DEWEES, William Potts, physician, born in Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania, 5 May 1768; died in Philadelphia, 18 May 1841. He was left fatherless in early life, served some time with an apothecary, attended a course of lectures in the University of Pennsylvania, and began to practice at Abington, Pennsylvania, in 1789 without having taken a degree, which, however, was soon conferred upon him by the University of Pennsylvania. Yellow fever having thinned the ranks of the physicians in Philadelphia in 1793, Dr. Dewees removed there, selecting obstetrics as his specialty, and won a high reputation in that department. In 1812 he relinquished his practice on account of delicate health and resided at Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, where he devoted himself to agriculture until 1817. In that year he returned to Philadelphia and resumed practice. In 1826 he was elected adjunct professor, and in 1834 professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and children in the University of Pennsylvania. In the latter year, his health failing, he was obliged to resign his professorship. After spending a winter in Cuba and a summer in the north, he settled in Mobile, and returned to Philadelphia a year before his death. He published a volume of "Medical Essays" (Philadelphia, 1823); "Treatise on the Physical and Medical Treatment of Children" (1825 ; 10th ed., 1854); • ' System of Midwifery" (1825 ; 12th ed., 1854); "Treatise on the Diseases of Females" (1826 ; 10th ed., 1854); and "Practice of Medicine" (1830).