American Medical Biographies/Hullihen, Simon P.

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2251783American Medical Biographies — Hullihen, Simon P.1920Howard Atwood Kelly

Hullihen, Simon P. (1810–1857).

Simon P. Hullihen, pioneer plastic surgeon and dentist, was born in Point Township, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, December 10, 1810. His father was Thomas Hullihen and his mother, Rebecca Freeze; his grandfather came from Ireland. Young Simon's early education at the township district school ended at seventeen.

When about nine years old he fell through a limekiln and badly burned his heels, putting him to bed for two years, after which he walked on his toes until boots were made from accurate plaster casts furnished by himself.

He began extracting teeth at his home, and commenced practice as a surgeon and dentist at Canton, Ohio, in 1832. In April, 1835, he married Miss E. Fundenburg at Pittsburgh, and went to Wheeling, Virginia, to remain the rest of his life. His M. D. degree was given by the Washington College, Baltimore; he practised surgery and dentistry exclusively.

Hullihen established a private hospital in Wheeling, and with the co-operation of Bishop Whelan, founded a hospital under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church, chartered March, 1850, as the "Wheeling Hospital"; his associate being Dr. M. H. Houston.

An item from his notes covering the last ten or twelve years of his life cites these memoranda as to the operations he had performed:

Cataract
200
times
Cleft-palate
50
"
Antrum cases
200
"
Making new noses
25
"
Making new under-jaws
10
"
Hare-lip
100
"
Cancers
150
"
Strabismus
100
"
Making new lips
50
"
General surgery
200
"
In 1839 he wrote an "Essay on Odontalgia"; in 1844 on Hare-Lip and its Treatment; 1845

"An Essay on the Cleft-Palate and its Treatment; 1846 "An Essay on Abscess of the Jaws and Treatment"; 1849 "Distortion of the Face and Neck, Caused by Burn, Successfully Treated."

He declared that "The dentist must carry upward the standard of his profession and plant it upon the broad platform of medical science."

"Hullihen's operation" consisted in the treatment of a nerve cavity exposed by decay by "perforating the fang through the gum and alveolar process into the nerve before packing the metal." He died in 1857 from pneumonia.

Nor. Amer. Med. Chir. Rev., 1858, vol. ii, 199–205.