For the Good of the Whole": Vegetarianism in 19th-century America''. Indiana University. p. 102</ref>

==Selected publications==

*[https://archive.org/details/healthitsfriends00unse ''Health: Its Friends and Foes''] (1862)
*[https://archive.org/details/101202732.nlm.nih.gov/page/n1/mode/2up ''What Shall I Drink?''] (1863)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==

*{{cite book |author=Blaisdell, Frank|title=One Hundred Years of New Hampshire Surgery|publisher=John B. Clarke Company|pages=8–12|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ien.35558005352261&view=1up&seq=12|year=1907}}
*{{cite book |author=Brennan, J. Fletcher |title=A Biographical Cyclopædia and Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Men|publisher=Cincinnati: J. C. Yorston & Company|pages=[https://archive.org/details/biographicalcycl01bren/page/110 110]-111 |url=https://archive.org/details/biographicalcycl01bren|year=1879}}

==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author | id=Mussey,+R.+D.+(Reuben+Dimond) | name=Reuben Dimond Mussey}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Reuben Dimond Mussey}}

{{Vegetarianism}}

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mussey, Reuben D.}}

[[Category:1780 births]]
[[Category:1866 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American physicians]]
[[Category:American health and wellness writers]]
[[Category:American medical writers]]
[[Category:American surgeons]]
[[Category:American temperance activists]]
[[Category:American vegetarianism activists]]
[[Category:Anti-smoking activists]]
[[Category:Dartmouth College alumni]]
[[Category:Dartmouth College faculty]]
[[Category:Diet food advocates]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Middlebury College faculty]]
[[Category:People from Rockingham County, New Hampshire]]
[[Category:Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Medical Association]]
[[Category:University of Cincinnati faculty]]