Otto, John C., 1774-1844

Dr. John Conrad Otto was born in Woolbridge, New Jersey on March 15, 1774, to Dr. Bodo Otto, Jr. and Catherine Schweigenhauser. Following in the footsteps of his Great-Grandfather, Grandfather, and Father, John Otto studied at Princeton University and then, under the supervision of Benjamin Rush, earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Otto was a physician at Pennsylvania Hospital for twenty-two years and a fellow of the College of Physicians, serving as vice-president from 1840 until his death in 1844. He is the first physician credited with adequately describing hemophilia and wrote the chapter on purpura and hemophilia in Osler and McCrae’s Modern Medicine. John married Elizabeth Todd on December 18, 1802. They had five children. He died on June 26, 1844.