COGSWELL, Mason Fitch [1761-] -- American physician and surgeon
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He was the adopted son of
¤Samuel Huntington,
president of the Continental congress,
and was graduated at Yale in 1780 as valedictorian,
the youngest member of his class.
He gained his medical training under the direction of his brother,
Dr. James Cogswell, at the Soldiers' hospital in New York city.
He successfully removed a cataract from the eye and tied the carotid artery in 1803,
the earliest date recorded in the United States for the accomplishment of either operation.
He was married to Mary Austin Ledyard and settled in New Haven.
Their daughter, Alice, was rendered deaf and dumb through the effect of a severe illness,
and this affliction, and the father's efforts to instruct the child,
led him to establish in New Haven in 1820 the
first asylum for the care and education of the deaf and dumb in America.
He also founded the retreat for the insane in Hartford.
He presided over the Connecticut medical society for ten years.
He died in Hartford, Conn., Dec. 10, 1830.