Two Famous Psychiatrists
The (wo Kirbys — father anil son — made
such an outstanding record in the field of
|»4> eh ia fry that llieir reputation gained in¬
ternational reeognif ion.
IT IS a queer thing that the
county of Sampson should have
produced two of the most out¬
standing psychiatrists of the na¬
tion. yet such is the case, for that
county was the birthplace of Dr.
George L. Kirby, who became Su¬
perintendent of the State Hospital
at Raleigh, and of Dr. P. L. Murphy
who served in a similar capacity
at the State Hospital at Morganton.
Dr. Kirby started life as a civil
engineer, but failing health caused
him to take up the study of medi¬
cine, and he took his degree as a
physician from the Long Island
Hospital College at Brooklyn,
following which he embarked upon
a tour of Europe, and it was again
the irony of fate that he landed at
New York on the very day Fort
Sumter was fired upon. Stout¬
hearted son of the South, he im¬
mediately tendered his services
and was named as surgeon of the
second North Carolina regiment.
In an engagement with the enemy
he was captured and upon his re¬
lease he became surgeon in charge
of the Confederate Hospital at
Wytheville.
At the State Hospital
Immediately upon the close of
the war. the Doctor moved to
Goldsboro and at once entered
upon the practice of his profession.
Because of his prominence in his
field of work he was appointed Su¬
perintendent of the State Hospital
at Raleigh in 1894. a position which
he occupied until his lamented
death in 1901. At the time of his
appointment as superintendent he
was sixty years old. a time when
few men care to take charge of a
new branch of their profession, for
he had been engaged in general
practice and had had no special
training in the treatment of the
mentally sick. But he applied him¬
self to the study of the treatment
of these patients with the zeal of a
young student, and he more than
met the expectations of his ardent
admirers He soon mastered, not
only the theory of successful treat-
By R. C. LAWRENCE
ment. but he assessed the skill to
translate this theory into actual
ractice, and to send hundreds of
is patients to their homes, sane
and sound in mind and body. As
an executive and as an adminis¬
trator he also displayed capacity
of a high order, and he made the
grounds of his institution one of
the most beautiful spots in the cap¬
ital city. For six years he served
as a member of the State Board of
Medical Examiners, and occupied
other positions of trust and confi¬
dence in his profession. He was.
moreover, an humble and sincere
follower of the Master, serving for
many years as an elder in the Pres¬
byterian Church.
Upon the death of Dr. Kirby,
Governor Aycock, whose home
was in Goldsboro and who was a
lifelong friend and admirer of Dr.
Kirby, expressed the sentiments of
all Carolina when he said: “Dr.
Kirby was one of the ablest and
most efficient men in the State. . . .
His success as Superintendent of
the State Hospital has been re¬
markable. Ilis record of cures and
the great improvements made by
him at the smallest possible cost,
entitle him to rank among the very
highest in skill and executive abil¬
ity. He was a man of character in
the best sense of that word. The
State has lost in him one of its
most valuable citizens, the afllicted
a true friend, and those who loved
him one whose place can never be
supplied.”
Dr. J. F. Miller, who was inti¬
mately acquainted with him. and
who was his partner in the private
practice for more than twenty-five
years said of him that “he brought
to the new work of psychiatry a
youthful enthusiasm and was not
long in attracting the attention of
the state to his success as an
alienist and as a manager and busi¬
ness executive of great ability.
Here, as in private practice, he
was not content to lag behind, but
by diligent study and observation
of other hospitals he was quick to
adopt every advanced means and
method of treatment, and the rec¬
ord in the hospital over which he
presided is of more enduring form
than any words I can utter and is
worthy the ambition of any man."
Those who knew Dr. Miller
know what a cautious and conserv¬
ative man he was in his appraisal
of men.
The Younger Kirby
Under the Mendelian law of
heredity, much might have been
expected of the son of such a man,
and in George Hughes Kirby we
find one of the most eminent
psychiatrists in the nation. Born in
1875, graduated from the Universi¬
ty in 1896, and taking his medical
degree from Long Island College
Hospital i the same institution from
which his father took his medical
degreci he entered upon the field
of psychiatry at once, becoming
associated with the Worcester.
Mass.. State Hospital and an inti¬
mate of that renowned psychia¬
trist Dr. Adolph Meyer. Here he
remained until Dr. Meyer became
director of the Psychiatrist Insti¬
tute conducted by the State of New
York on Ward's Island. New York
City and he there became the asso¬
ciate of Meyer in clinical psychia¬
try.
During six years following when
Dr. Kirby was associated with Dr.
Meyer in the organization of sci¬
entific methods of care, treatment
and investigation in the New York
State Hospital service, and later,
during the period from 1909 to
1917, when he was clinical director
of the Manhattan State Hospital on
Ward's Island, Dr. Kirby left the
impress of his scientific and hu¬
manitarian principals and ideals
on hundreds of physicians who
came in contact with him and who
received the benefit of his assist¬
ance during their professional
careers. Distributed not only
throughout the nation, but in
foreign countries are many men
who have carried on during sub¬
sequent years the tenets to which
he adhered.
In 1917 the attainments of Dr.
( Continued on page 20)
THE BTATE. SEPTEMBER 9, 1950
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