OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY OF THE PERIOD,
1835-1858*
CONTRIBUTIONS OF OHIO PHYSICIANS TO THE
INVENTIONS OF THE PERIOD, 1835-1858
By DONALD D. SHIRA, M. D.
When the chairman of this section
suggested the title of this
paper it seemed to be a relatively easy
assignment. Offhand one
would naturally assume that many Ohio
physicians must have
conceived and perfected inventions outside
the field of medicine.
However, such does not seem to be the
case. Evidently most
physicians were too deeply absorbed in
developing and improving
instruments and equipment of use to
their own profession to stray
very far away into less familiar fields.
Many physicians "rode
hobbies," or made original
discoveries in the realms of art and
the natural sciences, but those who
possessed real inventive genius
deserted, in part or completely, the
practice of medicine.
The deeper one delves into this subject
the more limited
appear to be its possibilities. No
originality whatever is claimed
for this brief paper; it consists merely
of an assembly of facts
already known. It is hoped, however,
that it may serve as an
humble beginning to which factual
material may be added from
time to time.
John Locke, M.D. (1792-1856)1
Dr. John Locke was an eccentric genius.
In him was com-
bined the accurate, calculating mind of
a scientist, with the
aesthetic, sensitive nature of a poet.
He was born February 19,
1792, in Fryeburg, Maine, the son of
Samuel Barron and Hannah
Pussell Locke.
* The eight papers under this heading
were read before the second annual meet-
ing of the Committee on Archives and
Medical History of the Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Society, at the Ohio
History Conference, in the Society's Library,
April 5, 1940.
1 References: Otto Juettner, Daniel
Drake and His Followers (Cincinnati, 1909),
155-62; Howard Atwood Kelly and W. L.
Burrage, American Medical Biographies
(Baltimore, Md., 1920), 710.
(315)
316 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
At an early age young Locke manifested
his mechanical tastes,
his ingenuity and his love for books.
Botany was his favorite
study, although books on that subject
were at that time extremely
scarce. In 1816 he met Dr. Solon Smith
of Hanover and spent
two years with him in the further study
of botany, studying medi-
cine at the same time. Later he became
interested in chemistry
and, although he had never seen a piece
of chemical apparatus,
his genius was such that he was able to
construct his own para-
phernalia.
Although he had studied medicine as an
apprentice, and had
served as an assistant surgeon in the
United States Navy, he did
not receive his medical degree from Yale
College until 1819.
After his graduation he started to
practice medicine but soon
abandoned it, not for lack of patients,
but because most of them
did not have any money with which to pay
him. From that time
until 1837, when he became professor of
chemistry at the Medical
College of Ohio, Cincinnati, he
experienced a checkered career,
having delivered lectures in Portland,
Maine, at Boston, Salem
and at Dartmouth College. In June, 1821, he went to Lexington,
Kentucky, and founded a school for
girls. The year 1822 finds
him in Cincinnati where he founded a
similar school which became
famous.
While professor of chemistry at the
Medical College of Ohio,
largely with self-manufactured
equipment, he experimented ex-
tensively in the field of electricity.
As a result he invented a
number of scientific instruments such
as, a thermoscopic galva-
nometer described in the American
Journal of Science (XXXIII);
and a microscopic compass, a description
of which also appeared
in the American Journal of Science (XXIII).
However, the crowning glory of his
inventive genius was his
"Electric Chronograph" or
"Magnetic Clock," which was adopted
by the United States Navy. A letter from
Lieutenant Charles
Maury, announcing officially the
invention of Dr. Locke to Hon.
John Y. Mason, Secretary of the Navy,
dated at the National
Observatory, Washington, January 5,
1849, and quoted in the
National Intelligencer (June 8, 1849), reads thus:
OHIO
MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 317
I have the honor of making known to you
a most important discovery
for astronomy, which has been made by
Dr. Locke, of Ohio, and asking
authority from you to avail myself of
it, for the use and purposes of this
observatory. The discovery consists in
the invention of a magnetic clock by
means of which seconds of time may be
divided into hundredths with as
much accuracy and precision as the machinist,
with rule and compass, can
subdivide an inch of space. Nor do its
powers end here. They are such
that the astronomer in New Orleans, St.
Louis, Boston and any other place
to which the magnetic telegraph reaches,
may make his observations, and at
the same moment cause this clock, here
in Washington, to record the instant
with wonderful precision. Thus, the
astronomer in Boston observes the
transit of a star as it flits through
the field of his instrument, and crosses the
meridian at that place. Instead of
looking at a clock before him, and noting
the time in the usual way, he touches a
key, and the clock here subdivides
his seconds to the minutest fraction,
and records the time with unerring
accuracy. The astronomer in Washington
waits for the same star to cross
his meridian, and, as it does, Dr.
Locke's magnetic clock is again touched;
it divides the seconds, and records the
time for him with equal precision.
The difference between these two times
is the longitude of Boston from the
meridian of Washington. The astronomer
in New Orleans, and St. Louis,
and every other place within the reach
of the magnetic wires, may wait for
the same star, and as it comes to their
meridian, they have but to touch the
key, and straightway this central
magnetic clock tells their longitude. And
thus this problem, which has vexed
astronomers and navigators, and per-
plexed the world for ages, is reduced at
once, by American ingenuity, to a
form and method the most simple and
accurate. While the process is
simplified, the results are greatly
refined. In one night the longitude may
now be determined with far more accuracy
by means of a magnetic telegraph
or clock than it can by years of
observation according to any other method
that has ever been tried. It is,
therefore, well entitled to be called a most
important discovery. It is a national
triumph and it belongs to that class of
achievements by which the most beautiful
and enduring monuments are
erected to national honor and greatness.
To quote Dr. Otto Juettner, "John
Locke, a giant in intellect,
was a child at heart, tender, naive,
lovable, sincere and full of
youthful enthusiasm."
Dr. Locke died in Cincinnati, July 1O,
1856.
318
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Thomas Wood, M.D. (1813-1880)2
Here was another physician who was a
versatile genius.
Thomas Wood was born in Smithfield,
Jefferson County,
Ohio, August 22, 1813, the son of Nathan and Margaret Wood.
In 1835 he began to study medicine with
Dr. W. S. Bates of
Smithfield. He received his medical
degree in 1839 from the
University of Pennsylvania.
Even before he was graduated from
medical college he in-
vented an instrument called the
"Arealite," which was designed
to facilitate the calculation of areas.
About the same time he
invented a fountain pen. Both these
inventions received the
highest praise from the Franklin
Institute of Philadelphia.
On July 22, 1839, he was granted a patent
for an instrument
known as the "Linear
Mensurator." Its function was to deter-
mine the length of lines and to find the
horizontal of a line when
it ascends or descends a hill.
Wood settled in Cincinnati in 1845. Time
will not permit
giving in detail the many medical honors
which came to him
during his life. Suffice to say that he
was at various times pro-
fessor of anatomy and physiology, Ohio
College of Dental Sur-
gery; demonstrator of anatomy, professor
of anatomy, and pro-
fessor of surgical anatomy, at the
Medical College of Ohio; and,
in connection with Dr. L. M. Lawson, was
editor and owner of
the Western Lancet.
Dr. Wood died in Cincinnati, October 20, 1880.
Richard Jordan Gatling, M.D. (1818-1903)3
Richard Jordan Gatling was born
September 12, 1818, to
Jordan and Mary (Barnes) Gatling in
Hertford County, North
Carolina. His father, a well-to-do
planter, possessed considerable
mechanical ability and inventive talent,
because he invented a
cotton-seed sowing machine and a machine
for thinning cotton
2 References: Juettner, Daniel Drake, 223-4; Kelly
and Burrage, American Med-
ical Biographies, 1258-9.
3 References: Who's Who in America (Chicago,
1899), I, (1899-1900), 263; Dic-
tionary of American Biography (New York, 1928-1937), VII, 191-2; Encyclopaedia
Britannica. 14th ed. (London; New
York, 1929), X, 71.
OHIO
MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 319
plants. Young Gatling, still in his
teens, is said to have helped
his father in perfecting them.
Gatling, after completing the course in
the county schools,
at the age of nineteen began to teach
school. After one year of
teaching he gave it up and opened up a
little country store. Evi-
dently the business was none too
prosperous for he closed it in a
few months. Being of an inventive turn
of mind he began to
brood over various inventions. During
the year 1838 he devised
a screw propeller, but when he applied
for a patent discovered
that John Ericsson had anticipated him.
The little set-back by
no means dampened his ardor, for he
immediately turned his at-
tention to the improvement of
agricultural implements, and one
year later (1839) perfected and patented
a rice-sowing machine,
and a wheat drill operated on the same
principle. In 1844 he
went to St. Louis to have his machines
manufactured.
Here enters a side light on the
indomitable perseverence and
determination which made his name known
throughout the civil-
ized world. In the winter of 1845, while
on a business trip by
river steamer from St. Louis to
Pittsburgh he contracted smallpox.
For two weeks the steamer was ice-locked
and he could get no
medical attention. Right then and there
he decided to take time
out of a busy, business career to study
medicine so that ever after,
if an emergency arose, he could give to
himself and his family
proper medical care. Eventually his
determination was rewarded,
for he entered the Medical College of
Ohio from which he re-
ceived his M.D. in 1850. It was not his
intention to practice
medicine, nor did he ever.
His business of manufacturing
agricultural implements be-
came so prosperous that he established
factories in St. Louis,
Springfield, Ohio, and Indianapolis. He
continued with his in-
ventions, having secured patents for a
hemp-breaking machine,
and for a steam plow.
When the Civil War broke out he promptly
turned his at-
tention to the instruments of warfare,
and in 1862 patented a
steam marine battering ram. On November
4, 1862, he obtained
patent no. 36,836 for a rapid-fire gun
known as the Gatling gun
320
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
which brought him world-wide fame. To
this day yeggs speak
of their automatic pistols as
"gats". His first gun, although crude,
had a firing capacity of 250 shots a
minute. He labored incessantly
to improve his gun and at last perfected
it to the point where it
would fire 1,200 shots a
minute. Records reveal that in several
instances it fired as many as 500 shots
in two and one-half seconds.
It was officially adopted by the United
States Army in 1866.
Briefly described the Gatling gun
consisted of a group of rifle barrels
arranged lengthwise around a central
shaft and the whole revolved by suit-
able gears and by a hand crank.
Cartridges were automatically and suc-
cessively fed into the barrels, the
hammers of which were so arranged in
connection with the barrels that they
were kept in continuous revolving
movement by turning the hand crank.
Ordinarily, the gun had ten barrels
with ten corresponding locks which
revolved together.
In 1886 Gatling invented a new gun-metal
composed of an
alloy of steel and aluminum. In 1897 he
persuaded Congress to
grant a subsidy of $40,000 for the
construction of an 8-inch gun,
which was built at Cleveland, Ohio,
under his direction. In the
trials at Sandy Hook (1899) the gun
burst and Gatling always
contended that sabotage during the
process of manufacture was
responsible for its failure.
Despite the fact that Gatling was now
eighty years old he
again turned his attention to
agricultural implements, and invented
(1900) a motor-driven plow, but before
arrangements for its
manufacture could be completed he died,
February 26, 1903, at
Hartford, Conn.
The time alloted to this paper having
nearly run its course,
one might mention a few other Ohio
physicians who made dis-
coveries or inventions in the
non-medical field--Dr. Rives Landon
Longworth (1846-1879), Cincinnati, who
invented (1878) an
electric candle;4 Dr. Theodatus Garlick
(1805-1884), Cleveland,
who was commissioned to make a medallion
likeness in bas-relief,
after his own process, of President
Andrew Jackson, who con-
structed a daguerreotype camera, and who
was the first person
4 Kelly and Burrage, American
Medical Biographies, 716; Juettner, Daniel Drake,
282.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 321
in the country to essay the artificial
culture of fish;5 Dr. Daniel S.
Young (1827-1902), Cincinnati, who was the
first to discover
that zinc plates could be used for
engraving;6 Dr. Walter Shield
Christopher (1859-1905), Cincinnati, who
as research chemist
developed some of the exquisitely
beautiful glazes that have made
Rockwood ware famous the world over;7 and Dr. James
Cogswell
Fisher (1825-1893), Dayton, who assisted
Morse in perfecting
the telegraph instrument.8
No doubt many other physicians in Ohio
have made inven-
tions of practical utility, or which
have enhanced our pleasure and
ease of living. As was stated at the
outset, this is intended to be
a beginning only, and it is sincerely
hoped that the names of other
physicians together with their
achievements may be added from
time to time in order to complete our
records.
5 Kelly and Burrage, American
Medical Biographies, 426; see Joseph T. Smith
in Pioneer Medicine in the Western Reserve (Cleveland,
1932), 71.
6 Kelly and Burrage, American
Medical Biographies, 1282.
7 Ibid., 220.
8 Ibid., 386.
THOMSONIANISM IN OHIO
By FREDERICK
C. WAITE, Ph.D.
Ohio has long been a battleground.
Because of its geograph-
ical position, its terrain, and its
internal and bordering waterways,
it was the site of many wars between
different Indian nations
before the white man came and also, near
the end of the eighteenth
century, the location of the major
warfare between the white
men and the Indians.
Because of the geographical position,
fertility of the soil and
ownership during the colonial period, it
attracted early settlers
from three different cultural
areas--Virginia, Pennsyvlania, and
New England. As a result of the mingling
of these three different
groups, Ohio, throughout its history as
a state, has been a political
battleground. Moreover, in the
nineteenth century, since each
of these three groups of early settlers
had different predominant
church affiliations, Ohio became the
chief battleground of different
sectarian religious groups. Within its
borders two important
religious sects, the Disciples and the
Mormons, passed their
infancy.
Traceable to the same convergence of
different social cul-
tures Ohio has been the major
battleground of conflicts between
regular medicine and various medical
cults and medical sects. The
center of homeopathy was long in
northern Ohio, while the origins
and centers of activity of both
eclecticism and the physiomedical
sect were in southern Ohio. For nearly a
hundred years Ohio
has been the arena of controversies
between regular medicine,
homeopathy, and eclecticism, and the
location of sectarian medical
schools.
Except through consideration of the
early medical back-
ground, one cannot understand why this
contest of medicine oc-
curred in Ohio, nor the reason why a
large number of practitioners
and lay adherents of sectarian medicine
were resident in this State.
The basic explanation of all this
medical contention in Ohio for a
(322)
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 323
hundred years lies in the prominent
position occupied here by
Thomsonianism from about 1825 until
about 1850.
The leader of Thomsonianism was Samuel
Thomson. He
was born in southwestern New Hampshire
in 1769. He became
a small farmer with the avocation of
blacksmith. About 1805
when he was thirty-six years of age he
became convinced that
under divine guidance he had a gift for
treating the sick. At this
time he could neither read nor write.
His original thesis was the unity of
disease and that, there-
fore, all diseases could be cured by a
single remedy. His panacea
was lobelia, a powerful emetic. Herein
lies the origin of the
theory of specifics which became the keystone
of the eclectic
system of practice, the major successor
of Thomsonianism.
About 1806 Thomson began to sell for $20 each the rights
to
practice his system. He enlarged his
medicaments, first adding
Cayenne pepper, and then others, until
he had six remedies which
he numbered, but for several years he
kept secret their ingredients.
He moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire,
then to a village
near Salem, Massachusetts, and finally
about 1818, to Boston.
In 1809 he was indicted and tried at
Salem for murder of a
patient who died under his treatment,
but he was acquitted be-
cause no intent could be shown. He
capitalized the publicity
secured by this trial.
In March, 1813, he was granted a patent
on his system of
practice. This was replaced by another
patent in 1823 which
would run fourteen years. Just before
its expiration it was re-
newed for another fourteen years. This
patent in 1813 is the
first patent of a medicine in the United
States and the mother of
a host of offspring for more than a
century.
With the aid of Elias Smith, a
Universalist preacher in
Boston, he produced his book entitled A
Narrative of the Life and
Medical Discoveries of Samuel
Thomson, Containing an Account
of His System of Practice, etc. The first edition, containing 180
pages, was printed in Boston in 1822. It
contained what he called
a diploma, an engraved page giving to
the purchaser the right to
practice the system. Each purchaser was
required to agree not
324
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to lend the book nor reveal any of its
contents except to other
purchasers. The price was $20.00 and the
purchaser, ipso facto,
became a member of the Friendly Botanic
Society. In later edi-
tions the phraseology of the title was
somewhat changed.
This book ran through thirteen editions.
The fourth edition
was a translation into German, published
at Lancaster, Ohio, in
1828. According to Thomson, the total
sales exceeded 1OO,OOO
copies. At least four editions were
printed in Ohio. Following
the publication of this book the growth
of the cult was rapid.
Although Thomson himself called it
Botanic Medicine, the desig-
nation of Thomsonianism soon superseded
the original name. The
cult spread all over New England and
into New York. This was
just the period of increased migration
into Ohio of settlers from
this same area, and they brought
Thomsonianism into northern
Ohio about 1825.
In 1821 Thomson's son Cyrus made a trip
to Ohio to spread
the cult. In the summer of 1825 Charles
Miles was appointed a
general agent and located at Columbus.
In a year and a half
he sold five hundred rights to practice.
In January, 1827, Horton
Howard came into control of the western
headquarters at Colum-
bus. He sold four thousand rights in
Ohio and neighboring states
in three and a half years.
The cult spread from New York southward
and there were
many centers of adherents in New Jersey,
in eastern Pennsylvania,
in Maryland, in central Virginia, and in
central Georgia.
In 1827 a schism among the Thomsonians
was led by Wooster
Beach of New York City. Beach called his
faction the Reformed
Botanics. One of the points of
difference was the question of
establishing botanical medical schools
to train men in the cult.
Thomson opposed this, for, being himself
uneducated, he con-
sistently said that education was a
deterrent in the practice of
the cult and that ignorance was an asset
since the ignorant indi-
vidual had a more open mind.
Wooster Beach tried to establish in New
York City what he
called the Reformed Medical College, but
the state authorities
refused to grant the charter and he
could give no degrees. The
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 325
diploma of this school was an elaborate
certificate of membership
in the Reformed Medical Society, but
this failed to satisfy those
who wanted a medical degree. Therefore
this educational effort
was transferred to Ohio where the
college began operation in
1830
at Worthington, in the buildings and under
the dormant char-
ter of Worthington College, which
institution had been abandoned
and established elsewhere under a new
charter as Kenyon College.
In 1832 Horton Howard of Columbus
deserted Thomson
and established another rival faction
called the Improved Botanics.
One of the most important individuals in
the early develop-
ment of Thomsonianism in Ohio was Alva
Curtis (1797-1880).
He was born in New Hampshire and
graduated from an academy
in that state, not from a college as has
been erroneously stated.
Like many New Englanders he went south
about 1825 and be-
came a teacher in a girls' school in
Richmond where he continued
successfully for several years. When
William Lloyd Garrison in
1831 proclaimed his theory of immediate emancipation, Alva
Curtis supported the doctrine. This
terminated his availability
as a teacher in Richmond and he was
dismissed from his teaching
position. He had been converted to
Thomsonianism about 1830,
and he now attempted to practice that
medical cult in Richmond,
but his known adherence to abolition
made him unacceptable.
He found it necessary to move to a
northern state, and since
Ohio was in a period of rapid growth, he
chose Columbus, where
he settled in 1834. Here he took over
the editorship of the Thom-
sonian Recorder, the most prominent journal of the cult.
Alva Curtis was far above the average
Thomsonian in both
education and ability. Soon after he
arrived in Columbus he
established a school to teach
Thomsonianism, and as he was an
experienced teacher he attracted
students. The school had no
charter at first, so could grant no
degrees, but degrees were quite
unnecessary then, for anyone, if he
could find patients, could prac-
tice medicine without any legal
certification as to medical or other
education.
In 1839 Alva Curtis secured a charter for the Literary and
Botanico-Medical Institute of Ohio. It
was conducted for two
326
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
years in Columbus, but moved to
Cincinnati in 1841. This was
the first chartered Thomsonian school as
distinguished from the
Reformed Botanics; thus Ohio had the
first chartered schools of
each faction.
Since 1825 Columbus had been the western
outpost of pure
Thomsonianism, while near at hand, at
Worthington, was the
center of the Reformed Botanics, and one
of Samuel Thomson's
three sons settled in Portage County.
Thus the Western Reserve
came to have a large number of
Thomsonian adherents.
Ohio was prominent in Thomsonian
publications--books, as
well as journals. Of the thirteen
editions of Thomson's book at
least four were printed in Ohio. One of
these, a German edition
for the Pennsylvania Germans resident in
the east central part of
the State, was the only translation into
a foreign language. Also
at Columbus in 1829 and at Cincinnati in
1830 were published
Samuel Robinson's Lectures on Medical
Botany which became
second only to Thomson's work for
text-book use.
The period of the greatest growth of
Thomsonianism was
from 1822 to 1837. By 1835 the
popularity of the cult began
to wane in New England and New York, and
many practitioners
were among the large numbers of people
who were then moving
westward to increase the settlements in
Ohio and the states im-
mediately west.
The cholera epidemics of 1832 and 1834
accelerated the ac-
ceptance of Thomsonianism by the people
of this region. The
regular profession acknowledged their
helplessness against the
disease, but the Thomsonians proclaimed
that they had cured
every case of cholera they had treated
and numerous specific in-
stances were cited and supported by
testimonials and affidavits
of the patients. A check of the location
of these patients shows,
however, that the great majority were in
towns where there is
no reliable record that cholera actually
occurred.
These "cures" resulted from a
favorite method of all cultists,
that is, diagnosis of a mild disease
under the name of a severe
disease. Every case of ordinary summer
diarrhea was diagnosed
by the Thomsonians as cholera, and their
treatment cured these
patients, or the patients recovered in
spite of the treatment.
OHIO MEDICAL
HISTORY, 1835-1858 327
However, the people accepted the claims
and there was a
great increase in the number of those
who relied upon the Thom-
sonian method of treatment. In 1835 the
governor of Mississippi
stated publicly that one-half the people
of that state relied upon
Thomsonianism. In the same year, in
Ohio, the Thomsonians
claimed the adherence of one-half the
population and the regular
profession acknowledged that one-third
of the people were ad-
herents of the cult. Ohio was then the
third state in the Union
in size of population, and therefore
became the most extensive
field for the Thomsonians in the
country. In 1839 Thomson
claimed three million adherents in the
United States.
The technique of the Thomsonians was to
inveigh against
regular medical practice, especially the
use of mercury, poly-
pharmacy, and blood-letting. But the
Thomsonians outdid the
regular physicians in the matter of
compounds, some of their
thirty ingredients including inert and
superstitious ones. As for
blood-letting, three days of continuous
emesis, enemas, and steam
baths were far more depleting than
drawing four ounces of blood
--the usual maximum in phlebotomy.
The Thomsonians called the regular
physicians mineral doc-
tors, and the regular physicians
retorted by designating the Thom-
sonians as steam doctors and (referring
to emesis) "puke doctors."
One of the prominent activities of
Samuel Thomson was the
manufacture of the medicaments that he
advocated, especially of
numbers one to six. While he abandoned
his early complete
secrecy as to the ingredients of his
remedies, the directions that
he gave in his book for preparing them
were very general and he
warned his followers that the only
efficacious and reliable prepa-
rations were those made by the several
manufacturing concerns
which he either owned or controlled.
The growth of the cult in the Middle
West resulted in the
largest of these manufacturing concerns
being in Cincinnati. From
it, all the territory tributary to the
Mississippi and Ohio rivers
was supplied. Thus, Ohio came to have
the largest number of ad-
herents in any one state, the center of
its publications--both books
and journals--and the location of its
principal manufacturing
328
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
concern. The direction of the activities
by Samuel Thomson and
his three sons was a prosperous business
and from this fact de-
veloped opposition to Thomson and his
lieutenants. Three of
these lieutenants were Alva Curtis and
Thomas Hersey of Co-
lumbus, and Samuel Robinson of
Cincinnati.
Moreover, in spite of the opposition of
Samuel Thomson,
several botanic medical schools had been
established in Georgia,
Virginia, Tennessee, and Massachusetts,
and the graduates of
these schools knew more about medicine
than did the members of
the controlling hierarchy. They began to
protest against some of
Thomson's dogmas, supporting the
Reformed Botanics' attitude.
The controversy within the cult began to
be prominent in 1837
when the patent was about to expire, and
the decline began. Of
the several rebels against Thomson,
Wooster Beach was the first,
but the most prominent in Ohio were
Horton Howard and Alva
Curtis of Columbus. Howard died of
cholera in 1834 and his
faction soon disappeared.
Samuel Thomson died in Boston in 1843
and his sons could
not hold the cult together. Like the
wonderful one-horse shay,
"it went to pieces all at once and
nothing first, just as bubbles
do when they burst."
A considerable proportion of the
remnants gathered around
three foci known as the Eclectics, the
Physiomedicals, and the
True Thomsonians. The latter group,
finding that the name of
Samuel Thomson was no longer a lode-stone
soon changed their
designation to the Botanics. Their
better members deserted to one
of the other factions and the Botanics
rapidly disappeared, there
being very few left after the Civil War.
Each of the three fac-
tions established a medical school in
Cincinnati, although the
Botanico-Medical College was really a
transfer of the school of
Alva Curtis from Columbus, and the
Eclectic Medical Institute
was a revival of the Reformed Botanic
College of Worthington,
dormant for five years. Alva Curtis soon
deserted the Botanics
and became the leader of
Physiomedicalism.
The Eclectic and Physiomedical schools
were the parents of
all other schools of these sects in the
United States, and thus Ohio
became the parent of both of these
medical sects.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1185 329
The Physiomedical sect became moribund
with the death of
Alva Curtis in 1880. The Eclectics
lasted the longest, its last
school closing only a few years ago, so
there are still several hun-
dred graduates of eclectic medical
schools in practice in the United
States.
When the dissolution of Thomsoniansm
came in 1843 the
Eclectic faction attracted the more able
and better educated men,
including the Reformed Botanics; the
Physiomedicals were next
best, and the Botanics the least
competent. However, these three
factions do not account for all the
former Thomsonians. What
became of the rest?
A few went into regular medicine. In the
records of regular
medical schools of that period are
occasional requests for the
conventional year of credit for having
been a practitioner, with
refusal of that request because the
applicant had practiced Thom-
soniansm.
A very considerable number went over to
the water curists.
This accounts for the fact that the
original European thesis, of
use by this cult of only cold water, was
modified in America by
addition of hot water and steam. There
was a further modifica-
tion of this therapy by the absorption
of many Grahamites, the
vegetarian cult of that period.
The therapy of the water cure was
difficult to carry out in
the home. Moreover, their special desire
was to treat chronic
rather than acute illness. Therefore
there came the founding of a
large number of institutions known as
water cure establishments.
There were several in Ohio. These mostly
disappeared by about
1880, but a few still exist in changed
attire under the name of
sanitaria. The best known is the one at
Battle Creek, Michigan,
which was originally a water cure
establishment. Here you will
find a faint remnant of Thomsonian
cultism in the use of enemas,
now called colon irrigations, and also a
very distinct retention,
as a part of the institutional therapy,
of the therapy of the Gra-
hamite cult of a hundred years ago in
the insistance upon an en-
tirely vegetarian diet.
However, another goal attracted many
former Thomsonians.
330
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
It will take more argument than room
here permits to convince
American homeopathists and their
historians that the major rea-
son for the sudden growth of Homeopathy
between 1840 and 1855
was the collapse of Thomsonianism, but a
considerable amount
of investigation, yielding several
different kinds of data, all points
to the conclusion that large numbers of
Thomsonians went over
to the more novel Homeopathy.
One would not expect it to be difficult
for an individual who
had depended for his entire knowledge of
how to practice upon
a single book by Samuel Thomson to shift
his allegiance to an-
other single book by another Samuel, the
Organon of Samuel
Hahnemann.
I have time to mention but one of the
lines of evidence.
Thomsonianism was strongly entrenched in
certain areas from
1830
to 1840.
These were eastern Massachusetts, southern
Ver-
mont, the eastern part of the Mohawk
Valley in New York, eastern
Pennsylvania, northern, central, and
southwestern Ohio, and
southern Michigan. It was in exactly
these areas and in no others,
that Homeopathy had its early growth and
developed most before
the Civil War. One might contend this
was due to a series of
coincidences, but when several other
lines of evidence are added
I am convinced that Homeopathy arose out
of the remnants of
Thomsonianism and received far more
accretion from this source
than from desertion from regular
medicine to this new doctrine of
similia similibus curentur and infinitesimal doses.
Thomsonianism was the second medical
cult that arose in the
United States. It was preceded by about
fifteen years by Perkin-
ism which, because of the early death of
its founder, was short-
lived. However, for a few years
Perkinism created quite a stir in
England, while Thomsonianism never
crossed the ocean. Samuel
Thomson for a time put into his practice
elements of Perkinism,
using what he called an electrical
machine for external treatment.
Among educated men Thomsonianism had few
adherents or
supporters. Benjamin Waterhouse,
professor of medicine at
Harvard, stated that it might possibly
be worth investigating to
see if there were any minor elements of
truth in its claims. So
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 331
hungry was Thomson for even a nod of
recognition from anyone
in high places that thereafter he
reiterated that Waterhouse was
an ardent supporter. A similar result
followed a polite non-com-
mittal personal compliment to Samuel
Thomson by Samuel L.
Mitchell of New York, and a comment by
Constantine Rafinesque,
the French naturalist and professor of
materia medica in Transyl-
vania University.
Thomsonianism, by Thomson's own claims,
was a medical
system of and for the ignorant.
Nevertheless, it had the largest
following of any American medical cult
and holds an important
place in the history of American
medicine because out of it came
one of the medical sects (Eclecticism)
that persisted for nearly a
century, and another sect (Homeopathy)
at its outset received
major accruals at the disintegration of
Thomsonianism.
This cult is more important in the
medical history of Ohio
than in that of any other state, both
because it was stronger in
Ohio than elsewhere, and also that its
disintegration came just
at the time to furnish the foundation of
the three most prominent
medical sects in Ohio, namely,
Eclecticism, Physiomedicalism, and
Homeopathy.
Its great acceptance in Ohio arose from
the fact that when
Thomsonianism was at its peak the
population was growing more
rapidly than the regular profession and
therefore, with lack of
adequate medical service, Thomsonianism
was tolerated as better
than nothing.
The important place of this cult in the
medical history of
this State makes it highly desirable
that someone should give it
extensive study. There is much material.
No writer has given
it any extensive critical historical
attention.
This short sketch makes no claim to
being a history of this
feature of Ohio's medical history, but
it is hoped it may lead
someone to investigate it thoroughly and
make a detailed record
of the events that characterize it and
the results that have come
from it.
THE RISE OF HOMEOPATHY
By LUCY STONE HERTZOG, M. D.
In the course of correspondence
concerning this paper, Dr.
Frederick Waite wrote me: One of the
questions is, "What was
the previous relation of those who
became homeopaths in the
early era?" All the homeopathic
histories stress the point that
many of the homeopaths had previously
been in regular medicine
but he was unable to prove this true,
except of only a small
minority. Dr. Waite also raised the
question, "Whence come the
homeopaths" and advanced the idea
that the great majority are
lineal descendants from the Thomsonians
and Eclectics. Worthy
as these sources may be as ancestry,
nothing could be further
from the truth. Complete statistics on
the medical background
of all the individual homeopaths would
be difficult to procure--
but the facts concerning these earlier
days are matters of authentic
record to be found in the libraries of
our colleges in New York
and Philadelphia.
It seems fitting to answer these questions
as a logical start-
ing point in order that the early years
of Homeopathy in Ohio
may be presented with proper background,
in a truthful and or-
derly manner with appropriate
continuity.
Homeopathy is truly "the lengthened
shadow of one man."
It stems from but one source, the
founder, Samuel Christian Fred-
rich Hahnemann, born in Meissen,
Germany, in 1755. His father
was a painter on porcelain in the royal
establishment at Meissen.
He may seem remote from us but he has
been and still is a
very vibrant, vital influence in
medicine. His problems were in-
tensely human, so that we can feel close
to the precocious boy,
the first born of a large family, who
thirsted and hungered for
education in the face of extreme
poverty. He made himself a
little lamp of clay and used forbidden
oil to study while others
slept. His wise father must have divined
the possibilities in this
(332)
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 333
child for no matter where he was or what
he was doing, at a
certain time he always left saying,
"I must go home and give my
boy his lesson in thinking." In
their walks, he taught him nature.
He urged upon him the importance of
finding a reason for every-
thing.
When his father could no longer pay his
tuition in school, a
devoted teacher asked the privilege of
directing his intellectual
training until he was twenty. During
these years he became a
marvelous linguist, being adept in
English, French, German, Latin,
Greek, Hebrew, Sanskrit and Arabic.
Against his father's wishes
he decided to study medicine and this he
did with the assistance
of only twenty crowns from home. He
taught French and German
and translated books to pay his bills.
Every other night he sat
up all night to study. His remarkable
linguistic ability enabled
him to translate many important medical
works in later years.
The student ripened into a profound
scholar with an un-
usually logical mind. Hahnemann became
an expert chemist of
world-wide reputation. He insisted that
all drugs must be pure
to be effective. His insistence upon the
purity of mineral drugs
remained an innovation into the next
century. In 1793 he ad-
vocated the manufacture of tinctures
from fresh plants which
was the last word in practical
chemistry.
He voiced strong disapproval of the
universal purgation of
that day, of the blood-letting, used
often in hemorrhages, until
the patient fainted or died. Today they
would get transfusions.
He condemned severely the administration
of mercury until the
teeth fell out of the jaw. Today all the
world agrees with him.
Hahnemann unchained the insane and
demanded decent treatment
for them. He fought a bitter fight for
cleanliness in obstetrics.
He stood alone in expounding the need
for quarantine and public
sanitation in checking epidemics, and he
condemned hand-shaking,
kissing and using the same drinking
vessels. He advocated pre-
ventive medicine and mechanical
cleanliness in sick room and
hospital. He stressed baths, massage,
pure air, proper clothing
and hygiene for young and old, but above
all, diet. He was par-
ticularly anxious to discover the causes
of disease and remove
them. All of this is old stuff today but
in 1790
it was startling,
334
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
revolutionary and led inevitably to
persecution. As one of the
Mayo's said, "He was 100 years
ahead of his time."
In his day prescriptions of the most
revolting mixtures and
dangerous drugs were assembled numbering
anywhere from sixty
to 200 ingredients in one prescription.
The progress of modern
medicine in all schools toward smaller,
more accurate, much more
pleasant dosage began with Hahnemann's
fight on this one point
when he denounced the messes and the
apothecaries who concocted
them. His was the revolt of a thinking
man against the tyranny
of tradition, ignorance, bigotry,
intolerance, and medical aggres-
sion.
Hahnemann's logical and scholarly mind
rebelled at giving
unknown medical combinations to people
whose physical condition
no one understood fully. So he decided
to try drugs on himself
in order to learn at first-hand their
effect on a healthy person.
The nature of the work he was
translating at the time, led him to
take first Cinchona bark. It was the one
drug of that age that
was known to produce results, and on
Hahnemann it brought
startling results for it produced in him
the chill, fever and sweat
distinctive of the ague that Cinchona
was curing.
Hahnemann hoped and believed he had
chanced upon one of
nature's facts--a law or principle of
cure to the effect that a drug
would cure a disease similar to the
symptoms produced on a
healthy person by taking that drug. By
this proving Hahnemann
rediscovered the law of similars the
truth of which had always
existed--used even by savages, long
before Hahnemann, and it
will always exist--even though organized
Homeopathy becomes
a thing of the past. The doctrine has
been referred to in every
century of recorded medical thought.
Claudius Galen and Hip-
pocrates used "Helleboris which
caused mania, to cure mania."
This law is illustrated in the common
knowledge of the value
of heat for burns and cold for frost
bites.
The word "homeopathy" is derived
from Greek words mean-
ing like and disease, and is used as an
adjective by scholars and
writers to describe things
infinitesimally small. Homeopathy is
simply a method of treating the sick in
accordance with its formula
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 335
"similia similibus
curentur"--let similars be
treated by similars,
rather than by "contraria."
Hahnemann studied and experimented for
sixteeen years
before announcing his discovery, in the
first edition of his
Organon, published in 1810. It has been
translated into many
languages, and ran through five
editions.
Hahnemann insisted that drug action can
only be learned by
proving on healthy human subjects. He
contended that to treat
the sick scientifically and homeopathically,
but one remedy should
be used, and that in the minimum dose to
cure and not aggravate.
Hahnemann gave accurate instruction in
case taking, individual-
izing the case. The homeopath might give
a different remedy to
each of a number of cases of cough.
Hahnemann taught that the action of the
homeopathically
administered remedy is due to its power
of stimulating the cells
of the body to curative reactions. His
terms "dynamis" and
"spirit-like force" are the
equivalent of the modern term "vital
function of cells" and his logic
could have been written by a
modern immunologist. Bacteriology,
immunology, and allergy
have given substantiation to Homeopathy.
Vitamins and hormones
illustrate the potency of the minute
dose--the infinitesimal, that
the body works with. Antitoxins, serums,
and vaccines confirm
Homeopathy.
The modern Arndt-Schulz law which is
accepted by leading
medical thinkers is only another way of
stating Hahnemann's pri-
mary and secondary action of drugs. It
has been suggested that
this may prove to be the common ground
where minds of all
medical schools may meet, eventually, in
their need for a medical
principle in selecting a remedy.
Homeopathy and other methods
of drug therapy are not incompatible.
They may be comple-
mentary. Hahnemann never claimed to have
inaugurated an all-
sufficient law of cure.
The great reformation in medicine
brought about by Hahne-
mann's rebellion against the medical
orthodoxy of his day is not
appreciated solely by his immediate
followers. Queen Victoria's
physician said: Homeopathy is the remote
if not immediate cause
of more important fundamental changes in
the practice of the
336 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
healing art than any since Galen
himself. Sir William Osler fre-
quently said that no one individual had
done more good to the
medical profession than Hahnemann. A
long list of old school
clinicians such as Richard Clarke Cabot,
Benjamin Rush, Roberts
Bartholow, Jacob da Silva Solis Cohen
and Rudolf Virchow have
inadvertently advocated homeopathic
therapeutics.
In Hering Laboratory a file covering
five years from 1930 to
1935 shows 1200 references
substantiating homeopathic doctrines
in general practice from old school
sources.
As a profession we are growing more
tolerant, and we need
to. There have always been detractors of
every great leader of
any innovation in medicine. It took
fifty years for the doctors
to accept William Harvey's discovery of
the circulation of the
blood. They called him demented and he
lost his big practice,
and his life was in danger. Michael
Servetus who advanced the
same ideas was burned at the stake for
it in 1553. In this very
epoch, Ignaz Philipp Semmelweiss of
Budapest -- 1847 -- made
students wash their hands before going
into the obstetric wards,
in chloride of lime. Mortality dropped
but he was so persecuted
by the doctors he became insane. At the
same time Oliver Wendell
Holmes here, asserted child-bed fever
was contagious and trans-
mitted by the hands. He was ridiculed
and abused. So it is not
strange that Hahnemann was attacked on
all sides.
He lectured at the University of Leipsic
from 1812
to 1821
--and for a time was court physician.
During this time the
doctors and publishers determined to get
rid of him by fair
means or foul. A brilliant young medical
student Constantine
Hering was given the job, to get his
man. So he proceeded to
study every phase of his work and
philosophy. To the amaze-
ment of those who had hoped for
something different, he became
a convert to Hahnemann's teaching and
upon graduation his thesis
was entitled "Future
Medicine," a delineation of Homeopathy
completely in its favor. Hering came to
Philadelphia in 1833
and under his able leadership Hahnemann
College came into being.
Hahnemann's marvelous cures with single
remedies naturally
maddened the apothecaries, robbed of
their prescription revenues
--consequently they accused him of
breaking the law by dispensing
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858
337
his own medicine, and won their case in
court. Thus he was
forbidden to prepare or dispense his own
medicine in Saxony.
Denied the right to practice medicine he
left Leipsic, reduced to
poverty, hounded from town to town with
his family, yet he
persisted to tell the truth by pen,
precept and example. Gradually,
disciples gathered to his support and in
a quiet little town in
Germany under the protection of the
reigning duke, he studied
intensively, while patients came to him
from all over Europe,
because of the fame of his cures.
Hahnemann's last marriage was
to a pupil and patient, a titled French
woman. Through her in-
fluence he received a royal ordinance
granting him permission
to practice in Paris. At the age of
ninety, covered with honor
and glory, having kept the faith and
fought a good fight, he
departed this life.
Hahnemann had published seventy original
works on chemis-
try and medicine and had translated as
many at least into French,
Latin and English. He left ten volumes
of provings, among them
the story of ninety-nine drugs proved on
his own body. It is to
this brilliant medical pioneer, reformer
and teacher, Samuel
Hahnemann, whose name deserves to be
ranked among the im-
mortals in medicine, that Homeopathy
owes its existence, its prin-
ciples, its philosophy, and its law of
cure, and to no other source.
He had as lasting effect in the realm of
medicine as Louis
Pasteur, Lord Joseph Lister, Edward
Jenner and Harvey had
in other fields. All alike suffered
persecution.
"God sends his messengers to every
race and age
Illuminati, bearers of the light;
And here and there upon the dismal page
of history,
celestial, bright
Their names shine forth."
Homeopathy quickly found its way to
America, only fifty
years after the signing of the
Declaration of Independence. Hans
Burch Gram born in Boston, a Dane, went
to Copenhagen at the
age of eighteen to look after the family
estate. His uncle, then
physician to the king, encouraged him to
study medicine and so
338
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
gifted was he that he graduated from the
Copenhagen University
with the three highest honors it could
confer. Hearing of the
work of Hahnemann he studied, and
adopted it, and brought it to
America in 1825, the first direct line
from Hahnemann, just ten
years before the epoch we are
considering.
Gram's first converts were Drs. John F.
Gray and Thomas
Bellerby Wilson, medical students of
Drs. David Hosack and
Valentine Mott, who never forgave them
for their action nor for
their success. The prominent Dr. Federal
Vandenberg, who be-
came a convert, tells the story of a man
patient of his with a
toe set at right angles with his foot by
a contraction of the tendon.
He and Mott had advised him to have it
divided but the man
would have none of it. A month later he
met the man on the
street entirely cured who said Gram had
given him some sugar
pellets the size of a mustard seed which
had done the trick.
Cures which seemed miraculous except to
a homeopath
brought converts, and they were
graduates of the best universities
of Europe and of the allopathic schools
in America. They had to
be--because there were no homeopathic
schools. They were mem-
bers of identical societies and hospital
staffs.
Hahnemann himself was elected by ballot
in 1828 to mem-
bership in the New York Academy of
Medicine and the reason
given was that he was the founder of
Homeopathy. He is still
an honorary member.
It is difficult to understand why these
physicians who adopted
Homeopathy were so persecuted by their
fellows who saw red
and foamed at the mouth at the idea. All
homeopaths were barred
from membership in county societies,
hence from license to prac-
tice in those days, therefore they were
forced to organize to pro-
tect themselves and their patients. It
was not the wish nor inten-
tion of homeopathic physicians to form a
separate school. It was
the persecution of those bitter days,
and the action of the state in
extending equal protection to all of its
citizens that forced the
issue. For today physicians of all
schools hold their right to
practice from the state and not from a
medical society that could
be prejudiced.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY,
1835-1858 339
This freedom possessed by all schools
today we owe to the
rugged courage of those old homeopaths
who fought and won
their rights; that broke up the cliques
that decided what their
confreres should think and what medicine
they should or should
not prescribe.
The second direct line to the United
States from Hahnemann
came through his pupil Dr. Johann Ernst
Stapf. Because of
trouble in Saxony a number of
self-exiled physicians came to
America and settled in Northampton
County, Pennsylvania. All
were well educated in German
universities, not a quack or preten-
der among them. They often gathered
together, and on one
occasion Dr. Conrad Wesselhoeft showed
the others some books
and a box of homeopathic remedies sent
him by Stapf in Germany.
They were deeply interested and studied
and adopted Homeopathy.
When Constantine Hering came to
Philadelphia, being a born
leader of men, he organized these
brilliant German homeopaths
into a school at Allentown,
Pennsylvania, the first homeopathic
school in the United States which was
parent institution of twenty-
two homeopathic colleges, including
Hahnemann at Philadelphia.
Homeopathy grew step by step with the
young state of
Ohio and both became strong. A Dr. Cope
had come in 1836
to practice in the vicinity of Plymouth,
Richland County. He
must have been a believer in highly
diluted drugs, administering
only a single dose, repeating it in two
weeks if such "radical"
treatment were required. It is recorded
that he made remarkable
cures and had a large practice.
Tradition has it that a German doc-
tor settled in Delaware County about
this same time and treated
his patients with "very little
pills and whose habit in typhoid cases
was to give the patient one dose and
return at the end of a week
to see how it was working." These
men had the courage and
faith of their convictions.
Dr. William Sturm began practice in 1839
in Cincinnati. He
was educated in Germany, and was a
personal student of Hahne-
mann. He was first of the long line of
fine homeopaths in that
region. His skill and success gave him
fame and a large practice
all through the Ohio River Valley. The
second to come down the
river to Cincinnati under the
homeopathic banner was Joseph
340
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
H. Pulte in 1840. He was one of the
founders of the Allentown
Academy, the son of a distinguished
physician. He was a notable
physician of great learning and a
prolific writer. One of his books
on domestic practice reached the seventh
edition, and was trans-
lated into several foreign languages. He
translated many German
homeopathic works into English. It is
said of him that once when
a distinguished Greek visited the city,
Pulte was the only citizen
to be found able to converse with the
foreigner in his native
tongue. He was later the founder of
Pulte College.
Benjamin Ehrmann, whose father and
grandfather were
physicians in Germany, a graduate of
Allentown Academy, joined
the tide of western emigration and
became the partner of Pulte.
In 1849 an epidemic of Asiatic cholera
scourged the West. Along
with Pulte and Ehrmann worked Edwin C.
Wetherell, a New
York graduate who had spent some time in
the hospitals of Lon-
don and Paris, and Dr. F. A. Davis, who
had studied with Pulte,
who opened a free dispensary for the
cholera victims. Dr. James
G. Hunt, Dr. William Peck and a Dr.
Price--members of the
orthodox school, were converted to
Homeopathy because pri-
marily, it was so extremely successful
in curing this cholera.
During the cholera epidemic, the
homeopaths somehow did
not know about making reports to the
authorities as did the allo-
paths and Pulte and Ehrmann were haled
before the mayor for
trial--but were dismissed--the health
board not being lawfully
organized. At this time the editor of a
religious paper, being a
minister and also an orthodox physician
became irritated and irked
at the amazing results of homeopathic
practice, so he proceeded
to rip them up in his paper. The
homeopaths answered him
gentlemanly but firmly to no effect.
After the abuse had gone
far enough the grateful citizens of
Cincinnati formed an associa-
tion which appointed a committee to
investigate and report. As
a result, the homeopathic doctors were
exonerated, and the eminent
editor was asked to correct promptly his
published statement.
The period from 1849 to 1852 was very
important in the
history of Homeopathy in Ohio. The
Homeopathic Society of
Cincinnati, composed chiefly of laymen,
had a membership of
1,000. Its chief objectives were: to
vindicate Homeopathy, and
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 341
to uphold the truth regarding the
cholera epidemic; to petition
the General Assembly of 1849 for an act
establishing a homeo-
pathic college; to promulgate the
lectures delivered by Dr. Storm
Rosa at the Eclectic College in 1849;
and to organize a college in
Cleveland in 1850.
From the beginning many obstacles had
been thrown in the
path of progress of the homeopathic
practitioners in Cincinnati,
but in time of need this little bunch of
pioneers were offered
an educational home in the eclectic
school in that city. Dr. E. M.
Hale gives this narrative:
When the Eclectic Medical College was
organized it was understood
by the legislature that chartered it and
the original faculty, that it was to
be organized upon the broadest base of
pure Eclecticism. Drs. Morrow, Hill,
Gatchell and other able men were on the
faculty and Dr. Storm Rosa was
selected by the homeopaths of Ohio as a
suitable person to occupy the chair
of homeopathic practice. He had studied
medicine in New York, but after
practicing 25 years he began to
investigate homeopathy at the suggestion of
friends who had been helped by it and he
formally adopted it in 1843.
His labors in the Eclectic school mark
an era of homeopathy in the
west, and gave an impetus to the system
that is still felt. He had been
asked to prepare two courses of
lectures, but the first course had the effect
of converting not only one-third of the
class, but two of his most prominent
colleagues on the faculty--Drs. Hill and
Gatchell. This was a result not
relished by the Eclectic School and so
the Trustees formally abolished the
chair in 1850.
So thorough had been Rosa's teaching
that in the spring six
students received both eclectic and
homeopathic diplomas. These
were the first homeopathic diplomas
given in the West, and the
date preceded by nine days only, the
graduation of six men from
the Homeopathic Medical College of
Pennsylvania.
Just what the strong personality of Rosa
and the stronger
truths of Homeopathy had to do with the
decision of the board
of trustees may be left to the
imagination. A convention was
called at Columbus in 1851 to organize a
State Homeopathic So-
ciety. At that time and place Dr.
Benjamin L. Hill, a surgeon
of national reputation who had been
professor of anatomy and
surgery at the Eclectic Institute,
avowed his conversion to Homeo-
pathy and gave his reasons, later
published in a series of articles.
342
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Among other prominent eclectic graduates
who took up
Homeopathy about this time were: Dr.
William Owens, demon-
strator in the Eclectic Institute, later
holding the same position
in the Cleveland Homeopathic College,
and Dr. William Webster,
descendant of Noah and son of the
pioneer homeopath, Dr. Elias
Webster. He had settled in Middletown,
was converted to Homeo-
pathy by Rosa's teaching and later moved
to Dayton, where he
remained. Another, was the homeopathic
pioneer of Hamilton
County, Dr. Alfred Shepherd, who for
years was the only homeo-
path between Cincinnati and Dayton. Dr.
J. Beeman of Birming-
ham and Dr. T. W. Cuscaden of Lebanon
were the pioneers of
their districts. Dr. David H. Beckwith
who graduated at the
Eclectic Institute in 1849, later
settled in Cleveland.
The association of the homeopaths with
the Eclectic Institute
for the one year of 1849, added to the
fact that then and later,
so many other eclectics were converted
to Homeopathy, no doubt
explains the claims of outsiders that
the homeopaths stem from
Eclecticism.
Among others already mentioned of the
medical men of
the orthodox school who preferred
homeopathic practice in this
period were three from Cincinnati: Dr.
Jesse Garretson, Dr. John
Bigler and Dr. Gerald Saal, educated in
Germany. Dr. John Tifft
of Norwalk practiced Allopathy many
years before changing in
1852. After being an allopath for
twenty-five years, Dr. H. N.
Manter who was of superior literary and
medical education, began
practicing Homeopathy in Elyria. Dr.
Henry L. Sook said that
in 1844 a friend brought him a small
case of remedies and a
homeopathic book. He said: "Like
other simpletons I attempted
to make sport of the little pills, but
becoming convinced of their
superiority, I later studied the system
in opposition to all friends
and relatives." He graduated in
Homeopathy in Cleveland and
practiced at Pomeroy, Steubenville, and
Newark during his life.
Dr. E. W. Cowles, graduate of Jefferson
Medical College, became
a convert after practicing Allopathy for
thirteen years. He began
practicing Homeopathy in Cleveland in
1845.
Before this, Dr. R. E. W. Adams
introduced Homeopathy to
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 343
Cleveland in 1843. The next year, Dr.
Daniel O. Hoyt, an allo-
path, graduate of Dartmouth took up
Homeopathy and became a
partner of Adams. Dr. John Wheeler, also
a graduate of Dart-
mouth, became a convert after practicing
Allopathy twenty-seven
years. He was one of the best-known and
best-beloved of the
early homeopaths and was President of
the Cleveland Homeo-
pathic College many years. Dr. Alex H.
Burritt, graduate of
Physicians and Surgeons College in New
York, after practicing
Allopathy for nine years, visited his
relative, Dr. John Gray in
New York, saw his successes with
Homeopathy, and became a
convert. He was later appointed to the
chair of obstetrics in
1850
in Cleveland. Dr. Hamilton Ring graduated
at the Homeo-
pathic Medical College in 1851 and
located in Urbana.
Plans were begun in 1849 for a
homeopathic college in
Cleveland but they did not materialize
until the fall of 1850 when
the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical
College opened its doors in
a building at the corner of Prospect and
Ontario streets, with an
able faculty and a fine course of study
planned. It was the second
institution of its kind in America. It
was not the outgrowth of
any institution in the East--as claimed,
nor of any other school of
medical thought.
At the opening exercises a large,
enthusiastic, fashionable
audience greeted with cheers the opening
address of Prof. C. D.
Wiliams, who was to teach homeopathic
medicine. He was a
brilliant physician who had practiced a
number of years in New
York. It was he who drew up the charter
for the Western Homeo-
pathic College. Notable among the
teachers was Jehu Brainard,
A.M., M.D., a scholar with degrees from
many colleges. He now
taught the physical sciences, botany,
and anatomy--which he had
taught in other colleges. He was a
writer of note. He finally
removed to Washington, D. C., where he
helped get certain laws
repealed that had been passed by
Congress and which were ad-
verse and oppressive to the homeopathic
school. Dr. Storm Rosa
of Painesville, Ohio, who had made such
an impression with his
homeopathic teaching at the eclectic
school, was now called to
the chair of gynecology and obstetrics.
Dr. Benjamin Hill, the
344
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
surgeon, came from the eclectic school
to act as a founder of the
new school and to teach surgery. He
published a small domestic
medical book, The Epitome of the
Homeopathic Healing Art,
which ran through eighteen editions. In
1855-1856 James G.
Hunt came to teach surgery and with Hill
collaborated on an
outstanding book on surgery. Also in
that same year came Dr.
J. S. Douglas as professor of materia
medica. Douglas and Hill
proved black cohosh with great care on
forty students, male
and female. Hill finally went to
Nicaraugua as consul for one
year and served two terms in the State
legislature.
In the first year of the new school, Dr.
H. P. Gatchell came
from teaching in the Eclectic Institute
and was a tower of strength
to the institution. Dr. E. C. Wetherell
from New York, a man of
fine education and great ability held
the chair of anatomy eight
years. Dr. Lewis C. Dodge a man of
exceptional education taught
materia medica. Dr. John Wheeler, a man
of parts, was president
of the board of trustees during the
first ten years of the school's
existence and was always at the head of
the college directing and
advising its policy. He never shrank
from duty and when as-
sailed by enemies in the profession he
knew no fear.
In the first year the college had sixty
students. There were
then about fifty homeopathic physicians
in the State. During this
first year a disgraceful episode is
remembered regretfully by the
citizens of Cleveland. At that time
there was no proper provision
for bodies for the dissecting rooms.
They were provided by out-
side parties and sold to the medical
colleges. A grave was dis-
covered to have been robbed in a
Cleveland cemetery. This act
of vandalism created great excitement.
Probably because the
homeopathic school was newly started,
and so fresh in the public
mind, suspicion was directed at it.
Those interested easily got a
mob together to force an entrance and
search for the body. The
college doors were broken open, and the
mob became a riot. After
entering and searching fruitlessly, the
work of destruction began.
Windows were broken, extensive chemical
laboratories with con-
tents, were dismantled and destroyed.
The fine museum of Brain-
ard, the botanist, the result of years
of collection was entirely
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 345
destroyed. All anatomical models,
manikins, and charts were
ruined and every piece of furniture was
either thrown out of the
windows or carried away by the mob.
Several times the torch
was applied and it was only by excessive
effort the fire department
prevented the destruction of the
building. Just as the mob started
towards Williams' home to destroy it, a
force of State troops
appeared and quelled the riot. It was
later successfully proved
that the stolen body was never in the
homeopathic college. The
entire loss was sustained by the
faculty. They received no recom-
pense from the State or the city of
Cleveland.
In the spring there was a direct
reaction from the persecu-
tion during the winter and there came a
revival of good will of
the citizens, many of whom contributed
money with which the
trustees bought a building called the
Belvidere. In 1852 it was
deeded to the trustees. Many changes and
improvements were
made and the college moved into its new
home. There were now
required three years of study and two
courses of lectures--at a
cost of $99 per year.
Pulte came from Cincinnati to teach
clinical medicine but
finally took over gynecology and
obstetrics. Dr. John Ellis, an-
other of the strong men in Homeopathy,
the author of many
medical books was teacher of the
practice of medicine for six
years. The Beckwiths played important
parts in Homeopathy in
Cleveland. Dr. David H. Beckwith
graduated at the Eclectic
Institute in 1849, went East for
honorary degrees and settled in
Cleveland. In 1851-1852 he, with others,
had entire control of
the county buildings and they tested
thoroughly the comparative
methods of the two schools of medicine
in scarlet fever and
dysentery. The result was so favorable
to Homeopathy that the
old use of drugs was abolished. In the
next forty years it was
said of him that he rang more silver
door bells in Cleveland than
any other doctor in the city.
Dr. Seth R. Beckwith graduated from the
Cleveland Homeo-
pathic College in 1853 and located in
Norwalk. From there he
was called to teach surgical anatomy at
the college. He was the
surgeon of the railroads entering
Cleveland. He opened the first
346
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
organized hospital in Cleveland in
1856--the Cleveland Homeo-
pathic Hospital of twenty beds, on Lake
Street. Beckwith used
it for those injured on the railroads
and it was open to all surgical
cases. During 1855-1856 the name of the
college was changed to
the Western College of Homeopathy.
Including 1858, the years
of the college were successful in having
a strong faculty and
splendid graduating classes numbering
from twenty to thirty each
year.
In 1845 a homeopathic pharmacy was
opened in Cincinnati, an
agency for the Leipsic pharmacy in
Germany. In 1846 the first
homeopathic pharmacy was opened in
Cleveland at the corner of
Superior and the Public Square. A
homeopathic drug store was
opened in this epoch in Cleveland to be
owned eventually by
Beckwith and L. H. Witte.
During this epoch, the first woman to
practice medicine in
Ohio came to Cleveland in 1852, Dr. Myra
Merrick, educated in
medicine in Rochester, New York City and
New Haven, Con-
necticut. She was a great homeopath of
outstanding personality.
She was the first physician in Cleveland
to place her patients in
the Walcher position and hers was the
motive power behind the
Women's and Children's Dispensary, which
led eventually to the
present Women's Hospital in Cleveland.
All honor to the achievements of the
pioneer homeopaths.
Many more deserve special mention. There
were giants in those
days. The pioneers of all schools of
medical thought took their
religious and medical beliefs seriously,
militantly. With the
simplest equipment they became keen
observers, depending on
their senses, and their wits, instead of
instruments of precision.
They braved weather, no roads, danger,
ignorance, and primitive
conditions with salty courage and
resourcefulness in their battle
with the Grim Reaper when epidemics of
malaria, smallpox, dysen-
tery, and typhoid, raged. Each
generation is pioneer to the next.
Upon the work of these men was built the
medical structure of
today.
URINALYSIS, INSTRUMENTS OF PRECISION,
THE
STETHOSCOPE, ET CETERA, OF THE PERIOD,
1835-1858
By HOWARD DITTRICK, M. D.
The period 1835 to 1858 was one during
which there was little
or no advance in the scientific side of
medicine. According to
F. H. Garrison, the scientific movement
did not start until well
after the middle of the nineteenth
century. Medicine of the early
half was, with a few exceptions, only
part and parcel of the sta-
tionary theorizing of the preceding age.
This was particularly true
regarding development and use of
instruments of precision.
The field of my assigned topic is
restricted within two limita-
tions: first, instruments of precision,
that is, those of definite
scientific measurement in the field of
diagnosis; and second, those
used in Ohio within this
comparatively barren period.
If, therefore, this paper should be
restricted to precision in-
struments of this period certainly used
in Ohio, there would be
little to say and I would have saved
much time for myself and
some twenty minutes for you. I had
almost reduced it to the
well-known essay of a school boy on
baseball--"Rain, no game."
But I propose to adhere to the outline
set forth by your chair-
man in his letter of last January, in
which he allotted to me, in
addition to precision instruments,
chemical analysis of urine, the
stethoscope, etc. I crave your
indulgence if I place undue em-
phasis on the et cetera. Under
that heading you may mentally
catalogue all those instruments which
you may not agree to be
properly classified as instruments of
precision.
For even that line of demarcation may be
vague. Dr. Ralph
H. Major said that while stethoscope,
thermometer and blood
pressure apparatus were classed as
instruments of precision when
first introduced, they are not now
considered more precise than the
finger-tips. Because since we have
become familiar with them,
we have learned that they are subject to
strange caprices, and can
(347)
348
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
easily lead us astray. Evidently the et
cetera must salvage the
only remaining shreds of my topic. I
shall begin with urinalysis.
The story of the examination of urine is
very intriguing, and
goes far back into history. May I touch
briefly on these facts
leading up to the period under
discussion today, in order to afford
perspective for progress within this
era.
For example, the Fehling test for sugar
goes back to Un-
guentum Egypticum. In the preparation of
this ointment, which
contained verdigris, honey and vinegar,
it was noted that boiling
produced a change in color, due to the
reaction of the copper and
sugar. This led ultimately to the
present test which results from
the reduction of copper solutions by
glucose.
In the middle ages the examination of
urine, or uroscopy,
consisted of observations of urine in
large flasks, these having
been collected by pages and brought to
the doctor in woven straw
containers called matulas. This practice
is frequently illustrated
in old art.
Modern qualitative analysis dates from
Lorenzo Bellini
(1643-1704) who evaporated the urine and
found that the gross
characteristics were due to the
variations in amounts of water and
solids present. Hermann Boerhaave
(1668-1704) emphasized the
measurement of urine. He discovered
urea, but little heed was
paid to it until Ruelle, in 1771, again
directed attention to it.
In 1772 Matthew Dobson studied the urine
in diabetes, and
described it as clear, pale, and sweet.
By evaporation he obtained
a residue indistinguishable by taste and
smell from ordinary sugar
(Burroughs-Wellcome). Later William C.
Cruickshank pointed
out that the residue was a vegetable
sugar differing from sugar of
milk. He also noted that, in the urine
of dropsy, the addition of
nitrous acid produced cloudiness, and
that, in the presence of bile,
the addition of muriatic acid produced a
green color. John Black-
all, in 1813, discovered the heat test
for albumen, and two years
later, M. E. Chevreul observed that the
sugar in diabetic urine
differed from cane sugar and was more
like grape sugar. William
Prout, in 1820, was the first to
use litmus paper in urinalysis.
Jonathan Osborne in The Nature and
Treatment of Drop-
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 349
sical Diseases, published
in 1837, recommended "heating the urine
in a spoon over a candle, when a white
coagulate will be found in
those portions of the fluid next to the
metal, long before the heat
has advanced to the boiling-point. As
the heat is continued, the
coagulate will become more firm and
distinct."
In 1839 Pierre Francois Olive Rayer
called attention to the
value of the microscope in examining
urinary deposits. Trommer
developed the copper test for diabetes
in 1841. Hermann Fehling's
description of the test was first
published in 1848 (Burroughs-
Wellcome).
Although Ohio publications of the period
under discussion
contain abstracts and editorials on
progress in all fields of medi-
cine, including discoveries in
urinalysis, references to activity in
this field are few and far between. The
majority of references are
of a general or casual nature, but
occasionally there appears a
comprehensive article. In the Western
Lancet for 1850, a test is
described in which the urine is heated
with mercury dissolved in
nitric acid. This gives a bright red
color in the presence of al-
bumen. Again in 1855 an editorial in the
same journal discusses
presence of sugar in the urine but no
definite statement indicates
the frequency with which tests are made.
In an editorial in the Ohio Medical
and Surgical Journal for
1855, there appears the following:
We have received from the author, John
King, M.D., of Cincinnati,
Ohio, "Table of Urinary Deposits,
with Microscopical and Chemical Tests
for Clinical Examination." . . .
These deposits relate to a field of inquiry
vast in extent and difficult of
explanation, and nothing like a general interest
in regard to it has yet been awakened. .
. . What are we to infer from
the presence of alubmen, . . . of
cystine, . . . of oxalate of lime and
oxalurate of lime? Or even in the
presence of phosphates? . . . Albumi-
nous urine has a latitude in disease not
yet understood. The same may be
said in regard to the other articles
noticed. To such points investigations
should now be directed and that they
will be rich in results, and practical,
no one who has paid the least attention
to the subject can for a moment doubt.
In the Ohio Medical and Surgical
Journal for July 1855,
there appears an excellent contribution
on the "Systematic Quan-
titative Analysis of Urine" by Dr.
Theo. G. Wormley of Co-
350
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
lumbus, Ohio, which indicates the
possibilities of urinalysis at
this period. Since the tests for
albumin, sugar and bile are not
nearly as intricate as many that he
describes, it is evident that
they were purposely omitted from this
discussion. He does fur-
nish, however, clear and definite tests
for determination of urea,
uric acid, mucus, water and solids,
fixed salts, earthy and alkaline
salts, chlorides, chloride of ammonia,
phosphoric acid, lime, sul-
phuric acid, potassium and inorganic
substances. The prepara-
tion of the reagents is also fully
described. Those used by Worm-
ley were caustic and nitrate of baryta,
chloride of barium, nitrate
of silver, nitrate of mercury, oxalic
acid, bichloride of platinum,
chloride of lime, carbonate and caustic
ammonia.
Among the apparatus required were the
following, "specific
gravity bottle (with perforated
stopper), a few Berlin evaporating
dishes, a few beaker glasses, a small
platinum crucible, a graduated
tube, a balance, a few small funnels,
and a small quantity of filter-
ing and litmus paper."
In the advertising pages of the above
journal prices of equip-
ment are listed by Bullock and Crenshaw
of Philadelphia. They
offer urinometer cases "containing
a urinometer and graduated
glass for floating it, a delicate
thermometer and test paper com-
plete for $5.00." Bear in mind that
the urinometer had only re-
cently been introduced in 1849 by Johann
Florian Heller of
Vienna. Another form of urinometer
contained "a delicate ivory
scale, very accurate" and made in
London. Thermometers used
in testing temperature of urine and
reagents cost from $1.50 to
$6.00.
Wormley's remarks are of interest.
"In making an analysis
of the urine, the discharge of an entire
day should be received in
a clean vessel, and the amount noted, as
also its reaction to litmus
paper. The specific gravity taken at a
temperature of 60?? F. . . .
It is scarcely necessary to add that the
urine should be well agi-
tated before taking its specific
gravity." "Unfortunately," he adds,
"the complex character of that
fluid in regard to its chemical con-
stituents, and the difficulties
attending the methods of analysis
have heretofore prevented any but the scientific
chemist from at-
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 351
tempting its systematic
investigation." Such a scholar was Worm-
ley. Later he filled with distinction
the chair of chemistry and
toxicology in the University of
Pennsylvania, and wrote an excel-
lent work on the micro-chemistry of
poisons (1867).
As to the use of instruments of
precision in Ohio, little evi-
dence can be presented except by
inference based on their discus-
sion in medical literature written by
physicians of Ohio. Some
instruments will be discussed with more
certainty, those which
have come into our museum in the
Cleveland Medical Library as
the property of Ohio physicians of that
era.
As part of their equipment, there comes
to us certain instru-
ments necessary and helpful in both diagnosis
and treatment such
as the uterine sound, as old as the
Talmud, and instruments for
exploring the vagina, which go back to
Paul of Egina and the
Arabians, though the vaginal speculum
was introduced to modern
medicine by Joseph Claude Anthelme
Recamier in 1818. The
rectal speculum was used as far back as
Hippocrates, indeed we
have in our museum a reproduction of one
buried in the ashes of
Pompeii in 73 A. D. The ophthalmoscope,
devised by Hermann
Ludwig von Helmholtz in 1851, and the
laryngoscope, devised by
Manuel Garcia in 1855, were of such
recent discovery that I have
found no evidence of their local use
within this period.
The stomach-pump was used, but rather
for treatment than
diagnosis. There was in local use a
general utility kit which con-
tained a combination pump and tube for
emptying the stomach, a
second for giving an enema, a third for
colonic irrigation, a glass
device for use as a breast-pump, and a
cup for letting blood. For
this kit a Dr. L. B. Coates was sales
representative, and it was
advertised to sell "at a price to
bring it within the means of every
physician, being peculiarly adapted to
the wants of our brethren
in the country." The enterprising
Coates had "obtained certifi-
cates in its favor from the entire
faculty of Transylvania Univer-
sity and two of the professors in the
Medical College of Ohio."
I can well believe it for we have in our
museum a similar combi-
nation package, this one made about the
same time in Oshawa,
Ontario, which was recommended by the
entire faculty of the
University of Toronto. Another Yankee
salesman, no doubt.
352
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Of the instruments of precision, the Western
Lancet, pub-
lished in Cincinnati in 1850, mentions a
galactometer invented in
New York, to test the quality of milk.
The editor of the New
York Commercial had tried it and
found his household supply had
been diluted with one fourth part of
water. In our museum we
have a milk tester based on a color
index, intended for breast milk,
but probably of later origin.
The galvanometer, which might be called
the germ of the
electrocardiogram, may be classed in
this group. Although its
use is founded on the work of Michael
Faraday and G. B. Du-
chenne de Boulogne, we read that in
1835, Dr. John Locke of
Cincinnati invented a new galvanometer.
He stated:
In qualifying myself with the proper
knowledge of the new sciences of
Electro-Magnetism, I find myself unable,
from the works within my reach,
to get an intelligible account of the
Galvanometer or Electric-Magnetic
Multiplier, so I finally undertook to
supply the deficiency by inventing one.
. . . This instrument indicates the
direction of the galvanic current and
measures its intensity.
The facial goniometer and other
anthropological measuring
devices are described in the Ohio
Medical and Surgical Journal
for 1855, in an abstract from the Philadelphia
Medical and Sur-
gical Journal. The author, Dr. Samuel G. Morton, also describes
an accurate method of obtaining the
cubic contents of the skull
through the use of shot and an
accompanying cylinder fitted with
a scale.
A few other contemporary devices were of
little importance
except as antecedents of future
scientific precision. The ther-
mometer was in use at this time for some
purposes. For example,
there were indications of its use for
finding the temperature of
urine before testing its specific
gravity, and also for preparing re-
agents. An abstract from a French
journal advises preparation
of a mustard plaster with cold water,
since "water heated to 190??
F. and upwards prevents the
disengagement of the volatile prin-
ciple of mustard."
Dr. Elisha Bartlett, professor of the
theory and practice of
medicine in Transylvania University,
wrote on typhoid and typhus
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858
353
fevers in 1842. There is no mention of
any instrument of pre-
cision being used, although he quotes
observations made by John
Cheyne of Dublin on temperature of the
skin in a series of fever
cases. Dr. T. W. Forshee of West
Jefferson, Ohio, in 1855,
speaks of increased heat in muscle
following exercise, and adds
"the average temperature of the
human body is 98?? or 100??."
He does not state, however, that he
himself had taken any tem-
peratures. Cornelis Drebbel, Galileo Galilei, Roemer, Santorio
Santoro and Boerhaave all contributed to
the evolution of the
thermometer, but the introduction of the
clinical thermometer was
made by Karl Reinhold August Wunderlich
in 1868. Even in
Guy's Hospital it was not in use before
1870. Edouard Seguin's
thermoscope did not appear until 1871.
De Pulsibus has been an important contribution to medical
literature since early times. J. H. Baas
testifies to its widespread
use. "Simple counting of the pulse
by the watch," he writes, "a
method which (particularly as a result
of Pierre Charles Alex-
andre Louis' investigations) has become
popular in our day every-
where." A special pulse watch, the
angiometer, was invented by
Louis Waldenberg of Berlin (1837-1881).
Another device, used in the diagnosis of
circulatory disease,
was the sphygmoscope. Invented in 1856,
it appears in Ohio
publications for the same year. Its
purpose was to measure the
movements of the heart and blood
vessels. It consisted of a glass
tube with an attached graduated scale,
resembling a stethoscope.
"A trumpet mouth at one end is
covered by a thin membrane, say
of gum elastic, the other end remaining
open, and the tube being
filled with colored water. The large end
being pressed against the
ribs, where the pulsations of the heart
are seen, the impulse of the
systole is indicated by the rising and
falling of the water in the
tube, and measured by the scale."
About the same time (1855)
Karl Vierordt introduced the graphic
method of studying the
pulse. These were preliminary steps to
the sphygmograph of
Etienne Jules Marey in 1860, the
sphygmomanometer of Samuel
Siegfried Karl Ritter von Basch
in 1876 and that of S. Riva
Rocci in 1896.
354
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The spirometer, first step toward the
study of basal meta-
bolism, was brought out by John
Hutchinson in 1846, but there is
no evidence that it attained wide use.
Hutchinson was the author
of The Spirometer, the Stethoscope
and the Scale Balance. . . .
Their Value in Life Insurance Offices
(London, 1852).
Pneumatometry, investigation of the
amount of respiratory
pressure, was introduced by Phil.
Biedert, but was not popular
(Baas).
Associated with the stethoscope in chest
examination were
several other instruments, most of which
are now of only his-
torical interest. One of these was the
stethometer, described at
length in the Ohio Medical and
Surgical Journal of May, 1851.
It was invented by Prof. Richard Quain
and was intended to
measure differences in expansion or in
development of corre-
sponding parts of the two sides of the
chest. The instrument con-
sisted of a case like that of a watch,
on the upper surface of
which was placed a dial and an index.
Within was a simple
movement by means of which the index was
acted upon by a silk
cord reeling in and out of the case. The
cord acted as a measur-
ing device, its extension registering on
the dial, and thus the
examiner could readily determine any
existing difference in the
relative mobility of corresponding sides
of the chest at the point
under examination. Dr. Morrill Wyman, in
cooperation with Dr.
Henry I. Bowditch, introduced in 1850 a
suitable aspirator for
tapping pleuritic effusions. Leopold
Auenbrugger von Auenbrug
in his classical treatise (1761) made
known the principle of per-
cussion in physical diagnosis.
Auenbrugger, Jean Nicolas de Cor-
visart-Desmarets, and Rene Theodore
Hyaccinthe Laennec elicited
the note by the fingers alone. In 1826
Pierre Adolphe Piorry in-
vented the pleximeter for the practise
of mediate percussion, and
emphasis was laid not only upon the
pitch of the note, but also
upon the resistance which came from
underlying organs.
The pleximeter was made of a variety of
materials--wood,
ivory, leather, whalebone, hard rubber,
and glass. In outline this
was circular or oval, and either large
or quite small. Piorry's
pleximeter, for example, was a rather
large ivory semicircle with
OHIO MEDICAL
HISTORY, 1835-1858 355
two lateral rims and a graduated scale
on the straight edge; Louis
Traube used a zither-like form with
adjustable rims; Seitz a
trowel-shaped one; W. Hesse, an oval
glass type, and Louis, one
of hard rubber.
L. M. Lawson of the Medical College of
Ohio, in his ex-
haustive articles on diseases of the
chest in the Western Lancet of
Cincinnati (1850) writes, "But by
far the most convenient and
. . . the best pleximeter is the index
finger of the left hand; or,
if it be necessary to impress a larger
surface, several fingers may
be used." It seems doubtful who
first had the happy thought of
using the fingers as a pleximeter,
"perhaps it was Skerrett, and
from this singular obscurity we infer
that he was an individual
of rare modesty."
The percussion hammer was the invention
of Max Anton
Wintrich (1813-1882), and consisted of a
metal handle and hard
rubber head. Austin Flint simplified
this somewhat, while Eugen
Seitz devised one made of horn. Bigelow
used an elastic ball
covered with velvet for the hammer head,
which fitted into a
wood stethoscope. Charles J. B. Williams
substituted whalebone
in the handle and shot covered with
leather and velvet in the
heavy end.
These instruments are described in Ohio
medical literature
of the period and many examples of both
percussion hammers
and pleximeters have found their way
into our museum.
Divers other instruments appeared in the
literature -- the
acoustic sound for investigating vesical
calculi, the solid akuoxylon
of Paul Niemeyer, the so-called
resonators (closed at either end
by elastic rubber), the hydrophone
(stethoscope filled with water),
the sphygmophone combined with chimes of
bells. Autophony
and acouophony were suggested, the
latter by the Americans G. P.
Cammann and Alonzo Clark. Karl Christian
Adolph Jacob Ger-
hardt studied heart sounds through a
tube introduced into the
larynx. All aspects of auscultation were
scrutinized closely and
overemphasis placed on unimportant
features as they searched for
new truths. Varieties of sound and
qualities of tone were deemed
of special significance. Even "the
atmosphere of a greatly heated
356
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
room, although but slightly changed, is,
nevertheless, not the most
favorable for the examination of cases
in which it becomes neces-
sary to appreciate very slight
variations in degrees of sound."
But the final reductio ad absurdum was
Ferdinando Verar-
dini's investigation of uterine sounds
by a stethoscope introduced
into the vagina, which he designated
impressively as "Intravaginal
Auscultation."
So now to the stethoscope. Laennec's first
instrument (1815)
was a cylinder of paper consisting of
three quires, secured by
paste. He investigated glass, metal and
wood and presented a
table of conductivity which demonstrated
that wood was ten times
as efficient as air. "In
consequence of these experiments," wrote
Laennec, "I now employ a cylinder
of wood an inch and a half
in diameter, a foot long, perforated
longitudinally by a bore three
lines wide, and hollowed out into a
funnel-shape to the depth of
an inch and a half at one of the
extremities." The stethoscope is
divided in the middle to make it more
easily portable. The hol-
lowed out extremity has an obturator
which, when inserted, is
utilized in studying heart sounds. There
is a slight concavity of
the ear extremity.
Many changes were made in the Laennec
stethoscope. The
plug in the chest extremity proved to be
useless, the tube was
shortened and made thinner, and the
ear-piece made removable.
The material of which it was made varied
widely, and included
cedar, lignum vitae, maple, walnut,
dogwood, ivory, silver, hard
rubber, metal and many other varieties.
The stethoscope of Dr.
John B. Harmon of Warren was made of
ebony with an ivory
earpiece. His son was the preceptor of
Dr. J. M. Lewis of Cleve-
land whose stethoscope was made of
lignum vitae. Most of our
stethoscopes are made of cedar, but
others are of boxwood, metal,
celluloid, hard rubber and one beautiful
specimen of ivory.
Examples of Laennec's stethoscopes may
be seen in medical
museums of Paris, Rouen, Rome, Florence,
Zurich, London, and
doubtless in many other places. We have
two replicas in Cleve-
land. Lawson of Cincinnati wrote in
1850, "I have in my posses-
sion about twenty varieties of
stethoscopes collected in Europe and
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 357
America . . . Judging from the specimens
before me, very wide
differences have existed in regard to
these modifications (ear-
piece and pectoral extremity); some use
a convex and others a
concave ear-piece; one employs perfect
conical, another irregu-
larly conic, and still another,
parabolic chest extremities."
Let us consider more closely some of the
points of difference
in stethoscopes of the period, most of
which have been used in
Ohio. First let us examine the
chest-piece. The Laennec and
Trousseau types, according to Lawson,
had a bell or parabolic
curvature. Dr. Peter Allen of Kinsman,
and Dr. J. S. Smith of
Wellington had stethoscopes of this
type. The Skoda, Stokes and
Louis chest-pieces were all conical. The
walls of the cone in the
chest-pieces of the Skoda instrument
were all conical. In the
Skoda instrument they appeared convex on
the outer surface. Dr.
John B. Harmon's stethoscope shows a
similar convexity. The
Stokes pattern was like our instrument
with a short cone, and
the Louis specimen like one presented by
Dr. E. P. Edwards,
with a very much larger cone. The Stokes
chest-piece, by the
way, was encircled by a rounded band of
rubber, in order that it
might be used as a percussion hammer.
One of this type in our
museum formerly belonged to Dr. W. A.
Hobbs of East Liver-
pool.
Occasionally in these short stethoscopes
the obturator was re-
tained, as in one which belonged to Dr.
Allen, of Kinsman, and in
another used by Dr. J. E. Darby of
Cleveland.
In some of the early stethoscopes the
ear-piece was fashioned
with a protrusion to adapt itself to the
external auditory meatus.
This is seen in stethoscopes of Dr.
Harmon of Warren, and Dr.
Darby of Cleveland, and in another small
cedar stethoscope
donated by Dr. T. C. Young of Cleveland.
The surface of the ear-piece also
reveals individuality.
Laennec used a very shallow concave arc.
Recamier's ear-piece
was of wide diameter, but the contour
was convex. The Stokes
ear-piece was also wide, with the center
concave and the peri-
phery convex.
The length of the stethoscope varied
from very short, about
358
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
four inches, to seven or eight inches.
The short one was used to
listen to the fetal heart. We have an
example of this type. Other
lengths were a matter of choice of the
designer.
The late Dr. T. Wingate Todd donated to
our museum some
monaural stethoscopes of boxwood, which
had belonged to his
teacher, Dr. Steell of Manchester,
England. One was nine and a
half inches long, the current length for
that time and place.
Graham Steell added an improvement,
making it thirteen inches
in length, "just beyond the hop of
a flea."
Dr. Alfred Stengel of Philadelphia, in
looking over our col-
lection, told of the stethoscope owned
by a member of the Dublin
school which was long enough to serve as
a walking stick, "and it
was so convenient in case of the
vermin."
Arnold and Jean Baptiste Bouillaud used
a flexible tube be-
tween the top of the stem of the
stethoscope and the ear, increas-
ing the length in this way. The flexible
tube could be dispensed
with and the ear-piece applied to form
the ordinary short stetho-
scope.
Lawson recommended as the ideal
stethoscope "an instru-
ment made of cedar, from six to seven
inches long, with concave
ear-piece two and a half inches in
diameter, and expanding into
a cone at the pectoral extremity, two
inches in length, which ter-
minates in a central canal a quarter
inch in diameter." He also
stated that a good copy of the Stokes
instrument "is manufactured
in this city by Reeze, of Sixth Street,
and Wocher of College
Street, who, by my directions, omit the
india-rubber margin of
the ear-piece. Wocher makes a longer
cone than belongs to the
original instrument. These instruments,
I have no hesitation in
saying, are decidedly superior to any
others in the United States."
Toward the end of the era under
discussion today, the bin-
aural stethoscope made its appearance,
the Scott-Alison with two
tubes and ear-funnels, with which one
can listen to the heart and
lungs at the same time. The Cammann
stethoscope of two gutta-
percha tubes attached to the chest-piece
at one extremity, and at
the other to the ear-pieces, was
completed in 1852. Since this
time numerous modifications have been
made in the outward form,
OHIO
MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858
359
but
little has been added to the essential principle of a single chest-
piece
with sound collection chamber and a tube leading from it to
dual
ear-pieces. The monaural stethoscope still survives in Europe,
but
with us it survives only as a museum piece.
Physicians
and their friends are cordially invited to visit our
museum
in the Cleveland Medical Library and to examine our
collection
of monaural stethoscopes.
Are you
interested in the cost of some of these instruments
at the
time of their current use? Tiemann
quotes the following
prices:
Glass
pleximeter ....................................... $ .50
Hard
rubber pleximeter ................................ .40
Ivory pleximeter
.......................................1.00
Percussor,
whalebone stem ............................. 1.00
Wintrich's
hammer .................................... 2.50
Flint's
percussion hammer .............................. .75
Quain's stethometer
...................................15.00
Stethoscopes
Elliottson .............................................
5.00
Stokes ................................................ 1.00
Quain
-- telescopic ............................. ..... 2.00
Short
cedar ........................................ .75
Cammann ............................................. 4.50
Scott-Alison ........................................ 6.00
The
diagnostic armamentarium of Piorry (1794-1879), who
invented
the pleximeter, consisted of a taper for illumination,
tongue
spatula, magnifying glass, warm water, grease for anoint-
ing the
finger, stethoscope, pleximeter, tape measure, rectal and
vaginal
specula, dressing forceps and tweezers, oesophageal, rectal
and
urethral sounds, nitrate of silver for marking, test tube, nitric
acid
and other reagents, litmus paper and graduated glasses. This
impressive
array indicates that physical diagnosis had reached a
high
standard during the time that we are discussing.
Have
you remembered the commonest precision instrument
of them
all, the watch? Quoting at length from Dr. S. Weir
Mitchell
in The Early History of Instrumental Precision in Medi-
cine,
1891, we have the following
information filled with charm
and
flavor:
360
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Floyer in 1707 tells us "I have for
many years tried pulses by the
minute in common watches and pendulum
clocks and then used the sea minute
glass" such as was employed to test
the log. At last he was more happy.
One Daniel Quare, a Quaker, had in the
last ten years of the seventeenth
century put in watches what Floyer
called a middle finger, or, as we say, a
hand. Floyer's pulse watch ran sixty
seconds and you may like to know
"can be had of Mr. Samuel Watson in
Long Acre. The inventor tests this
and a half-minute watch which has a
cover, by a sand glass which runs for
one minute, and finds them not quite
correct; one must add, he thinks, five
beats."
In the eighteenth century one finds now
and then a pulse count, as
when Morgagni describes a pulse which
beat twenty-two times in the sixtieth
of an hour. Evidently the minute had not
yet gotten into the daily life of man.
Statements of the numbers of pulse and
respiration are very rare in
Rush, Cullen, and their Contemporaries.
It was not until a later day and
under the influence of the great Dublin
school that the familiar figure of the
doctor, watch in hand, came to be commonplace.
I have thought it well to illustrate
thus fully the medical history of the
watch as an instrument of precision. How
small, but how essentially a part
of the pulse study are the enumerations
it enables us to make accurately, you
all well know. We could better lose this
knowledge than the rest of what
the pulse teaches, and yet it is the
only pulse sign we can put on paper with
perfect precision, as Heberden remarked
a hundred years ago.
You know that we now use as many
instruments as a mechanic, and that
however much we may gain thereby, our
machines are not labor-saving.
They force us, by the time their uses
exact, to learn, to be rapid and at the
same time accurate.
The instrument trains the man; it exacts
accuracy and teaches care; it
creates a wholesome appetite for
precision which, at last, becomes habitual.
Unless men keep ahead of their
instrumental aids these . . . will merely
dementalize them.
Bibliography
Baas, J. H., History of Medicine, tr.
by H. E. Handerson (New York, 1889).
Bartlett, Elisha, History, Diagnosis
and Treatment of Typhoid and Typhus
Fevers (Philadelphia, 1842).
Burroughs-Wellcome, Evolution of
Urine Analysis (Los Angeles, 1911).
Garrison, F. H., History of Medicine (Philadelphia,
1917).
Lawson, L. M., "Diseases of the
Chest," Western Lancet (Cincinnati, 1850).
Locke, John, "Galactometer," Western
Journal of the Medical and Physical
Sciences (Cincinnati, 1835).
Major, R. H., "Diagnosing Disease
without Instruments of Precision,"
Kansas Medical Society, Journal (Topeka,
1939).
"Quain's Stethometer," Ohio
Medical and Surgical Journal (Columbus,
1851).
Tiemann, G., Armamentarium
Chirurgicum (New York, 1879).
Wormley, T. G., "Systematic
Quantitative Analysis of Urine," Ohio Medical
and Surgical Journal (Columbus, 1855).
THE MEDICAL JOURNALS OF THE PERIOD,
1835-1858
By JONATHAN FORMAN, M. D.
The period which we are describing today
was one in which
the American public was very critical of
the medical profession.
To the general charges of fraud and
futility was added that of
hearsay. In order to save the
physician's fee "family medical
books" were frequently bought and
sold. Patent medicines were
coming in at a pace parallel to the
growth of newspapers in which
they could be advertised.
One New York firm was spending $100,000
a year for ad-
vertising as early as 1840. The element
of fear towards doctors
and all of their works was, of course,
an old one fostered by the
character of hospitals and the vague
suspicions formerly held
that doctors experimented upon the
poorer patients. Equally
morbid was the ancient but popular
aversion to dissection and
post-mortem examinations. This was
strengthened by an instance
of a crime in the United States similar
to the "Burking" murders
in Edinburgh (1828) when sixteen persons
were killed and their
bodies delivered to Doctor Robert Knox
for classroom purposes.
Then there was the common fear of being
buried alive which was
almost universal, closely associated
with the fear of dissection.
This continued up until embalming became
the common practice.
At the beginning of the period there was
a growing sentiment
on the part of the people fostered by
the Thomsonians, Reformed
Botanists and the Homeopathic physicians
against the use of huge
doses of mineral drugs, especially
mercury. An ounce of calomel
was commonly advised. These with the
strenuous bleeding made
up the regular treatment of the day. In
1845, the citizens of
Westmoreland County, near Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, petitioned
their legislature to forbid the
employment of mercury for med-
icinal purposes. It was denied on the
interesting ground that mer-
cury was dangerous only if abused.
Nothing was said about the
right of laymen to legislate on a
medical matter.
(361)
362
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The outstanding feature of this period
was the appearance
of cheap transportation, postage, and
printing. These were essen-
tial to the development of medical
societies and publications. It
became increasingly easy to go to
meetings at some distance, to
correspond with those one met there and
to publish medical jour-
nals. In the earlier years we saw that
medical journals were es-
tablished by medical schools. There was
also a tendency for them
to represent geographical areas--an
element due to postal costs.
The critic of present day morals--a
product as he says of the
movie and the automobile--will be
surprised to learn that the
American physician of 1850 was much
given to charging the sup-
posedly prim public with immorality. The
increasing resort to
contraceptives and abortion, the doctors
of the day claimed was
becoming a national scandal. We find the
transactions of the
Ohio State Medical Society contained
many a warning against the
immorality of the times. In the good old
days such things were
unheard of but in this period they were
common even among the
genteel and the church-going. Religious
weeklies and newspapers
in general were carrying many
advertisements, all of them along
the line of this: "Dr. ............
's Female Pills, one dollar a
box, with full directions. Married
ladies should not use them.
Sent by mail." These advertisements
increased in numbers and
blatancy until finally in 1858, we find
one New England weekly
offering for only three dollars,
"The only safe and sure preven-
tion from pregnancy."
This was truly a period of popular
medical ferment. Thou-
sands were buying the patent rights to
treat themselves, their
families or their neighbors with the
Thomsonian system. J. C.
Gunn's Domestic Medicine; or, the
Poor Man's Friend, published
in Louisville in 1840, ran no less
than 100 editions. Hydropathy
spread over the land with the
development of a dozen spas here
in Ohio. This period was the zenith of
quackery the world over.
For instance, there were living in
London, five men in 1849 who
had made $1,000,000 or over each from
the sale of quack rem-
edies. Nearly every conceivable type of
humbug preyed upon the
American public--nostrums, magnetism,
mesmerism, herb doctors,
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 363
etc. Many have attributed this
"wonder-gaping" complex to the
newness of the country, but Europe was
just as gullible in this
period as America.
The profession was very conscious of its
shortcomings. Many
professional soul-searching papers
appeared in the medical litera-
ture under the captions: "The
Present Position of the Medical
Profession"; "To What Cause
Are We to Attribute the Dimin-
ished Respectability of the Medical
Profession in the Estimation
of the American Public?"
Regular physicians began, in increasing
numbers, about 1850,
to condemn the routine use of calomel
and to counsel moderation
in blood-letting, while some of this was
due to the critical methods
introduced into therapeutics abroad, especially
in Paris, much of
it came about in response to growing
popular demands.
These were the days of social reforms,
the days of the be-
ginnings of temperance and prohibition
movements, women's
rights, and Grahamite dietary propaganda
which came out from
Massachusetts with the rush of cultured
expansion from New
England. Here in Ohio it at once assumed
a tendency to blend
with Thomsonism. Today it is only
remembered by its imperish-
able monument in Graham bread and Graham
crackers.
The most important medical advance of
the period was the
revolution in the methods which made
possible the series of bril-
liant discoverings which put regular
medicine back in the full con-
fidence of the American public.
"For the first time in the history
of medicine," said Wellington
Hooker, in his inaugural address
as he accepted the chair of physics at
Yale in 1852, "the medical
world is without a dominant theory. It
is a glorious era for our
science." Thus was the stage set
for the anatomical pathologist,
to be followed by the bacteriologist and
the physiological chemist.
These are the men who gave the public
confidence in medicine as
a science and in medical men so far as
they are scientists.
The important thing is that when the
period opened one
healer was as good as another. All
knowledge was empirical.
Today medicine is on a systematic
inductive basis, while all the
healing cults make their appeals only to
the emotions of the gul-
364
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
lible. Thus it is not exactly luck but
rather logic that this period
of greatest scientific progress should
have set in just when the pro-
fession's stock was lowest. The results,
however, were the pro-
fession's most pertinent answer to
popular criticism. This crit-
icism itself was but another expression
of the same forces that
made for critical research in
medicine--both expressed the rel-
atively critical spirit of the time.
In Ohio we had, as we told you last
year, our first medical
journal in The Ohio Medical
Repository, a semi-monthly begun in
1826 by Doctor Guy W. Wright and Doctor
James M. Mason.
Both being western graduates and
intensely patriotic with every-
thing pertaining to the western country,
their ambitions were to
give the western profession a western
medical journal edited by
and for western doctors. Mason retired
after one year. Doctor
Daniel Drake taking his place, the
magazine became a monthly
under the title, The Western Medical
and Physical Journal. Drake
soon became the sole owner and editor
and issued it under the
new name of The Western Journal of
the Medical and Physical
Sciences. In 1839, Drake took the journal to Louisville where it
was subsequently combined with the Louisville
Journal of Medi-
cine and Surgery, as the Western Journal of Medicine and Sur-
gery.
When the Willoughby Medical School was
moved to Colum-
bus the Ohio Medical and Surgical
Journal was begun by Doctor
John Butterfield. The first volume was a
success both profession-
ally and financially. That volume still
remains as a model to those
of us who are charged with the
responsibility of getting out a
medical journal useful to men in
practice.
When illness prevented Butterfield's
return to the editor's
desk Doctor S. Hanbury Smith took over
his duties. In the min-
utes of the faculty of the Starling
Medical College in 1849, we
find a motion, "that the Ohio
Medical and Surgical Journal be
vested in the Faculty of the Starling
Medical College and that the
dean so arrange it to have it published
by the year and that
S. Hanbury Smith be appointed editor for
one year beginning
January 1850." It soon
became evident that the faculty had ex-
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 365
tended a beautiful gesture to
Butterfield's widow but that it was
not prepared to withstand the troubles
that are bound to come
with the publication of a medical
journal, and so in the minutes
of the faculty meeting of January, 1851,
we find that they passed
the following resolution.
"Resolved: That the Dean be
directed to pay Riley and
Company the sum of one hundred and fifty
dollars as part due on
the publication of the Journal and that
all interest be transferred
to Professor R. L. Howard on condition
that he assume all re-
maining and further liability,"
which proposition was accepted.
Smith left the faculty to become
superintendent of the Lunatic
Asylum, and Richard L. Howard, professor
of surgery and Co-
lumbus' first surgeon, became the next
editor. Upon Howard's
death Doctor John Dawson of the
Department of Anatomy took
over the editorship. This is the same
Dawson who later became a
distinguished resident of Cincinnati.
With Volume X (1858-1859)
Doctor John W. Hamilton became
co-editor.
The Ohio Medical and Surgical Journal
followed pretty
closely with the pattern of the times
which we described here last
year. Its conduct presented three
problems to its editors. First,
the promotion of its own school and the
elevation of medical
standards. The first step was to get
every "doctor" to become
an "M. D."--a distinction
which was sharply drawn between those
who had attended a medical college and
those who had not. The
current controversy was the subject of
student fees, and the ex-
changes were sharp on the point, both
Cincinnati and Columbus
blaming Cleveland, and Columbus blaming
Cincinnati for lower-
ing tuition costs and taking the
student's personal note for the
whole amount.
Secondly, the quacks were treating about
two-thirds of the
people when this period began. The
feeling was bitter and the
"regular" profession
maintained its position through solidarity
and organization. The Ohio Medical
and Surgical Journal did
not go as far as most of the journals
did in this matter. Howard
in Volume III laid down a policy which
was followed surprisingly
close. He said, "No man can write
or speak or even think in ac-
366
0HIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
tive opposition to any form of quackery,
without being himself
corrupted and degraded thereby. . . .
Violent and vituperous de-
nunciation never yet demolished or even
injured a bad cause."
Thirdly, there was the business of
reprinting from other
journals, such as we described at the
end of our paper last year.
Naturally there was a good deal of
feeling about the use of too
much foreign material in the journals
and the use of English text
with a few comments on it by the
professor whose name appeared
on the title page. It was as Oliver
Wendell Holmes said, "Most
American writing consists of simply
putting British portraits of
disease in American frames."
The special committee of the American Medical
Association
on medical literature considered this
problem at each annual ses-
sion and noted less and less offense.
The Ohio Medical and Surgical Journal
was frequently com-
plaining about the reprinting of its
articles in other journals with-
out proper credit. Both of these faults
tended to correct them-
selves under the pressure of the
American Medical Association.
As we look back upon American medical
journalism of this
period (1835-1858), we can agree with
the report on medical
literature made in 1858 by the special
committee of the American
Medical Association, headed by Alonzo B.
Palmer, M. D., who
recently came to Ann Arbor's faculty
from a large practice in
Chicago with the title of
"Professor of Materia Medica, Thera-
peutics, and Diseases of Women and
Children," when they re-
ported:
In conclusion, the committee would say
that if, as the sentinels placed
upon the walls of our Medical Zion, they
were asked in relation to its litera-
ture, "What of the night?" the
response must be, "The morning cometh."
The darkness which has hung over that
literature is breaking away. There
is at last dawn in the East and though
the charm of day may roll on but
slowly, the full effulgence will come at
last.
THE ROLE OF THE "DISTRICT" AS
A UNIT IN OR-
GANIZED MEDICINE IN OHIO1
By ROBERT G. PATERSON, PH.D.
Use of the "district" as a
basic unit of medical organization
and administration is, historically, the
oldest in the State. It ante-
dates the county, city and state medical
societies. A "district" in
the sense in which it is used here
includes within its area two or
more counties. From 1811 to 1902 the history of
medical organi-
zation in Ohio is full of the trial and
error method in attempting
to find a satisfactory unit or units as
the basis for local organiza-
tion.2
Broad Outline of Developments
Beginning in 1811 and continuing to
1833, known as the le-
gal period of organization, the laws of
the State established medi-
cal districts in the then existing
counties. "The first of Ohio's
eighty-eight counties (Washington) was
established in 1788. The
last revision in the boundaries
(Auglaize, Logan) was made in
1888, exactly one hundred years
later."3 By 1833 there were
seventy counties in the State.
Population was sparse and scat-
tered. The 1830 census showed 937,903
population. Physicians
were few in number and likewise
scattered. Roads and transpor-
tation were primitive. So it was natural
for the State legislature
to adopt the district as the basis for
the establishment of local
boards of censors, the prime purpose of
which was to license
physicians to practice within the State.
The law of 1812 went
one step further when it provided for a
State medical convention
to be composed of representatives from
each of the five medical
districts. From 1811 the number of
districts grew from five until
in 1833 there were twenty-two districts
set up. After the repeal
1 While the period set for discussion
covered the years 1885-1858, it was thought
best to treat this subject as a complete unit from 1811
to 1940.
2 See Guy Thompson, District Medical
Organization in Ohio. Thesis, M.A., Ohio
State University, Columbus, Ohio, 1987.
3 R. C. Downes, "Evolution of Ohio
County Boundaries," Ohio State Arch-
aeological and Historical Quarterly (Columbus, 1887.), XXXVI (1927), 340ff.
(367)
368
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of all such laws in 1833 physicians had
no means of congregating
in meetings other than those of local
scope. The first of these was
the Cincinnati Medical Society organized
in 1819.
In 1835 the first form of voluntary
State medical organiza-
tion was created. It was known as the
"Ohio Medical Conven-
tion." The present Ohio State
Medical Association rightly traces
its origin to this date. The convention
continued to 1851 when it
was merged with the Ohio State Medical
Society organized in
1846. At first members of the State
convention were listed in-
dividually from counties. By the time
the State society was or-
ganized, Ohio had been divided into 83
counties. Population had
increased to 1,980,329 in 1850. Physicians also
had increased in
number. Transportation and the means for
travel had improved
vastly. Roads and canals had been spread
in every direction
throughout the State.
Since the State meeting occured but once
a year there was a
growing demand upon the part of
physicians for some medium
through which they could gather together
more frequently to dis-
cuss their professional problems. These
media took two forms--
the county medical society and the
district medical society. One
of the earliest considerations before
the State society was the mat-
ter of determining what should
constitute an auxiliary society. In
1857 it was deemed necessary to
incorporate in the constitution of
the State society a provision which
sought to improve reports
from the local societies both district
and county. With variations
this attitude was continued until 1902 when all district societies
were excluded as auxiliaries and the
county form was adopted as
the sole unit of organization.
Legal Period of District Medical
Organization
A more detailed examination of the legal
period of district
medical organization reveals a number of
interesting develop-
ments and merits attention at this
point.
Dr. Samuel Prescott Hildreth of Marietta
was elected to the
House of Representatives from Washington
County in 1810.
Almost immediately after taking his
place in the General As-
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 369
sembly he introduced a bill seeking to
give the State some measure
of control over those individuals who
sought to heal the sick. In
a preamble to the bill4 it is
stated, "Whereas the practice of physic
and surgery is a science so immediately
interesting to society that
every encouragement for its promotion
should be given, and every
abuse of it, so far as possible
suppressed."
The law, effective January 14, 1811, divided the
State into
five medical districts. A board of three
medical censors or exam-
iners, members of which were named in
the law, was provided in
each of the five districts. The boards
were to meet on the first
Monday of June and November at
designated centers, viz: Cin-
cinnati, Chillicothe, Athens,
Zanesville, and Steubenville. Exami-
nation of the membership of these five
district boards reveals
some illustrious names in the annals of
medical history in Ohio.
They are as follows:
District 1. Joseph Canby, Richard
Allison, Daniel Drake.
District 2. Edward Tiffin, Alexander
Campbell, Joseph Scott.
District 3. Leonard Jewit, Eliphas
Perkins, Samuel P. Hildreth.
District 4. John Hamm, John J. Brice,
Robert Mitchell.
District 5. George Wilson, John
M'Dowell, Thomas Campbell.
At the very next session of the General
Assembly, the law of
1811 was repealed and a new law5 enacted,
effective February 8,
1812. Again we find a preamble stating "Whereas well
regulated
medical societies have been found useful
in promoting the health
and happiness of society by more
generally diffusing the knowl-
edge of the healing art, and thereby
alleviating the distress of
mankind." Seven districts were
created and out of these seven
districts there was created by law a
State society styled "The
President and Fellows of the Medical
Society of the State of
Ohio." The law listed one hundred
and twenty physicians
throughout the State who were to
constitute the society. Places
of meetings of the district
representatives were designated as Cin-
cinnati, Chillicothe, Athens,
Zanesville, Steubenville, Warren and
Dayton. Meetings were to be held on the
first Monday in June.
These district societies were empowered
to elect not less than
4 Ohio Laws, Statutes, etc., Acts,
9 Assemb., 1810-11 (IX), 19.
5 Ibid., 10 Assemb., 1811-12 (X), 58.
370 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
two, nor more than three,
representatives to the State society
which was to meet in Chillicothe on the
first Monday of Novem-
ber. A quorum of ten members was
required for this State
meeting.
On November 2, 1812, there
gathered at Chillicothe five dele-
gates from the first and second
districts. These hardy souls were:
Daniel Drake, Cincinnati, and Joseph
Canby, Lebanon, from the
first district; Samuel Parsons,
Franklinton; and John Edmiston
and Joseph Scott, Chillicothe, from the
second district. It is not
clear at the present time whether the
other five districts actually
appointed delegates. If they did the
delegates failed to make their
appearance. Even Hildreth, the author of
the first law, did not
attend. Since the law specified a quorum
of ten members no con-
vention was held.
At the next session of the General
Assembly this law was
repealed and a return6 made
to the law of 1811. Between 1813
and 1821, the General Assembly amended,
repealed and enacted
the law on three7 separate
occasions.
On February 26, 1824, the General
Assembly passed a new
law8 entitled "An Act to
Incorporate Medical Societies for the
Purpose of Regulating the Practice of Physic
and Surgery in this
State." It repealed the law of 1821
and remained in force, with
minor amendments, until 1833 when it,
too, was repealed. Again,
we find the pious preamble to the effect
that "whereas, well reg-
ulated medical societies have been found
to contribute to the dif-
fusion of true medical science, and a
correct knowledge of the
healing art."
With the rapid growth in population of
the State and the in-
crease in the number of counties, which
now numbered seventy, it
became necessary to divide the State
into twenty medical districts.
The counties comprising each district
were enumerated and the
names of physicians constituting each
district medical society were
given. With variations this method was
continued by the General
Assembly until 1833 when all such laws
were repealed.
6 Ibid., 11 Assemb., 1812-13 (XI), 28, Jan. 19, 1813.
7 Ibid., 15 Assemb., 1816-11 (XV), 195, Jan. 28, 1817; 16 Assemb.,
1817-18 (XVI),
105, Jan. 30, 1818; 18 Assemb., 1819-20
(XVIII), 162, Feb. 22, 1820.
8 Ibid., 22
Assemb., 1823-24 (XXII), 142.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 371
Thus dosed the first period of medical
organization in Ohio.
Regulation through legislation had
proved a dismal failure. It
was not until 1868 that a return to this
method is to be noted and
the law then enacted was so weak in its
effects that in 1896 the
General Assembly finally set up the
present form of regulating
the practice of medicine.
Voluntary Period of District Medical
Organization
Between 1833 and 1835, the physicians
throughout the State
had no means by which they could gather
together for discussion
of their professional problems except
for the few local medical
societies which existed. In 1835 the
organization of "The Medical
Conventions of Ohio" on a voluntary
basis was effected. These
continued until 1851. Membership in these conventions was open
to all regular physicians throughout the
State on an individual
basis. This situation continued to exist
until 1846 when the Ohio
State Medical Society was organized.
The Ohio State Medical Society soon
became a delegated
body and scores of local medical
societies sprang up either as
auxiliary to or independent of it. A
study of the Transactions
of the Ohio State Medical Society reveals
that one of the earliest
considerations before it was the matter
of auxiliaries. From its
auxiliaries, the State society drew its
strength and it constantly
promoted local organization. It
frequently found reason to quar-
rel with its component societies and in
many cases refused to ad-
mit a local society because its
constitution did not embrace some
code of ethics which was deemed
essential.
The development of the constitution of
the Ohio State Medi-
cal Society gives an insight to the
story of district societies. The
first formal recognition of the need for
a plan for auxiliaries is
found in a report9 of the
committee on a new constitution and
code of by-laws and a plan for the
organization of auxiliary so-
cieties. This plan which was adopted May
16, 1848, was:
Associations desirous of becoming
auxiliary, must furnish to the Com-
9 Ohio State Medical Society, Transactions
. . . from Its First Organization in
1846 to the Close of Its Last Session in 1850, with
Addresses and Essays (Columbus,
1850), 5.
372 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL
AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
mittee on Medical Societies a copy of
their Constitution and By-Laws, and
a list of their members. The Committee
will report thereon, a majority vote
of the Society, admitting as members the
President and Secretary, ex-officio,
together with one delegate for every ten
members the proposed auxiliary
society may consist of. Delegates will
present to the State Medical Society,
such papers, etc., etc., as the
Association they represent may select, copies
of which they will deposit with the
Committee on Publication.
In questions of a general nature
affecting the profession of the State,
should the yeas and nays be demanded,
the delegates, on producing the indi-
vidual authority of each, may vote by
proxy for absent members of the
State Medical Society, who are also
members of the Same Association with
the delegate.
Auxiliary Societies will, so far as
possible, contribute to the furtherance
of the objects of the State Medical
Society, by selecting from their own
archives such original papers, essays,
reports, and especially statistics, as
they may deem of sufficient value, on
every subject connected with medical
science.
In 1850 a listing of auxiliary societies
showed the following:
1849. Hamilton County Medical Society
.................Auxiliary No. 1
1849. Warren County Medical Society of
Lebanon .......Auxiliary No. 2
1849. Clark County Medical
Society....................Auxiliary No. 3
1849. Lancaster Medical Institute
.......................Auxiliary No. 4
1849. Preble County Medical Society
...................Auxiliary No. 5
1850. Meigs County Medical
Association................Auxiliary No. 6
1850. Wayne County Medical Association...............Auxiliary
No. 7
1850. Richland County Medical &
Surgical Society .......Auxiliary No. 8
1850. Medical Association of Adams,
Brown & Clermont.Auxiliary No. 9
1850. Stark County Medical Society
....................Auxiliary No. 10
1850. Erie County Medical Society
.....................Auxiliary No. 11
In 1857, it was deemed necessary to
incorporate in the Con-
stitution of the Ohio State Medical
Society something which
would improve reports from the local
societies. From the first,
auxiliaries had been requested to submit
annually a "catalogue"
which included a list of its members,
papers and similar informa-
tion. The local societies were very
dilatory in complying with
this request and the State secretary
reprimanded them every year
in his report. Even after the amendment
of 1857 the reports were
unsatisfactory. The State secretary frequently changing
each
year, appears not to have performed his
work very well.
The State society was still recognizing
district societies in its
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858
373
constitution as late as 1891. The State
secretary in 1893 pointed
out that the work of the county
societies was anything but satis-
factory. He lamented the general
inactivity of the county societies
and gave the impression that they were
losing the position of im-
portance which the State society had
hoped for them. He said:
Why this state of lethargy or inactivity
or lack of interest in the county
societies? The fact is very prominent
that the county societies, which are
least active, are located within the
boundaries of flourishing district societies.
Without hastening to condemn the
district societies, for their success must
be prima facie evidence that they are
supplying a real demand in medical
society work, we must conclude that they
are depriving the county societies,
if not also the State Society of the
interest that should be taken by them.10
This struggle between the county,
district and State society is
to be noted each year until in 1902
when the State society changed
its constitution to comport with that of
the American Medical
Association. Article III of the
constitution read: "Component
societies shall consist of those county
medical societies which hold
charters from this Association."
The adoption of this provision
marked the downfall of district medical
societies in Ohio.
So far as can be ascertained the
district medical societies
which were organized in Ohio and which
were represented in the
Ohio State Medical Society by delegates
were:
The Medical Association of Adams, Brown
and Clermont,11
was organized Jan. 21, 1847. This was the first district medical
society in Ohio and was the first such
auxiliary of the State so-
ciety. It continued as such until 1884
when it disappeared from
the rolls of the State society. One
cannot be sure if the organiza-
tion was really active until 1884 or if
the State secretary was
careless in preparing his reports.
Records do not reveal the organization
of another district
medical society in the State for
seventeen years when there was
organized, April 12, 1864, the Union
Medical Association of Co-
lumbiana, Mahoning, Portage, Stark and
Carroll counties.12
This society was composed of physicians
of the "old school"
10 Ohio State Medical Society, Transactions
(Columbus, 1851-1904), 1893, 7-8.
11 Lancet-Clinic (Cincinnati, 1842-1916), VII (1848), 285.
12 Brant and Fuller, pub., History
of the Upper Ohio Valley (Madison, Wis.,
1891), II, 161.
374
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
or what is termed by them "regular
practice" and from the origi-
nal faith and practice it never
departed. A committee of five was
appointed in 1866 to effect an
organization of county societies in
the counties composing the union. This
is the only instance that
was found where such an action was taken
by a district society.
It continued as an auxiliary of the
State society until 1902.
The Union District Medical Association
was organized Oc-
tober 22, 1867. This society is unique
in Ohio in that it included
counties in both Ohio and Indiana. At
first it included Union
County (Indiana) Medical Society and
Butler County (Ohio)
Medical Society. Later Fayette and
Franklin counties (Indiana)
and Preble County (Ohio) were added.
This society never be-
came an auxiliary of the State society.
Delegates were sent to
the State meetings in both Ohio and
Indiana. On April 27, 1939,
it held its 142d semi-annual meeting at
Eaton, Ohio.13
The Central Ohio Medical Society was
organized June 14,
1869. This society became an auxiliary
of the Ohio State Medi-
cal Society July 1, 1869. It met
quarterly and drew most of its
membership from Columbus and vicinity.
From the record the
society existed as a paper organization
after 1896. The last meet-
ing of which we have record was a joint
session with the North-
western Ohio Medical Society in 1903.
The Northwestern Ohio Medical
Association was organized
about 1869. The actual date of
organization of this body is ob-
scure. It was admitted as an auxiliary
of the Ohio State Medical
Society in 1869 and continued as such
until 1902. In 1892 it as-
sented to Article 3, Section 10, of the
State Constitution and thus
was allowed to continue as a component society.
In that year, the
list of members which appeared in the Transactions14
numbered
255. The State society had only 428
members at this time. How-
ever, this statement should be qualified
by saying that there were
probably incomplete returns of the State
society's membership
from local societies. The last official
trace of the society is in
1903.
The Union Medical Association of
northeastern Ohio was
13 Ohio State Medical Journal (Columbus, 1905- ), XXXV
(1939), 636.
14 Ohio
State Medical Society, Transactions, 1892, 18.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 375
organized about 1870. Again, the actual
date of organization of
this society is obscure. It was admitted
as auxiliary of the Ohio
State Medical Society in 1870. The
membership was drawn from
nine counties in northeastern Ohio and
does not seem to have ex-
ceeded 250 at any one time.15
The Miami Valley Medical Society was
organized June 13,
1877. This society drew its membership
from Clermont, Hamil-
ton and Warren counties at the time of
organization. Later it
extended its area to include Butler,
Clinton, Greene and Highland
counties. In 1901 the society had a membership of only ninety-
seven members when there were 1228 physicians in
the counties
comprised in the district.16 The
society existed as late as 1907
when the thirtieth annual meeting was
held at Loveland, Ohio,
October 8.
The North Central Ohio Medical Society17
was organized
March 31, 1881, at Mansfield, Ohio,
largely through the active
efforts of Dr. Robert Harvey Reed. It
was accepted as an
auxiliary of the Ohio State Medical
Society in 1881 and con-
tinued as such until 1902. Its
membership was never large, not
exceeding 100 in the best years.
The Southwestern Ohio Medical -Society18
was organized
August 31, 1889, at Cincinnati and
included twenty-four counties
in its area from southwestern Ohio.
Meetings were held twice a
year. Its membership numbered around
100. It never became an
auxiliary of the Ohio State Medical
Society. The date it ceased
to function is shrouded in obscurity.
The Eastern Ohio Medical Association19
was organized in
1892. This society embraced Belmont,
Columbiana, Harrison and
Jefferson counties. It was admitted as
an auxiliary of the Ohio
State Medical Society in 1894 and
remained as such until 1902.
Its membership never exceeded 100.
In addition to the district societies
listed there were a number
of others organized about which data are
fugitive. These were:
15 Ibid, 1901, 473.
16 Lancet-Clinic, XCVIII (1907), 336.
17 Mansfield Herald April 7,
1881.
18 Lancet-Clinic, LXII (1889), 257-8.
19 Columbus Medical Journal (Columbus, O., 1882-1916), XIII (1894), 65-72.
376
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The Northern Ohio District Medical
Society was organized
sometime in the early '90's. This
society was probably a combi-
nation of the three district societies
in the northern part of the
State and seems to have been designed to
promote a legislative
program.
The Muskingum Valley District Medical
Society was or-
ganized in the later '80's. This society
became an auxiliary of the
Ohio State Medical Society in 1886 and
disappeared as such after
1891.
The Midland Medical Society of Fayette
and Adjoining
Counties was rejected by the Ohio State
Medical Society and
never appears in any lists.
It is doubtful if the Delamater Medical
Association of
Norwalk and Vicinity comes within the
definition of a "district
society." The Transactions show that it was admitted as an
auxiliary of the Ohio State Medical
Society in 1859 and dropped
in 1870.
Very little can be learned of the
Athens, Morgan and Wash-
ington Medical Association. It appears
to have been the second
district society to become an auxiliary
of the Ohio State Medical
Society. This was in 1855. It was
dropped from the rolls in
1884.
Nothing was learned about the origin of
the Northeastern
Ohio Medical Association. It was
admitted as an auxiliary of
the Ohio State Medical Society in 1870. It disappeared
from the
rolls in 1892.
The Southeastern Ohio Medical
Association was admitted as
an auxiliary of the Ohio State Medical
Society in 1890. It was
dropped from the rolls in 1892.
Facts relative to the Ashtabula, Lake
and Geauga Medical
Society are difficult to obtain. It was
active in the middle '90's.
Thus we find the period 1846 to 1902 filled with
the activities
of physicians organized on a district
basis. Unfortunately, the
records are difficult of access or do
not exist. There are physicians
in Ohio still alive who have knowledge
of one or more of such
organizations and what a contribution
these men could make to
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 377
medical history in Ohio if they would
set themselves to the task
of detailing such histories.
After 1902 the "district" came
back into use by the Ohio
State Medical Association as a basis for
membership in the
"Council." The struggle
between the "county society" and the
"district society" was
resolved by using the "county society" as
the basis for membership in the State
association and the creation
of the House of Delegates as the
legislative body representing
county societies. The component county
societies were then
grouped into districts for the purpose
of creating a Board of
Directors of the State association which
is known as the "Coun-
cil" with one representative from
each of the districts, of which
there are eleven at the present time.
NOTES ON CHOLERA IN SOUTHWESTERN OHIO
By DAVID
A. TUCKER, JR., M. D.
The first invasion of the North American
continent by
epidemic, or Asiatic cholera, occurred
in 1832. The disease ap-
pears to have been carried across the
Atlantic by emigrants from
Ireland who landed during April and May
at Gross Isle, thirty-
two miles below the city of Quebec.
Cholera had appeared in a serious
epidemic at Jessore, India,
on the Delta of the Ganges in 1816-1817.
It had spread slowly
over almost the whole of Asia in the
succeeding ten years and
finally reached Europe in 1829-1830,
being seen first in the Near
East and in Russia. It passed westward
along the river trade
routes of the Danubian Basin and
northward to the Baltic areas.
A severe epidemic occurred in Moscow
during 1830. It was
found in England during the summer of
1831 on the river front
below London, and aboard vessels
recently in from Baltic ports,
and quickly spread over all of England,
Scotland and Wales. In
the latter part of the year it reached
Ireland from which area it
was carried to America. It is known that
the ship Constantia
from Limerick arrived at Gross Isle on
April 28, 1832, with 170
emigrants aboard, twenty-nine deaths
from cholera having oc-
curred during the voyage. Within the
next few weeks a number
of vessels carrying the disease
disembarked their passengers. On
June 8 the disease was found at Quebec,
and at Montreal a day
later. The explosive nature of the
epidemic was due to the com-
bination of intense heat and heavy rains
contaminating the water
supplies, and the unsanitary conditions
of the receiving stations.
It reached its height in ten days, then
slowly declined.
Medical records show that the disease
moved along the routes
of travel from Canada to New York State.
There is some evi-
dence to indicate that cases had arrived
in the port of New York
before or at the same time that they had
reached Quebec and
(378)
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858
379
Montreal from abroad. By July 5 official
reports in New York
City were issued and in two weeks some five
or six hundred
deaths were reported. Cholera was noted
in Philadelphia on
July 7, in Baltimore on August 12,
or 13, and in Washington,
D. C., about August 20.
It appeared first along the tributaries
of the Ohio at Pitts-
burgh on July 2, in a boarding
house frequented by immigrants
who had crossed from Canada. Shortly
thereafter cases were
found among immigrants who had come by
way of New York
City. Meanwhile, soldiers of the United
States Army traveling
westward carried the infection to
Detroit, Mackinac and Chicago.
The advent of cholera in Cincinnati was
quite generally at-
tributed to an immigrant from Canada,
who, coming by way of
the canal from Cleveland to Portsmouth
on October 8 reached
Cincinnati on the steamboat, Sylph, dying
a few hours after he
arrived. However, Dr. Daniel Drake
maintained that there were
some twenty cases in the city prior to
the arrival of the Sylph.
The disease really broke out extensively
about September 20. At
first officials attempted to deny the
existence of the malady, but
on October 18 a death list from cholera was published. In
October 423 individuals died, the
epidemic then receding, only
to return the next spring and summer. In
July, 1833, there were
176 deaths from cholera and whereas the
epidemic of 1832 was
thought to have reached the Ohio Valley
from the north, the
pestilence in 1833 came from the region
of New Orleans. A
contemporary description of Cincinnati
during the first epidemic
is as follows:
"The city, during the prevalence of
this dreadful epidemic, presented
a mournful aspect. Thousands of citizens
were absent in the country; very
many were closely confined by personal
affliction or the demands of sick
friends; hundreds were numbered among
the dead; the transient floating
population had entirely disappeared; the
country people, in terror, stood
aloof; business was almost wholly
suspended; the tramp of hurrying feet
was no longer heard on the streets, the
din of the city was hushed, and every
day appeared as a Sabbath. Instead,
however, of the sound of church-going
bells and the footsteps of happy throngs
hastening to the house of God, were
heard the shrieks of terrorstricken
victims of the fell disease, the groans of
the dying, and the voices of
lamentation. For weeks funeral processions
380
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
might be seen at any hour, from early
morning to late at night. All classes
of people were stricken down in this
fearful visitation. Doctors, ministers,
lawyers, merchants and mechanics, the
old and the young, the temperate and
the intemperate, the prudent and the
imprudent, were alike victims."1
The return of the cholera in 1834 seemed
to cap the climax of the city's
misfortunes and for a time the universal
depression had a serious effect upon
the business of the city and its general
atmosphere was one of hopelessness
and despair. The town seemed lifeless
and inert and property fell to very
low prices. The following year however
was free from the expected return
of the disease and a period of
extraordinary activity ensued. Enterprise and
business growth rapidly increased. Many
public works were projected dur-
ing this period, including the great
Southern Railway route to Charleston,
the railroad to St. Louis, the little
Miami, the Cincinnati, Columbus & Cleve-
land railway, the Mad River & Lake
Erie, Covington & Lexington, and the
White Water Canal. All of these
enterprises though perhaps under different
names were finally carried out.2
Under the date of July 20, 1832, and
before the disease had
reached the Ohio Valley, Drake issued a
small volume, entitled
A Practical Treatise on the History,
Prevention and Treatment
of Epidemic Cholera--Designed Both
for the Profession and the
People. In the preface the author stated, "The object of
this
little volume has been to present to the
physician and reading
public of the Valley of Mississippi with
an authentic digest of the
most important facts relative to the
Cause, Symptoms, and Treat-
ment of the Epidemic which is now
impending." He further
stated:
When the news of Cholera sickness in
Quebec reached Cincinnati regu-
lations to prevent its contagion, were
immediately proposed in our City
Council; but no steps to this end, have,
I believe, been taken. Other towns,
in the valley of Mississippi, have
possibly indulged the reverie of shutting
themselves up from the pestilence. They
who cherish this scheme, have
thought little on the consequences of
its execution. In the first place, even
in the despotic kingdoms of Europe,
where such restrictions could be best
enforced, they have not stayed the march
of the disease a single hour.
Secondly, such restrictions cannot be
executed without a military force, and
a superintending head. Thirdly, the health of those who
are thus shut up,
invariably suffers. Fourthly, the losses
in business, and the discomforts and
inconveniences, consequent upon such
restrictions, are calamitous in the
1 C. T. Greve, Centennial History of Cincinnati and
Representative Citizens
(Chicago, 1904), 1, 588,
quoting from the Life of Bishop Morris.
2 Ibid., I, 589.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 381
highest degree. I cannot but hope,
therefore, that no state government or
civic corporation in the West, will
undertake so mad an enterprize. Look at
the example of New York. Did not her
legislature and people exert their
utmost power to confine the pestilence
to the shores of the St. Lawrence?
And has it not already settled over the
valley of the Hudson? Did not the
disease appear in her Capital, and disperse
the very Assembly which the day
before had sent out a decree against its
approach! And has it not overspread
her great Emporium, without any human
eye having been keen enough to see
by what channel it approached! These are
facts which should instruct us.
They display the utter fruitlessness of
all restrictions on the social and com-
mercial intercourse of society, and call
loudly on us to prepare for that which
we cannot avert.3
Drake did not accept the popular
miasmatic theory as to the
cause of the disease but believed it to
be due to some very small
microscopic agent--an animalicule. He did not believe that it
was contagious, advocated strict
sanitation and good personal
hygiene as the measures most likely to
prevent the pestilence. He
published as a supplement to the
Cincinnati Chronicle, dated
October 13, 1832, an extra sheet with
the following notice.
Cure of Cholera
FELLOW CITIZENS,
Would you be cured of Cholera take the
disease in time.
It begins with some sort of Bowel Complaint,
or disturbance of the
stomach. In this stage it is easily
cured; and all who neglect this stage are
in danger of perishing.
Whoever has a lax or sickness at
stomach, or Colic, should instantly
take to his bed, in a warm room and
drink hot tea of sage, balm, or
Thorough wort, or even hot
water--bathing his feet if cold, and applying
a warm poultice over the bowels.
Without this nothing will do any
good--All who go about in the damp
air after the bowel complaint has set in
will get Cramps and Spasms and die
--I again say they will die. Besides
what I have mentioned, they should take
a powder, of ten grains of Calomel and
one of Opium mixed, if grown
person, and children should take less in
proportion; or a teaspoonful of
powdered Rhubarb.
They should, also take a teaspoonful,
every hour, of the Aromatic
Camphorated water, which is a cheap
article, and may be had of most of the
Apothecaries.
All who are of a full habit, or have
Fever, or Colic should be bled.
3 Daniel Drake, A Practical Treatise
on the History, Prevention, and Treatment
of Epidemic Cholera (Cincinnati, 1832), 167-8.
382 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Again let me warn every one, that the
dreadful Epidemic commences
as a mild bowel complaint, and in that
stage may be cured--when vomitting
coldness and spasms combined, come on,
death will follow--has followed,
in almost every case that has yet
occurred in the city. He who goes about
with a mild complaint upon him should
expect to perish.
The Epidemic would lose all its terrors,
if people would attend,
instantly, to the first symptoms--Go to
bed, drink hot water or tea, promote
a perspiration, and send for their
family Physician.
Terror is a great exciting cause. The
disease produced by terror
requires treatment. Let no one presume
to laugh another out of his fears.
All the terrified should take to their
beds--this will best counteract its bad
effects.
Let all who read what is here written,
recount it to their friends. Let
us unite in aiding each other, for a few
days--The Pestilential Cloud will
soon pass away. The disease, absolutely,
is not catching.
DANIEL DRAKE, M.D.4
Cholera prevailed in the vicinity of
Cincinnati during the
years 1832-1833 and 1834. During the
first two years there were
831 deaths due to this cause. Epidemics
also occurred in terri-
tories surrounding Cincinnati. Many
deaths were reported in or
near Salem, Madison and Versailles,
Indiana. To the north the
disease raged at Lebanon and Dayton,
Ohio, and at Richmond,
Indiana. Cases occurred in Columbus during July and August
The upper Ohio was also invaded
particularly at Gallipolis (June,
1833) and spread through the Kanawha
Valley at Charleston,
and other places in West Virginia.
Wheeling was an important
center for the spread of this disease,
which progressed eastward
to the Valley of the Potomac, but then
did not reach to the eastern
seaboard. Previous to its infestation of
the Cincinnati region it
had appeared among the laborers along
the Lake Erie and Ohio
Canal. It took a heavy toll in 1832 near
Chillicothe.
The second great invasion of cholera
occurred in 1849. As
in the first, the starting focus was
India, where at Calcutta a very
virulent form of the disease appeared in
1840, and passed as if
in a wave through China to Siberia and
then to Russia. From
the Near East the epidemic spread to the
Mediterranean areas.
In Russia during 1847-1848 more than a
million succumbed. In
4 Cincinnati Chronicle Extra, Sat.
afternoon, Oct. 13, 1832.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 383
France 150,000 died. The German areas
were also infected and
with the large stream of German immigration the cholera was
again brought to North America. It
invaded the Ohio Valley
from the South in 1849. In Dearborn
County, Indiana, the toll
was very heavy, the town of Aurora alone
having 132 deaths.
Cincinnati in 1849 was a city of
110,000, the largest in the Middle
West. It had a public water system by
means of which water
was pumped into reservoirs in the hills
and then piped by gravity
throughout the city. A few cases
appeared in January, but the
epidemic reached severe proportions in
April and its peak in the
last week in June when the deaths
numbered 903. The toll of
the fifteen weeks' period was 5969 or at
a rate of 188 per 1000.
A feature of this epidemic was the
controversies which raged
between the Allopaths, the Homeopaths
and the Eclectics, each
group maintaining its own method of
treatment to be the superior
one.
Drake wrote two open letters5 to
the public which I quote
in full:
To THE PEOPLE OF CINCINNATI: The publication of the Board
of
Health and the weekly report of the
trustees of the Hospital in yesterday's
Daily Gazette, having shown that the
cholera has at length begun to prevail
among us as an epidemic, I propose to
say a few words on certain points on
which all have a deep interest.
In the first place, then, let no one
leave the city because the epidemic
has come. In whatever known manner this
disorder travels from country
to country, it is not like smallpox, a
catching disease; if it were, going
out of the city would be a preservative.
As in 1832, the cases that have
occurred, were in various retired parts
of the city, and largely among women
and children, who had been in no degree
exposed to boats, railroad stations
or hotels, where they could have caught
any disease. In fact the cause has
spread through the city, and already
been received into the bodies of its
inhabitants--old and young, rich and
poor; and those who escape to the
country are as likely--more likely--to
be ill than if they remained at home.
The true and safest course is for
families and friends to draw closer than
common and watch over and assist each
other.
In the second place it ought to be
known, that epidemic cholera has no
premonitory symptoms. When the sentinel
on the walls of a fortified city
fires his gun, it is a premonition that
the enemy is close at hand--when there
5 Cincinnati Daily Gazette, May
10-11, 1849.
384
OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
is a circle around the moon, it is a
premonitory sign of a storm, but cholera
attacks without any premonition. We are
accustomed to apply the word
cholera to a summer disease of our own
climate, which generally begins with
vomiting, or that symptom and diarrhoea
combined; and have, therefore,
fallen into the fatal error of regarding
the first stage of epidemic cholera
as a forerunner of that, from the moment
when the diarrhoea sets in the
cholera is as positively present as when
it has advanced to vomiting, or
coldness and collapse. When one shingle
sends up smoke, the roof is as
positively on fire as when the flames
light up the city. The man who should
stand still when he saw the smoke, it
was only a premonitory sign, that his
house might be on fire after a while,
would be regarded as insane; yet his
absurdity would be no greater than that
of the individual who does not
regard himself as laboring under the
cholera, from the moment the diarrhoea
begins.
In the third place, it may be declared
as a fact, that the disease may
generally be stopped, if met in the
early stage; at all events, if it cannot then
be put an end to, it cannot afterwards.
It will run its course, and the patient
may or may not recover, according to his
constitution--but let no one believe
that this first, mild stage, can be
successfully treated, if the patient continues
on his feet. His life depends on his
lying by--no medicine can succeed if he
should not. They may check it for a
moment, and delude him into a fatal
security, but can go no further. In the
fourth place all persons who can
have warm flannel during the winter
should keep it on, until the epidemic has
passed away. They may put on cooler
outer clothing but should not throw
off what they have worn next the surface
of the body.
Tomorrow these practical remarks will be
extended, meanwhile I may
say, that they most certainly express
the experience and settled opinions of
the medical profession, both in Europe
and this country.
CINCINNATI, May 10, 1849, DANIEL DRAKE, M.D.
TO THE PEOPLE OF CINCINNATI:
I briefly pointed out yesterday, in the
public prints, that no one should
leave the city for the purpose of
escaping the cholera--that it is not a disease
which has premonitory symptoms, but that
it is present from the beginning
of the diarrhoea, which is its first
stage; that early treatment and rest are
indispensible to its cure; and that warm
clothing should not be laid aside
until the epidemic shall have passed
away.
The last opinion relates to the
prevention of the disease, and on that
point I propose to say a few words.
Strictly speaking there is no prevention
of the cholera; but all consti-
tutions are not liable to it, any more
than all are liable to ague and fever.
influenza or any other form of disease.
But although we know of nothing
that will prevent the disease, we know
of many things which can and do
OHIO
MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 385
bring it on, after the poison has been
taken into the system. These are
exciting causes, and ought to be
carefully avoided.
Of the exciting causes one has just been
mentioned, the premature lay-
ing aside of flannel and other warm
clothing. In addition to this (and be-
longing to the same head) getting wet in
a shower--remaining long in damp
places--sitting in a strong current of
air at night--and sleeping with but
little bed covering--should all be
carefully avoided. Every sitting and lodg-
ing room ought to have a fire in it for
a part of every day, especially for a
few hours before occupying it, thus the
shop, office, family sitting room,
church, and school house should have
fires kindled in them early in the
morning, and kept up for two or three
hours; but this is still more necessary
in lodging rooms which should be warmed
and dried by brisk fires, kindled
in the early part of the evening, and
allowed to burn down before bed time.
A second class of exciting causes is
connected with diet. Loading the
stomach with any kind of food,
especially at night, may bring on the disease;
and omitting to eat at the usual time
may do the same thing. Much reduc-
tion in the quantity (the individual
still be in health) is not proper. In fact
a nourishing diet is best; but should be
plain and digestible. Meat or boiled
eggs, should be eaten every day. Boiled
ham, corned beef, and poultry,
corned mutton, and well seasoned, beef
steak are the best. On the whole
salted meats are more proper than fresh
and all should be well seasoned.
Veal, fresh pork and fresh fish should
be avoided. Of salt fish, mackerel
and salmon are too hard; but codfish
with potatoes is proper. Old cheese is
safe, and macaroni prepared with cheese
may be eaten. Hot bread should be
avoided--stale bread or crackers only,
should be used. Of culinary vegetable
mealy potatoes, well boiled hominy and
rice, are not only the best but all
others had better be omitted. Pie, tarts
and all kinds of pastry are improper,
except perhaps, well baked and highly
spiced gingerbread.
Of drinks, sweet milk, tea, coffee and
chocolate may be taken as usual.
Those who drink malt liquors at their
meals should limit themselves to
freshly brewed beer, well hopped. As to
brandy and whiskey, they cannot
prevent cholera. They who are in the
habit of using either, should not lay
either aside; but they should by all
means not begin it now. The use of
brandy in the treatment of disease, must
not be confounded with its use as
a preventive. The irritation of the
stomach and bowels produced by the first
impress of alcoholic drinks, may even
contribute to bring on the disease, and
sour wines are still more likely to have
that effect.
DAN DRAKE, M.D.
CINCINNATI, May 11, 1849.
DENTISTRY AND DENTAL EDUCATION
By EDWARD
C. MILLS, D. D. S., F. A. C. D.
To obtain a true concept of dentistry
and dental education
during the period under consideration,
it is necessary to present
a general summary of previous
conditions, and of the qualifica-
tions, activities and contributions of
some of the pioneers in
dentistry, which ultimately developed
into the present system of
dental education.
The course of empire has ever been
westward--and this
truism may apply in the development of
dental education. The
seed sown by the early pioneers and
itinerants in this State, ma-
tured so fully that a heritage of rich
harvests were returned to
the East, contributing to the first
dental college in the world--
the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery
in 1840.
The colonists had their physicians,
apothecaries and barber-
surgeons who administered relief to
dental, as well as to other
bodily ailments. The earliest known
announcement of a dental
nature was by one James Mills in the New
York Weekly Journal
of January 6, 1735, who claimed
proficiency in extraction.
The first practicing dentist was Robert
Woofendale from
England in 1766. He returned to his
native country in 1778. He
again came to this country in 1795 and
practiced in New York
City for a short period when he was
succeeded by his son, Robert.
Contemporaneous with Woofendale, we find
John Baker who
practiced in Boston, New York City and
Philadelphia. While in
Boston he instructed Paul Revere--the
Revolutionary patriot--
at least in the prosthetic branch of
dentistry, as evidenced in Re-
vere's announcement in the Boston Gazette
of August 29, 1768.
Among others from England, we find the
announcement of Mr.
Hamilton, Surgeon-Dentist from London,
in the New York
Chronicle, June 1769.
The incessant wars of France during the
early years of the
(386)
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858
387
eighteenth century had a tendency to
develop surgery, and that
country surpassed her neighbors in this
art. Dentistry received
early attention, as in 1700 practitioners were required to be
licensed. Dentistry shared in the
advance with surgery to the
extent that a master-hand, in the person
of Pierre Fauchard, pub-
lished in 1728--after forty years of
practice--a monumental work
in two volumes, Le Chirurgien
Dentiste, containing practically all
that was known at that period, and
foretold future possibilities
that became a reality.
In December 1785, we find Dr. DuBuque, a
Frenchman in
Boston; also Dr. Dustwige in 1780, who
announced having studied
in the schools of Paris as an operator
on the teeth. During the
Revolutionary period, we find Drs. James
Gardette and Joseph
Le Mayeur, also French dentists, had
found their way to our
shores--both having recognized ability
for that period.
From the foregoing, it is evident that
the colonies were be-
coming more attractive to English and
French practitioners, most
of whom were of an itinerant type,
contributing nothing to the
advancement of dentistry, with but an
obsession to satisfy their
monetary desires and then to return to
their native country.
John Hunter, who was born in 1728 (the
year Fauchard
gave his work to the world) published in
1771 The Natural His-
tory of the Human Teeth and laid the foundation of dental sur-
gery on a physiological and pathological
inquiry. Numerous other
works of minor importance followed,
devoted to the care of the
teeth, exploiting the ability of the
writer. With the opening of
the nineteenth century we come to an
epoch in dental history
when events of great subsequent
influence began to appear on the
dental horizon.
In 1801, Robert Skinner of New York
produced the first
American work entitled, On the Human
Teeth. This was fol-
lowed by works by B. T. Longbotham,
Benjamin James, Eleazar
Parmly, Joseph Flagg and others,
which--excepting the articles
published in medical journals by
physicians who were devoting
some of their time to dentistry--was the
extent of our contri-
butions up to 1828, when Samuel S.
Fitch, just one hundred
388
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
years after the publication of
Fauchard's work, published his
work, A System of Dental Surgery, in
three parts: 1--"Dental
Surgery as a Science";
2--"Operative Dental Surgery"; 3--
"Pharmacy Connected with Dental
Surgery." This was the first
systematic treatise published in
America, and was intended as a
text in dentistry. A second edition
followed in 1835. The author
states that the work is a compilation of
everything of value which
had been written upon dental surgery,
having made use of the
works of English, French and writers of
other countries.
During this formative period many names
appear which made
a lasting imprint, and whose ability and
precept went far in
moulding the destiny of the art that was
within a few years to
rank as a profession, and become an
important branch of health
service. Josiah Flagg of Boston was the
first native-born dentist
who was exclusively prepared to practice
dentistry, and the first
of three generations of dentists of the
name, all of whom con-
tributed to the credit and advancement
of the profession.
Of the Greenwood family of dentists the
father was Isaac
of Boston, who was a wood and ivory
turner, and later a dentist.
Four of his sons were dentists, the most
distinguished of whom
was John Greenwood, often referred to as
one of the dentists
who served General George Washington.
His greatest service to
dentistry was his inducement of Horace
H. Hayden who had
called upon him for dental services, to
adopt dentistry as his call-
ing, and who later became one of the
founders of the Baltimore
College of Dental Surgery.
Edward Hudson, who had been educated in
Trinity College,
and later received instruction in
dentistry from a cousin, practiced
in Dublin, but having become involved in
the political movements
of the time, removed to America and
established himself in Phila-
delphia in 1805. For more than thirty
years his talent and skill
made him a recognized leader and his
influence was an important
asset to American dentistry.
John Randall, a graduate of Harvard,
later received his medi-
cal degree. He became interested in
dentistry because observa-
tions led him to believe that dentistry,
as then practiced, was
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 389
largely the substitution of lost teeth,
rather than the preservation
of the natural ones. He was a highly
respected citizen of Boston
where he practiced medicine and surgery,
but gave special atten-
tion to dentistry. He died in 1843.
Hayden, who was to be a co-founder of
the first dental col-
lege in the world, was born October 13,
1769, at Windsor, Con-
necticut. He began life as an architect
and later was a teacher
near Hartford. In New York City, as
previously stated, he called
on John Greenwood for dental services
and decided to adopt
dentistry as his calling. He procured
such literature as was avail-
able and with energy and ambition
qualified himself sufficiently to
announce his services to the public. He
located in Baltimore in
1804
and was soon actively engaged as a dentist, scientist and
teacher. To perfect himself in his
specialty, he studied medicine,
and also gave a course of lectures on
dentistry to the medical class
of the University of Maryland. With some
reluctance, he assisted
Chapin A. Harris in founding the American
Journal of Dental
Science in 1839. He was one of the organizers of the American
Society of Dental Surgeons, August 18,
1840; was elected presi-
dent and continued as such until his
death on June 25, 1844.
Leonard Koecher, a native of Hanover,
Germany, located in
Baltimore in 1807, became interested in
dentistry and practiced
from 1812 until 1822, when he located in
London, England.
Through studious methods he acquired an
enviable reputation as
a dentist. He introduced several new
methods into practice, and
during his residence in London,
contributed several treatises on
artificial teeth, obturators and
palates.
A resume of the dentists of the Atlantic
seaboard would be
incomplete without reference to the
family of Parmly. Of the
five sons of Eleazar Parmly of
Braintree, Vermont, four became
dentists and through these sons and
their descendants, the name
appears frequently in the annals of
dentistry.
Eleazar, the third son, studied with his
brother Levi S. who
had studied with John Randall,
previously mentioned. He prac-
ticed in Montreal, and later--to gain
more information--made a
tour of the Western and Southern States,
practicing as an itinerant,
390
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
as evidenced by the following announcement from the Liberty
Hall and Cincinnati Gazette.
E. Parmly, Dentist, Intends staying in
this city for a few weeks, and
will devote a share of his time to the
duties of his profession. Having re-
ceived the most flattering encouragement
from the inhabitants of Montreal
and Quebec (where he regularly studied
this surgical branch of science) also
from the citizens of Pittsburgh,
Lexington and Louisville, he cannot but ex-
pect similar patronage from the gay, the
fashionable, and the wealthy of
this young and flourishing metropolis.
Application to be made at his lodgings
at Mrs. Burley's, Main Street. November
3, 1817. 85-tf.
He practiced in New Orleans, then in
Paris, and later in
London with his brother Levi S. Parmly.
Impaired health caused
him to return to this, his native
country, and establish himself in
New York City in 1823. For thirty years
he was dean of the
profession in that city and was most
active in the events tending
to dignify his calling as a profession.
He was the first president
of the first dental society in the
world, The Society of Dental
Surgeons of the City and State of New
York, organized December
3, 1834. He retired from practice in
1861, having amassed a
fortune through his diversified
interests, business acumen and rise
in real estate values. He published a
treatise, Disorders and Treat-
ment of the Teeth, in 1822, and after his
retirement a volume of
poems, Thoughts in Rhyme.
Dr. Solymon Brown, a contemporary of E.
Parmly, should
be mentioned at this time. He has been
referred to as "Classical
instructor, author, sculptor, minister
and poet-laureate of the
dental profession." After
practicing in New York City twenty-
eight years, failing eyesight caused him
to dispose of his practice.
Dentalogia, a didactic poem on the diseases of the teeth and their
treatment consisting of five cantos,
appeared in 1833 and another
poem, Dental Hygeia, in three
cantos, in 1838. His son, E.
Parmly Brown, late of New York City, and
a grandson, E.
Parmly Brown, late of Peekskill, New
York, well known for
valuable contributions to the history of
dentistry, represent the
three generations of dentists in the
family. Many other names
are deserving of mention as contributing
to the development of
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 391
dentistry, but the foregoing will
suffice in presenting the back-
ground of those dentists from the
Atlantic States who were to
follow in the wake of the tide of
emigration to the West.
Many of the outstanding dentists of that
period were medi-
cally trained, often practicing
dentistry, not as a specialty, but in
conjunction with medicine. With the
phenomenal influx of
population to Ohio during the first
quarter of the eighteenth
century, came one such physician in the
person of Dr. John
Harris who located at Madison near
Cincinnati. He had practiced
medicine several years, and became
interested in dentistry and
early recognized pathological conditions
of the teeth in relation to
systemic conditions. His technical
knowledge according to Dr.
James Taylor--one of his students--was
acquired from itinerant
dentists passing through Cincinnati
during his residence at
Madison, among whom--during the period
1817-1819--were
Eleazar Parmly; Dr. Plantou,
"Surgeon and Dentist from Paris
on his way to New Orleans;" Mr.
Green, "Surgeon-Dentist from
England;" G. T. Ratrie, who
"would refer any prospective pa-
tients to Dr. Bohrer of the Medical
College of Ohio;" C. Munroe,
Dentist, "having perfected himself
with one of the most eminent
dentists in the United States, and being
an eye-witness to most of
the recent improved operations upon the
teeth in the Atlantic
States;" Dr. Rufus Somerby, later
of Louisville, Kentucky, who
had studied with Dr. Durroux, a French
dentist in Washing-
ton, D. C.
As early as 1820, Harris began
devoting more than half his
time to the practice of dentistry. About
the year 1825, he located
in the village of Bainbridge, continuing
the practice of medicine
and dentistry. In 1824 an Act of the
Ohio legislature made it
obligatory that a candidate for
examination before the Medical
Censors must "have received
instruction under a preceptor."
This afforded an opportunity for Harris,
and under the caption
"Medical Instruction," he
published an announcement in the
Supporter & Gazette of Chillicothe, November 1, 1827. There
were some ten students who responded to
this announcement, nine
of whom later pursued the practice of
dentistry. Among these
392
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
students were Chapin A. Harris (John
Harris' brother), and
James Taylor, who were destined to
become the founders of the
first two dental colleges in the
world--the Baltimore College of
Dental Surgery in 1840, and the Ohio
College of Dental Surgery
in 1845.
Previous to and subsequent to this
period, it was a difficult
matter to prepare one's self for the
practice of dentistry. Dr.
John Harris was fortunate in having had
medical training, and in
contacting itinerants acquired his
dental technique. For those
without medical training, it was more
difficult. Medical education
obtained was from such books as were
then available and for
technical knowledge they were under the
preceptorship of some
practicing dentist whose skill and
qualifications were not always
par. Some interesting documents are
"Indentures," binding an
apprentice, and "Contracts,"
or "Agreements" between the pre-
ceptor and his student.
Dr. James Taylor writing of the subject
of dental education
stated, "Dr. John Harris and myself
had many protracted discus-
sions on the importance of a
medico-dental education and the best
method of securing it. In these we were
joined by C. A. Harris."
We here have positive evidence that the
idea of formal dental
education was conceived in Bainbridge,
and it is certainly no mis-
nomer to refer to this village as
"The Cradle of Dental Educa-
tion." It may be of interest to
quote in part, John Harris' dictum
regarding pulpless teeth, in a paper
read in 1845 before the
American Society of Dental Surgeons, of
which he was a member.
"The proper treatment in the
majority of cases is the removal of
the diseased organ. ... So many dentists
substitute their treat-
ment, which at least is inefficient, and
subjects the unfortunate
sufferer to a train of evils far greater
than mere toothache itself.
Cures have been speedily and permanently
effected by the removal
of diseased teeth, even where they have
not been productive of
pain or suspected as the cause of
mischief."
The group at Bainbridge by 1830, had
drifted to other quar-
ters and in this paper we will briefly
follow the destiny of but three
--John Harris, his brother Chapin A.
Harris and James Taylor.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 393
John Harris located in Chillicothe in
1830 and established himself
on East Second Street in a building then
standing on the lot where
the old Masonic Opera house was built.
From Chillicothe, he made itinerant
trips until about 1834,
when he established himself in Kentucky,
practicing in George-
town, Frankfort and near-by towns. A few
years later he was
practicing in Annapolis and Frederick,
Maryland, and while on
one itinerant trip to Hertford, N. C.,
he died on July 26, 1849.
While in Kentucky in 1835-1836, he
attended medical lectures in
the Transylvania University at
Louisville, and also gave a course
of dental lectures in this institution.
In 1836 he attempted to have
legislation enacted to establish a
dental college in Kentucky. The
records show that on February 10, 1836,
there was introduced in
the Senate a bill to "regulate the
practice of Dental Surgery in
the State of Kentucky." This would
have antedated the Alabama
law by five years. Had Dr. John Harris
succeeded in his efforts,
to him would have been given the credit
of the first dental college,
and the first enactment to regulate the
practice of dentistry in
the States. However, his attempts were
without direct results,
but they kindled a desire for improved
methods of education and
regulation of practice, and they will
ever stand as a monument to
his zeal, enthusiasm and sacrifice in
the promotion of dental
science.
Chapin A. Harris was born May 6, 1806,
and studied medi-
cine in Madison, Ohio, with his brother
John, beginning practice
in Greenfield, Ohio. John Harris--who in
the meantime had
located in Bainbridge, some ten miles
distant--with James Taylor,
a pupil, made trips to Greenfield and
practiced dentistry in the
same office. Chapin A. Harris soon
became interested in dentistry
and joined the group of students at
Bainbridge, and eventually
devoted his entire time to dentistry.
This was indeed fortunate,
because in him was the dynamic force to
bring to maturity and
actuality, the ideas that had been
lurking in Hayden's mind, in
Baltimore, Maryland. After leaving
Bainbridge, he practiced at
several places, including Bloomfield,
Ohio, and Fredericksburg,
Va., and in 1835 located in Baltimore.
394
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Hayden, then in his seventy-first year,
and who had been
ambitious in his calling, was desirous
of establishing a dental
school as an adjunct to the Medical
Department of the University
of Maryland. Hayden had received his
medical knowledge there,
and two others interested in the
project, Drs. H. W. Baxley and
Thomas Bond, were graduates. The
oft-repeated statement that
the faculty considered dentistry of too
little importance and re-
fused to cooperate, is without
foundation. The "fly in the oint-
ment" seems to have been the fact
that Baxley had recently been
dismissed by the faculty of the medical
school, and owing to the
bitter controversy that had taken place,
the faculty pursued the
policy of "hands off."
Harris' support was now enlisted in the
project and after a
visit to New York City to consult the
leading practitioners there
as to the feasibility of establishing a
school in one of the New
York Medical Schools, he was
disappointed and returned to Bal-
timore. During the winter of 1839-1840,
almost unaided he se-
cured signatures to a petition to the
legislature and as a result an
Act incorporating the Baltimore College
of Dental Surgery was
enacted February 1, 1840, with Hayden,
Harris, Bond and Baxley
as the faculty, with Harris as dean.
This act was to continue in
force for thirty years, and at the
session of 1870 it was amended
on March 31, making the charter
perpetual. On June 15, 1923,
this college was merged with the
University of Maryland, under
the title of Baltimore College of Dental
Surgery, Dental School,
University of Maryland.
Harris was one of the most voluminous
writers which the
dental profession has produced. His Dental
Art in 1839, as Har-
ris' Principles and Practice, passed through its
3th edition in
1896. He was founder and first editor of
the American Journal
of Dental Science, the first dental journal in the world, financing
it with his own funds until his death on
September 29, 1860. He
was also author of the first Dental
Dictionary in the English lan-
guage in 1849, the sixth edition of
which was in 1898.
James Taylor, another student of John
Harris at Bainbridge,
was one of four brothers, natives of
near that village, all of whom
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 395
exercised great influence in developing
dentistry in the West.
Taylor later received his medical degree
at Lexington, Kentucky,
and practiced medicine and dentistry at
Bainbridge. In 1842 he
located permanently in Cincinnati, and
in 1844 advocated a dental
school in that city. Fortunately no
opposition was met with and
the Ohio legislature, at its forty-third
General Assembly (1845)
authorized the establishment of a school
to be known as the Ohio
College of Dental Surgery, the second
dental college in the world.
Taylor was its first dean.
The college was discontinued July 1,
1926, after an existence
of eighty-one years, much to the
disapproval of its alumni, scat-
tered to every quarter of the globe.
Taylor was the first editor of
the Dental Register of the West, established
in 1847--the second
dental journal in the world. It was
discontinued in November
1923, after an existence of seventy-six
years. In addition to his
editorial duties, he was a voluminous
contributor to dental
literature.
Another factor not to be overlooked as
an adjunct to dental
education, is that of professional
organizations. These bodies
have frequently been referred to as
"Post graduate courses." The
early organizations were handicapped,
owing to sparseness of
population when we had but the local
society, then, with the in-
crease of population, the State and
finally a national organization,
were brought into existence.
The first society--the Society of Dental
Surgeons of the City
and State of New York--was organized
December 3, 1834, with
E. Parmly, president. It continued until
1840, when most of its
members were instrumental in forming the
American Society of
Dental Surgeons, on August 18, 1840. Hayden was the
first
president. This society was dissolved
August 7, 1856.
The American Dental Convention was first
held in Phila-
delphia, August 2, 1855, and
conducted its last meeting in 1875.
The American Dental Association was
organized at Niagara
Falls, N. Y., on August 3, 1859.
The Southern Dental Association was
organized at Atlanta,
Ga., July 28, 1869.
The National Dental Association was
organized on August
396
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
5, 1897, by union of the two foregoing,
and on July 21, 1922, the
name was changed to the present American
Dental Association.
Nine Ohioans have served as presidents
of this association.
The Virginia Society of Dental Surgeons
organized at Rich-
mond, December 12, 1842, is
deserving of special notice in that
it was the first legally incorporated
dental society and the legis-
lative act was the first legislation
placing dental interests entirely
in the hands of the profession. The
constitution and by-laws of
the society provided for an Executive
Examining and Publication
Committee whose duty it was "to
appoint a time and place at least
once a year for the examination of
applicants for the degree of
Doctor of Dental Surgery; and the
certificate shall entitle the
holder to receive the diploma of the
Society conferring this de-
gree." Among the requirements for
examination was that the
candidate "shall have studied and
practiced for the full term of
two years with some practical dentist
known to this Society." But
one diploma issued by this organization
is known to be extant,
and that is possessed by Dr. W. S.
Sedgwich of Newark, Ohio,
to whose great grandfather it was issued
on October 15, 1846.
The spirit of organization was early
manifested in Ohio.
The Cincinnati Association of Dental
Surgeons adopted a con-
stitution on January 6, 1844; and on
August 13, of the same year,
the Mississippi Valley Association of
Dental Surgeons was or-
ganized in Cincinnati in the lecture
room of the Medical College
of Ohio. This was a sectional society,
and met annually until
April 15, 1896, having served its
purpose well during the fifty-
two years of its existence.
The Northern Ohio Dental Association
organized at Cleve-
land, November 3, 1857, met annually
until recent years, and was,
at that time, the oldest society in
existence operating under its
original name.
Another society, the Mad River Valley
Association, was or-
ganized at Springfield, Ohio, October
25, 1859. This organization
served a valuable purpose in the western
part of the State, but
due to the Civil War was discontinued
until 1865; it again sus-
pended activities in 1876, and was
reorganized at Dayton in 1882,
and then discontinued May 18, 1886.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY, 1835-1858 397
In addition to the foregoing, some forty
societies have existed
in various parts of Ohio, exclusive of
the Ohio State Dental
Society and its twenty-three Components.
The Ohio State Dental Society was
organized in Columbus,
on June 26, 1866, with a charter membership of forty-one;
it
affiliated as a Component of the
American Dental Association in
December 1912, and at the close
of 1939 had a
membership of
2,482. This organization has been of great educational and eco-
nomical value to its membership; has
safe-guarded the interests of
the laity, and has taken an active part
in promoting all activities
conducive to the health and well-being
of the citizens of our State.
We have referred to the Dental
Register of the West as the
second dental journal published. Ohio
has not been remiss in its
journalistic literature. The Dental
Reporter of six undated and
unnumbered issues, and a volume of
quarterlies in 1858, and the
Dental Lamp of Cincinnati (1858-1860) had ephemeral existence;
likewise the Practical Dentist, Toledo
(1888-1890);
the Dentists'
Magazine, Cleveland (1906-1909); and the D. D. S., Dayton
(1906-1911). The Ohio State Journal of Dental Science made
its appearance in February 1881, and
continued until 1902, when
it was re-christened the Dental
Summary. It was discontinued
December, 1925. For many years it was the official organ of the
Ohio State Dental Society, and in that
capacity--like its contem-
poraries--disseminated valuable
information to the profession in
the Middle West and preserved to
posterity much information of
historical value.
The Transactions of the Ohio
State Dental Society were pub-
lished annually, 1875-1883 inclusive;
for 1895; 1898 and 1909.
Since May 1927, the State society has
published its Journal, issued
quarterly.
Ohio has added many names that will
survive in the annals
of dentistry. Our heritage has been one
of which we should in-
deed be proud, and which should be an
incentive to ever higher
professional ideals and attainments. As
this State holds high
rank in various fields of endeavor, it
behooves us, as members of
the professions of health service, to
contribute our share to that
glory which is hers.
OHIO MEDICAL HISTORY OF THE PERIOD,
1835-1858*
CONTRIBUTIONS OF OHIO PHYSICIANS TO THE
INVENTIONS OF THE PERIOD, 1835-1858
By DONALD D. SHIRA, M. D.
When the chairman of this section
suggested the title of this
paper it seemed to be a relatively easy
assignment. Offhand one
would naturally assume that many Ohio
physicians must have
conceived and perfected inventions outside
the field of medicine.
However, such does not seem to be the
case. Evidently most
physicians were too deeply absorbed in
developing and improving
instruments and equipment of use to
their own profession to stray
very far away into less familiar fields.
Many physicians "rode
hobbies," or made original
discoveries in the realms of art and
the natural sciences, but those who
possessed real inventive genius
deserted, in part or completely, the
practice of medicine.
The deeper one delves into this subject
the more limited
appear to be its possibilities. No
originality whatever is claimed
for this brief paper; it consists merely
of an assembly of facts
already known. It is hoped, however,
that it may serve as an
humble beginning to which factual
material may be added from
time to time.
John Locke, M.D. (1792-1856)1
Dr. John Locke was an eccentric genius.
In him was com-
bined the accurate, calculating mind of
a scientist, with the
aesthetic, sensitive nature of a poet.
He was born February 19,
1792, in Fryeburg, Maine, the son of
Samuel Barron and Hannah
Pussell Locke.
* The eight papers under this heading
were read before the second annual meet-
ing of the Committee on Archives and
Medical History of the Ohio State Archaeological
and Historical Society, at the Ohio
History Conference, in the Society's Library,
April 5, 1940.
1 References: Otto Juettner, Daniel
Drake and His Followers (Cincinnati, 1909),
155-62; Howard Atwood Kelly and W. L.
Burrage, American Medical Biographies
(Baltimore, Md., 1920), 710.
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