Dr. George O. Jarvis, son of John Jarvis, of New Canaan, Connecticut, was born in 1795. Receiving such education as the schools of that earlier day offered, he became himself a teacher in his turn, and at a proper age began the study of medicine with Dr. Truman S. Whitmore, of Winchester, Connecticut. He attended lectures at Yale College. In 1817, in accordance with the usual custom of that day, he received from the Connecticut Medical Society a license to practice, and commenced his professional labors in the town of Torrington, where he remained two years; then removed to Colebrook, and continued there up to 1840, when he changed his residence to Portland, then a part of the town of Chatham. He died of a combined attack of erysipelas and diphtheria, February 3rd, 1875, after an illness of about one week, having been in active professional service fifty-eight years. He received the degree of M.D. from Yale College in 1846.
He was the father of Dr. George C. Jarvis, of Hartford. His attention to some cases of fracture about the year 1843 led to the invention of his apparatus known as “Jarvis’s Adjuster,” for the extension and treatment of fractures and dislocations. His invention met with the approval of many of the first surgeons of the country, and was introduced largely into public hospitals. In 1845 the doctor went to Europe with his invention, spending six months in introducing it to the notice of the profession in England and on the Continent, giving explanatory lectures in some of the first medical institutions by invitation. It was well received; and he was awarded, by the Society for Promotion of Arts and Commerce, the largest gold medal, which, up to that time, had been given to an American citizen.
The presentation was made by Prince Albert, then the president of the society. Dr. Jarvis was entitled to be proud of this distinguished honor.
Source
Whittemore, Henry, History of Middlesex county, Connecticut, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, New York : J. B. Beers & Co., 1884.
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